[Elecraft] P3SVGA

Fri Aug 15 00:40:18 EDT 2014

Ok, now I am going to be the “squeaky wheel”.
I am the author of Win4K3Suite.  With a customer base of a few hundred users (not one or two users) I have numerous times reported bugs and deficiencies in the Elecraft API through the elecraft support channels as well as directly to Wayne and have never had the decency of getting a reply. Support replies and tells me “It was forwarded to Wayne"

Not even “we are aware and this is in a future release”.  

This has been very frustrating and my response to my customers has been “I told them about it and haven’t heard anything”.  For a company that provides such a comprehensive API and support, to totally ignore comments from people who use their API as extensively as I do, is very unprofessional and very frustrating.

The only time, I have had a resolution to an issue is when a well know person from Microham, reported the issue in a much more, how can I say, forward way that I do, and it was resolved within a month. 
The fact is that Elecraft has an API and encourages developers to develop products.  But somehow, it seems to me if the products do not match their “vision” on what the radio should be they are ignored.  That has been the case for me.
Here is something important: I have about 20 users that bought the radio because of my software. It hides the complexities and makes it very easy to use.  Is this against the Elecraft wishes for their radio?  I have to think so since I have 4 times requested to have my software listed on the Elecraft Website, under third party software and even Eric asked me to send a blurb but I never got a response at all.  4 times over 1 and 1/2 years.
So, unless many users ask for something on the forum, the priority is low.  If a developer who has a few hundred users asks for something in a nice way, several times, it’s ignored.  So is this the future of Elecrafts third party support?  Does my name have to be J** to get something done?
This is extremely frustrating, and I have a couple of hundred people that want a few things to be done but all I can tell them “I asked but never heard ANYTHING”.  So, maybe it’s time to be a “squeaky wheel” like now.
Tom Blahovici VA2FSQ
Win4K3Suite.

On Aug 14, 2014, at 8:08 PM, Sam Morgan <k5oai.sam at gmail.com> wrote:

> my previous reply was the short answer, here is the long answer:
> 
> reference:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg171471.html
> 
> to quote Wayne from 7/10/2014 7:55 PM
> 
> <quote>
> Hi all,
> 
> Our firmware task lists are sorted by priority. Determination of Priority is democratic to some degree (Squeaky Wheel and other industry standard methodologies). But in practice it involves crystal-ball-gazing, head-counting, arm-wrestling-over-a-beer, and a healthy dose of what-we-have-time-for.
> 
> It is not practical for us to publish the lists. They change daily and contain a lot of firmware-speak. We'd rather spend time actually making changes than on sanitizing lists for public consumption.
> 
> This is also the reason that we can't make announcements of the form "We will not ever get to feature X." (Imagine trying to do that with your personal Home Repair task list. Would your spouse let you unilaterally decide to remove some of them?) We'd rather be optimistic about it, since you never know when one of our overworked engineers is going to get some unexpected free time.
> 
> The most useful guidance I can give you is this. If only one or two users are affected by a particular change, it is less likely to be implemented in the near future. If nearly all users are affected, it darn well better be fixed instantly. Everything else is in a sort of gray zone (see "Determination of Priority," above).
> 
> I take responsibility for any muttered oaths against Elecraft pertaining to implementation delays. If it's any comfort: I read all the mail and lose sleep over things we can't get to. All I can say is that we try to make the best decisions we can, given engineering time available.
> 
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
> </quote>
> 
> 
> On 8/14/2014 4:55 PM, Sam Morgan wrote:
>> I doesn't have anything to do with one of their new products, so there
>> is no reason to waste electrons asking or commenting.
>> 
>> They will get around to it when and if they ever decide to, or are
>> allowed to, work on something P3 or K3 related, and no amount of asking
>> will change that.
>> 
>> Sam
>> 
>> On 8/14/2014 4:35 PM, XE3/K5ENS via Elecraft wrote:
>>> I must be the only one that has bought a P3 with the SVGA board.  If
>>> no one
>>> else is interested in the NB like the P3 normal display.
>>> 
>>> Keith
>> 
> 
> -- 
> GB & 73
> K5OAI
> Sam Morgan
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