[Elecraft] I thought Elecraft was a household name!

[Jim Lowman]

Elecraft really got its start in the QRP circles, so I can understand 
how other OTs
who are not interested in low-power operations may never have heard of them.

I first met Wayne and Eric at Pacificon, circa 1999, when they were 
showing off
a prototype of the K2 at a presentation there.  Since then, they would 
be hard
to miss at a convention at their booth.

As an aside, Prof. Rutledge was one of the speakers at the Antenna Forum at
Pacificon.  I attended his presentation and invited him to our 
convention in
2001.  He teaches at nearly Caltech in Pasadena, and requires his 
students to
build a 40A as a class project.  The book that you mentioned is the textbook
for this class.

Even today, with producing a 500w amplifier, Elecraft still offers the 
base model
of all of its transceivers targeted at the QRP gang; even the K3.

72/73 de Jim - AD6CW

On 7/15/2012 10:28 AM, Phil Hystad wrote:
> I think it is probably interesting how people discover Elecraft.  I have
> recommended Elecraft products to a few friends and almost in every
> case the friend did not know about Elecraft.  Of course, these guys
> were older and maybe that had something to do with it.  When I say
> older, I obviously mean older then me -- still young at 64 3/4s.
>
> I discovered Elecraft via my Norcal 40A kit.  I discovered the Norcal
> 40A via the book "The Electronics of Radio" by Rutledge.  I read the
> book and built the 40A and then decided that the designer of this
> radio was very talented.  So, I started googling Wayne to find more
> information about him and from that came across the Elecraft web site.
> That was in the Fall of 2009.  Now I own a complete K-line with the
> KAT500 on order plus a KX1 and a variety of other Elecraft mini-kit
> products.
>
> 73, phil, K7PEH
>