[Elecraft] Kit Shipping Schedule Theory

[Lew K7GO]

I'm a bit baffled by the delay.  If the parts are indeed available I would
expect that Elecraft would be punching out boards/units a hundred at a time
by now.  My (perhaps incorrect) impression was that that the KX3 was
primarily composed of surface mount boards populated by pick-and-place
robots and then wave soldered.  I would expect that the ATU boards are more
effort to assemble due to the toroids, relays and what not.  Updating
firmware is straightforward and based on the fact that units are actually
shipping I have to believe the firmware is in reasonably good shape.

While I realize that the spreadsheet is a less than random statistical
sample, I expected to see more evidence of a traditional manufacturing
"hockey-stick ramp" by now.

Further, it is not at all clear to me that Elecraft will make more money
shipping built units versus kits in the  near term given the order backlog. 
If it takes 15 minutes to get a kit ready to ship versus an hour to build
and test a unit then there will be four times as much volume at .9 revenue
($900/$1000) per unit in the kit.  The ratio will almost always be better
than .9 since most of us order upgrades and accessories.  Obviously I'm
making these productivity numbers up for illustration purposes.  The point
remains that given the current backlog the kits *could* bring more total
profit to Elecraft in the near term.

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