[Elecraft] KPA-500 Features and Pricing

[Jack Brabham]

  Pat,

I'm a "Old Southern Boy" born and raised in Texas, who spent an entire 
career in electronics and tele-communications working around the south.

As an old southern boy myself, I was expecting that other old southern 
boys would grin and appreciate that there was an implied (but not 
expressed) "y'all being so dang smart an all" at the end of the sentence.

Sorry if my southern sense of humor escaped you sir.

As far as comparing MFJ amps to the as yet hypothetical KPA500, I don't 
doubt the KPA500 will be a technically better quality product than the 
ALS-600.    However, being a "value" shopper, I'm just a bit vague on 
why it would be worth roughly twice as much money.   Being "better" 
doesn't necessarily make it a "better value".

If money is no object, then value is irrelevant, but around here these 
days money is scarce and value is a major consideration.  The K3 was and 
is an exceptional value, that's why I bought one.   The KPA500 doesn't 
seem to be shaping up that way and I for one, would be sad to see 
Elecraft moving toward a higher price, lower value marketing scheme.



73 Jack

On 9/9/2010 2:00 PM, Pat Bunn wrote:
> The "Southern Boy" comment is a bit of a slight to us technical guys who
> live in the south. Most of the MFJ stuff that I have owned was made in China
> and had pretty awful QC. Comparing Elecraft gear to MFJ isn't a  fair shake.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jack Brabham"<kz5a at att.net>
> To:<elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 2:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA-500 Features and Pricing
>
>
>>   Phil,
>>
>> No anger with Elecraft, they are my favorite ham company, and I'm quite
>> proud of my K3 even if it did take months of research and hair pulling
>> to figure out how to get a decent output from it on SSB.
>>
>> I am concerned, based on the KPA500 rumors, that Elecraft may be
>> deliberately pricing themselves out of the average ham's range.  The
>> "Oh, it cost so much to produce a product in the USA!" argument doesn't
>> hold water either.   Where do you suppose MFJ's are made?  Or for that
>> matter the K3?
>>
>> I'm thinking that if them old southern boys at MFJ can make a /decent
>> /amp for around $2/watt, the folks at Elecraft "ought" to be able to
>> make a /great /amp for about the same money.  They definitely smoked
>> Yaesu and Icom on value postion with the K3.
>>
>> FWIW "Stupid Yuppies", in my book,  would be those folks who are willing
>> to pay twice what something is actually worth just for a label, or for
>> the joy of owning the most expensive.
>>
>> 73 Jack KZ5A
>>
>> K3 #4165
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 9/9/2010 9:46 AM, Phil Townsend wrote:
>>> Ewww, Jack You are soo mean... "Stupid Yuppies"... Come on Jack, why so
>>> angry at a great USA company that ACTUALLY builds some great products?
>>>
>>> Phil
>>> Santa Fe
>>>
>>>
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