[Elecraft] K3S OR K3

[Don Wilhelm]

The K2 is still in production, but it is not the same as the K2 started out.
It too went through a major upgrade at SN 3000 - new boards with all the 
prior mods included as standard, and at that time you could no longer 
buy the older K2 from Elecraft anymore.
Take a look at the FAQ for the K3S and you should see a parallel to the 
K2 upgrade at SN 3000, only the "K2" designation was not changed when 
that happened.  With the K3, Elecraft decided to upgrade the model 
number as well as the insides.
And by the way, Elecraft still offers upgrade kits to bring an older K2 
almost up to the electrical equivalent of a new K2 - the "almost" is 
that there are a few minor items that are not practical to upgrade 
(unless you replace the boards too).
The situation with the K3 is similar.  Elecraft offers (or will soon 
offer) upgraded modules that can be added to a K3 to bring it almost up 
to the same as the K3S.  The new synthesizers are already available as 
is the KXV3B, and they are offering kits to upgrade the KBPF3 to the 
KBPF3A level.

Yes, it is a "Marketing Tactic", but instead of having a negative 
connotation, I believe it is a very positive one which says "We will 
provide you the means to upgrade your older transceivers, and we will do 
that as long as possible and as completely as possible".

Some parts for the Elecraft legacy gear (K2, K1, and KX1) are becoming 
difficult to source, but Elecraft has gone to great effort and expense 
to provide suitable substitutes.  I have personally been involved in 
evaluating some of those part changes, such as the exercise needed when 
the blue wide range 1 to 40 pF trimmer capacitors were not longer 
available.  That event "shook up" the entire legacy product line.  I 
have known other companies to respond by simply dropping support and 
parts supplies.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 8/20/2015 2:40 PM, bs usb wrote:
> I know the K3 will have to be a used radio because new ones are no 
> longer available.  I am not sure why that is.  Sounds like a marketing 
> tactic.  I believe the K2 is still in production.
>