[Elecraft] OT: Affordability of the *NEW* K-Line

[Phil Hystad]

As an owner of an older K-line configuration:   K3+P3+KPA500+KAT500, I am wondering what I might be paying if I discovered Elecraft today and wanted the new version of a K-Line:  K3S + P3 + KPA1500.  Without doing a detailed cost sheet of various options, I will just assume $10,000 for the configuration though it could be more than that.

Is this affordable?  To help answer my question, I did some research using both my ARRL book “50 Years Of Amateur Radio” and the US government’s inflation index calculator.  If you are not aware of this particular book, it describes a whole slew of different manufactured rigs from the 1930s through the 1980s with year of introduction and cost in US$ at introduction.

Some examples:

Collins KW-1 Transmitter, 1950, original cost: $3850, cost in 2017 dollars: $39,942

Hallicrafters SX-88 Receiver, 1954, original cost: $595, cost in 2017 dollars: $5393

Heathkit DX-100 Transmitter, 1955, original cost: $180, cost in 2017 dollars: $1644

Collins 30S-1 Linear Amplifier (1 KW), 1958, original cost: $1556, cost in 2017 dollars: $13,264

Collins KWS-1, 1955, original cost $1995, cost in 2017 dollars: $18,217

Collins KWM-2A Transceiver, 1961, original cost $1250, cost in 2017 dollars: $10,227

Drake TR-7 Transceiver, 1979, original cost (with some options) $1072, cost in 2017 dollars: $3827.


So, a new technology K-Line is not that bad as something equivalent from Collins back in the 1950s
could easily cost 4 times as much today!

73, phil, K7PEH