[Elecraft] Common K3 failure modes???

[David Gilbert]

Availability of components falls into two categories:

1.  readily available

2.  difficult to get in a timely fashion

3.  obsolete

Elecraft discontinued products that fell into all three categories ... 
not only the third.  Most of what they no longer sell is because they 
made a decision they weren't forced to make due to external 
considerations.  They simply elected to focus on the K4 to the exclusion 
of previous models.  For me, that falls outside of the commitments they 
made when I bought my K3 with it's supposedly modular nature that 
according to their sales pitch at the time would allow the availability 
of retrofitted (potentially upgraded) subassemblies even in the face of 
component obsolescence.  They did exactly that with the new synths while 
they still had the K3s ... they just completely jumped ship once they 
came out with the K4.

I don't have my head in the sand ... I just apparently have a better 
memory than you and unlike you I don't have friends working at Elecraft 
to color my judgement.

Dave   AB7E




On 6/26/2022 1:13 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On 6/22/2022 10:35 AM, David Gilbert wrote:
>> Some people have suggested buying a complete spare rig for parts.  I 
>> think that's ridiculous.  If I'm going to put out that much money for 
>> contingency purposes I'll buy a new rig from a company that didn't 
>> put me in that situation.
>
> Dave,
>
> You are being unreasonably hard on Elecraft. They are a small, 
> privately held, US company. If you are unaware of supply chain issues 
> widespread across all industries, especially electronics, you have 
> your head firmly buried in the sand.
>
> A Kenwood digital talkie I bought a couple of years ago lasted 
> slightly more than a year. Kenwood sent me to a third party repair 
> company. Have you investigated the history of ICOM or Yaesu repairing 
> their radios?
>
> I'm quoting part of Wayne's response to my complaints to him (direct 
> email) about the K4 manual.
>
> > Our tech writer took a different job in 2019 right when he was
> > supposed to start the primary K4 manual. Then the pandemic hit, and we
> > haven't been able to hire another one (try to hire anyone lately?). So
> > this fell to me.
>
> And this that I've taught my kids -- "The other guy's job always looks 
> easy."
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
>
>
>
>
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