[Elecraft] Elecraft PCB Diagrams

[Bill Coleman]

On Feb 24, 2013, at 7:08 PM, Mike Morrow <kk5f at earthlink.net> wrote:

> It's troubleshooting like this that can make the possession of PCB trace
> diagrams invaluable.  For some reason which has *never* been coherently
> explained in the almost 13 years since I first bought an Elecraft product,
> these have never been provided by Elecraft for their products.  N0SS
> provided some (PCB photos) long ago for the K1, but not Elecraft.
> 
> All other kit makers with whom I've done business have provided these as a
> matter of course...going back to Heathkit a half century ago.  And makers
> of non-kits provide them in service manuals.  But not Elecraft, in any form.
> 
> One wonders why.

While everything you say is true, there is one very solid reason not to publish PCB trace diagrams of boards. Southwest Technical Products (SWTPC) ran into this issue way back in the 70s, when they had very nice X-ray style PCB trace diagrams with their documentation.

The simple reason is that PCB trace diagrams allow people to copy the boards. Well, they TRY to copy the boards. The end results aren't nearly as nice.

At least Elecraft publishes full schematics for all their equipment. There are some other manufacturers that do not.


Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at mac.com
Quote: "Boot, you transistorized tormentor! Boot!"
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Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
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