[Elecraft] Annoying contests

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

It's the NASCAR factor.

The stark RX improvement of first the K2 and then the K3 over all the
competition, and the difference that made in contests, and such things as
K3 being fully half the chosen rigs in the last WRTC, really shoved
Elecraft out there.  TenTec has been forced to make changes and
improvements to their Orion series to catch up that they easily could have
made 5 years ago, but now are playing catch-up,  just like the Japanese
manufacturers.

The only comparable technical advancement in all the years I have been
drooling over ham rigs, was the 32S/75S Collins series of rigs all the way
back in the late 50's.  Some Collins buffs would put the advancement
starting with the 75A3/4 rather than the S line.

TenTec had the early opportunities but failed in execution, without the
vision of an Elecraft.  TenTec particularly lacked the responsiveness and
deep careful analysis and incorporation of customer feedback that so
characterizes Elecraft.   TenTec certainly had the early support and
cooperation of ham technical heavyweights in the beginning, some famously
lost to Elecraft after consistently being summarily ignored on clear
issues.  TenTec's failures AND accomplishments in RX were clearly visible
to and could have been cherry-picked by the Japanese makers, who chose to
ignore them as well.

I AM left to wonder what an Art Collins would have done with another
company leaping into a new performance dimension.  I doubt the year would
pass without an answer.  Nor would JA1MP, for that matter.

I would say that the Elecraft is down significantly in fit and finish from
the venerable S line. The S line is still the pleasure to look at and
simply turn knobs.  But the S line is the historical high for fit and
finish for all ham rigs.  But Elecraft more than counters for that by being
commonly affordable.  The S line plus the 650 watt output 30L1 in 1958-1960
would set you back just about $2000, about the same as a fullsize Ford
Fairlane of the time.

Comparably, a fairly maxed out K3 plus a KPA500 will set you back $7000.
 The difference is that $2000 in 1958 is worth at least $15,685 in 2012.
And you can't touch a Ford Fusion for 15k.  One is tempted to set the
time-adjusted price differential at more than 3 to 1.   Furthermore the
S-Line does not have QSK, does not have dual diversity receivers, or a
keyer, or the raft of K3 features, and takes up six or seven times the desk
space of the K3 KPA combo.  Nevertheless, the S line is still the all time
leader in raw cumulative drool time and drool volume and may never be
surpassed.   Joe DiMaggio kind of record.

But it was the RX performance of a K3 that got around like lightning, about
contesters in crowded band with huge signals on both sides, hearing with
their K3's down into a hiss on a band, absent a layer of
beeble-bobble-click clutter and IMD garbage that everybody THOUGHT was the
band ambient noise.  For myself, it was realizing that on 40 meters, there
was a whole new previously unheard layer of 50 and 100 watt low backyard
dipole RUSSIANS down in the hiss, and the last layer of signals was NO
LONGER the DL/OK QRP clubs, who now were almost always copied on first call
except those with liquid-nitrogen-cooled noodle antennas.

Contesters simply DO NOT MISS changes of that magnitude, and propagation of
information about that between contesters was light-speed.

Yeah, dang all them contests, and complain all the way to the bank, and all
the way to the top ten in the contest listings.

73, Guy

On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 4:24 PM, Ken G Kopp <kengkopp at gmail.com> wrote:

> I suspect one of the principal reasons the K3 ... and the K2 ... are
> where they are in the performance pecking order is because of the
> DX'er and contester market.
>
> 73!
> Ken - K0PP
> kengkopp at gmail.com
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