[Elecraft] K1-4 4 band version gone? (Hand SMT---Never)

[Wayne Burdick]

Simple SMD kits are fine because the success rate can be high and the investment risk on the part of both the customer and the manufacturer is low. We may offer such kits in the future, though we don't have any present plans for these.

The percentage of builders who could complete a complex SMD kit, or have the skill and test gear to troubleshoot them, is small. Kitting and documentation alone would be a huge investment for us, not to mention customer support. Many such kits would never be finished, or repaired, or would have mysterious unresolved issues. Perceived quality would suffer and frustration levels would go way up. 

One thing Elecraft is known for is packing a lot of functionality into a small space. This requires the use of very fine-pitch TQFP IC packages as well as 0603 passives (even 0402 in a few cases). To make SMD kits viable at all we'd have to use much larger-pitch parts. This would force products to be larger, heavier, and more expensive.

Even though a small percentage of customers would be willing and able, this simply isn't an economically viable direction for us.

73,
Wayne
N6KR