[Elecraft] Serial Number Check for Elecraft gear

[GRANT YOUNGMAN]

> 
> Blame the victim is a common mentality these days.  I'd like to see the KX3 just go ahead an electrocute the SOB that stole it.  After about 4 days, someone would find it...by smell if no other reason. Eric acts like the guy left it laying in the front seat with a "steal me" sign on it.  Jeeesh.
> 

I don’t think anyone is “blaming the victim”.  I’ve been the victim of theft three times — an expensive camera from the lobby of the building I lived in, a car broken into in a motel parking lot, and a house broken into.  None of these were gun in the face “hand it over” things.  In every case, it was avoidable — it was something I did or didn’t do that facilitated the theft.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t the thieves that are to blame.  I just managed to give them a hand in the process.

A database of stolen serial numbers is a good idea, as long as documentation is appropriate to put a number in the database.  A power on password is a hassle and, if as has been suggested it actually kills the radio after xxx failed tries, would likely be a bigger issue than stolen radios.  Tying firmware updates to serial numbers greatly complicates the update process no matter how it’s done, and even that isn’t foolproof if there’s any kind of software agent that is user accessible between the radio and the firmware server, unless there was encryption IN the radio.   

If we were dealing with hundreds of thousands of these things floating around with a high snatch rate and a high demand open market means of turning them into cash, I’d probably see it differently.  As it is, a modicum of care, and insurance are the best bets.

Grant NQ5T