[Elecraft] Fw: OT: Kenwood's new rig?

[Mike]

What separates a company whose product has failures (and you're right, 
they all can) is how that failure is remediated. NOBODY beats Elecraft!

73, Mike NF4L

On 5/9/12 10:41 AM, Fred Smith wrote:
> Well 26 months and still counting and not a single glitch with my FT-5000,
> never know about tomorrow. But that can happen with a Rolls Royce or a
> Volkswagen. I don't care what it is components fail all radios can have that
> faults no one's left out in that either.
>
> 73,
> Fred/N0AZZ
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of VE3GNO Daniel
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 9:05 AM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Fw: OT: Kenwood's new rig?
>
> Guys,
>   
> I want to ring the bell to ham comunity abt new fancy radios with LED/OLED
> displays. In the last half year or so I've seen on FT5K forum lots of people
> complaining abt OLED display failure and I owne one...that scare me a lot.
> Being involved in R&D for over 20 years mostly in enterprise telecom I've
> notticed in the last year a massive invation of consumer grade  components
> into the enterprise/professional grade equipement. Starting with near
> suicide initiative BYOD (bring your own "crappy" device at work) an going
> forward with cost reduction lifecycle- a mandatory step in any lifecycle
> product, the MTBF of most critical components, like displays, encoders,
> mechanical components, start falling down dramatically. When you spend  few
> hundred bucks for a smartphone that anyway sooner or later in max 2 years
> you'll change it is not so severe but when you spend 5K+++ for a radio and
> after 2 years your displays are going down and guess what? that display  is
> already obsolate part that scares me a lot. I am so happy the K3 does NOT
> have any tft/lcd/led display build in and I hope the next K line generation
> will avoid this big mistake of embedding displays in the radio and will stay
> like this. Just my 2 cents regarding new fancy color tv transceiver from
> kenwood. I have a strange feeling that we won't see aging this new
> transceivers generation on our desk and will become a consumer product like
> a coffee maker or toaster....so sad
>
> VE3GNO Daniel
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Fred Smith<mfsj at mo-net.com>
> To: 'Nate Bargmann'<n0nb at n0nb.us>; elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 7:47:39 AM
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Fw: OT: Kenwood's new rig?
>
> Your correct to this point it's still vapor ware no published findings or
> even FCC approval yet. I also think that QST and Sherwood's reports will
> make or break this radio as they have with all other high end radios. The
> first reports will be published in Japan well ahead of here like the Yaesu
> one's did with the 5000 4 mo before here. I will be compared to the FT-5000,
> K3, and Flex 5000 pretty much in that order in rankings as they are
> published and see where it falls.
>
> As we all know it has a tough row to hoe with that lineup and those who do
> purchase we will see if they sell them as quickly as they have the TS-590s
> which I have seen even cheaper than a used TS-2000. Numbers change almost
> daily in the radio market what was on top one day could fall the next just
> one of those facts will look forward to see the numbers on the 990.
>
> 73,
>
> Fred/N0AZZ
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Nate Bargmann
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 6:05 AM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Fw: OT: Kenwood's new rig?
>
> * On 2012 09 May 05:28 -0500, VE3GNO Daniel wrote:
>> without Rob Sherwood stamp nobody will spend big $$$ for colored displays.
> I beg to differ.  I have seen plenty of postings that indicate a fair number
> are wanting a "high end" Kenwood for their shack and I think plenty will
> plunk down a deposit next weekend even though it is still almost sight
> unseen.
>
> It's almost comical reading the various forums where there seems to be a
> thought of "anything but a K3" amongst some.  I have no doubt that Kenwood
> will sell plenty '990s just as they have '590s.
>
> Not to be snide, but the picture made me think I was looking at an Icom!
>
>> So far nobody knows what is ethernet port is doing...web server?
>> sip+codec? or just firmware upgrade. Also why 2 USB's...is one
>> possible to be used for a keyboard? Hopefully next week we'll have
>> some answers
> Apparently there won't be a real box to play with.  From what I've read the
> disply will be a mock-up with no elecronics inside.  Of course, that
> information is a few weeks old by this point.
>
> 73, de Nate, N0NB>>
>