[Elecraft] I wish Elecraft would make this radio

[Chris Schrecengost]

You may be willing to pay whatever price the design dictates but that's not
the way business works. Any mass manufacturing business must find the point
where design meets the ability to sell the product. Economies of scale must
apply. A business must be profitable and that requires large volume sales.
Manufacturers dedicate their internal design teams and budgets to profit.
Look at the current heated discussions about the KX3 2 meter module versus
the 100 watt amplifier. Elecraft has posted that some engineering people
are working on both projects and the amplifier wins. It's the first
priority and then the 2 meter module will come after. They've made a fiscal
decision that manpower to profit was more important for the amplifier than
the 2 meter module. They can't pull engineering to a pet project with
little hope of realized profit.

You're taking the concept car approach. You want a manufacturer to build a
product, regardless of cost. Concept cars are just that for a reason.
They're too expensive and impractical to be a real product. Just like a
concept car, your concept of a radio would need to be individually hand
made because the scale of manufacturing processes can't be applied to it.
No manufacturer designs and produces single runs of complex PC boards
unless it's a prototype intended for future large scale production.
Basically, you want a boutique radio which would likely far exceed
"whatever the cost" you indicate. You may be at or exceeding the cost of
"contester" rigs with much less functionality.

Chris
AB3QV

On Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 7:22 AM, N1EU <n1eu.barry at gmail.com> wrote:

> I wish Elecraft would make an updated, upscaled KX1 for portable use:
> cw-only; ruggedized; enhanced auto-tuner; 40-10M (or 80-10M); 5W+; paddle;
> enhanced front panel/display with single button/knob access to cw speed,
> msg
> play, RIT etc; enhanced AGC; very light weight; etc.  By "upscaled", I mean
> design it first and then figure out what the price needs to be and not vice
> versa.  I would gladly pay whatever it would cost.
>
> 73,
> Barry N1EU
> (currently using KX1 and KX3 in the field)
>
>
>
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/I-wish-Elecraft-would-make-this-radio-tp7568154.html
> Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>