[Elecraft] OT: QST's review of the Yaesu FTDX5000MP

[Nate Bargmann]

* On 2010 15 Nov 21:49 -0600, Luis V. Romero wrote:
> Good Marketing will take care of the rest!  "We build Legends" is
> "performance by association" from the era when there were resources for
> product line development and R&D.  There's still a lot of Goodwill from the
> TS950/TS850 days! Even from TS520 days!

Bingo!  I've long thought that Kenwood had rested on its laurels from
the TS-520/TS-820/TS-830 era.  That's not say that some of their later
products weren't good, just that they had lost their edge, especially to
Yaesu in the early '90s.

> And Larry, you're right, from a technical perspective, the 590 receiver
> schema is really Goofy!

It strikes me as rather odd as well.  I suppose that the Kenwood
engineers and management have their reasons, but wow!  When I read
preliminary information on it, I came to the conclusion that it was more
complicated than it needed to be.

> Elecraft's well targeted market niche is being attacked from above by the
> FTdx5k and from below by the 590 and to a lesser extent, the Eagle.  Most of
> the erosion will be in the lower side of the equation.  Main K3 competitor
> is really the IC7600, and technically it leaves a lot to be desired and is
> not as customizable, but undercuts K3 in price and it has the Icom "mystique
> by association".  Icom has done a masterful job at brand identity.  

And here I thought ICOM stood for "I Can Only Monitor"!  ;-)  To be
fair, I've only owned two Icom transceivers over the years, an IC-290A
2m all mode that was the first commercial rig I bought in 1985 and later
a 4AT HT.  Both served their purposes well.  Early on I would fall into
the Kenwood camp for HF gear and later Yaesu for all my gear.  In fact,
I was all Yaesu until I received the K3 last month.  I liked the idea of
performance that rivaled the big boxes in a size near that of my
FT-890AT.  Watching this list and seeing Elecraft's interaction with its
customers won me over.

> So the K3 niche is still rather exclusive, but eroding a little bit.

I'll agree the K3 is niche, but I'm not sure it's saleas are eroding.
Of course I don't have sales figures, but it would appear that at least
100 more have sold since I got mine on the air about a month ago which
seems healthy for a niche product that is positioned toward the high end
of a niche hobby.  Considering as well that the overall economy is not
doing as well as when the K3 was introduced, I'd say it's doing quite
well.

I'd also submit that as mentioned earlier in this thread that there are
those who would not be comfortable buying a K3 for their main
transceiver as they feel more comfortable going with a product from one
of the brand names.  I can understand that as it took me a while to
accept the idea as I spent several months evaluating Elecraft as a
company before I took the plunge.  The established players are known
quantities while Elecraft is still building its reputation in the larger
amateur radio community.  I'm a bit of a risk taker on things like this
so I suspect I'll receive some questions about the K3 at tonight's club
meeting.

> Elecraft is a lot like Honda in the mid 70's.  Pick the niche, build a solid
> product and back it with uncompromising service, winning one customer at a
> time.    

I take for granted you're referring to Honda cars.  In motorcycles, they
were a juggernaut at the time.  Which allowed them to bring products
like the CBX to market.  By 1980 they had forced Kawasaki into catch-up
mode where Kawi had been regarded as the performance king just a few
years earlier.  Then Suzuki came along with its GSX-R line...

73, de Nate N0NB >>

-- 

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

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