[Elecraft] Annoying contests

[Doug Person]

Thanks Guy.  That was a very interesting post.
Doug -- K0DXV

On 2/19/2012 6:12 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote:
> 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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