[Elecraft] KAT500

[Jim Brown]

On 7/22/2012 6:24 AM, KM4VX wrote:
> I do disagree with marketing that raises demands without an
> ability to meet the demand for months or years.

Elecraft has a long standing practice of announcing products well in 
advance of production, and making it clear that they are doing so. 
Elecraft is a small company, with limited resources, and they operate in 
the same real economy as the rest of us.  In that real world, parts 
often take a lot longer to obtain than when projected, parts vendors 
don't always ship what they promise, things don't fit on the circuit 
board, so it has to be re-designed, a new operational capability is 
requested which requires re-design, design engineers may have personal 
issues, or may get diverted to solving a problem with an existing 
product, and so on.

I greatly appreciate Elecraft's product announcements, and I accept them 
for what the are.  They allow me to plan for building out my station -- 
in my case, I've been improving my antenna farm, working out switching 
for it, and working on replacing the manual Ten Tec antenna tuners for 
my wire antennas.  The KAT500s will do that, and help with the 
switching. While I'm waiting for the tuners (I ordered at Dayton) I'm 
continuing to work on the rest of it, and when they arrive I'll be ready 
for them.

Not long after I finished college I was working in an engineering lab 
and needed repairs on my VW beetle.  I had been introduced to a great 
mechanic who had his own small shop, and took it in for repair. There 
was a lot of work, and it wasn't going to be cheap. Later that day I 
called him to tell him to stop working on it because I'd lost my job. 
I'll never forget his response -- "Don't worry about it, when you have 
the money, I'll still need it."  He did the work, and I picked up the 
car a few days later.

73, Jim K9YC