A Perspective on the Recent K2/K3 Thread

Ladies and Gentlemen,
   
  My, there are a lot of good ideas out there for improving a product that is already pretty dad-gum-good...if not dad-gum-great!  
   
  The K2 in its original form....is...well original.  Yes, I am defending the basic product and I want to make some comparisons.
   
  I would like to know the engineering time of Yaseu/Icom/Kenwood/Ten Tec in comparison with Elecraft.  What are the "man-hours?"  What was the R & D budget for the new 7000 - 2000 - 480 - Orion - etc., etc., etc.  Compared to "E" - I would think that the budgets of YIKT are a lot bigger.
   
  How many designers were involved?
   
  How many RF Engineers were involved?
   
  How many programmers were involved?
   
  How much technology did they incorporate that they had to licence (Rhodes & Swartz)?
   
  I would like to know the thought process of YIKT for making their rigs self service - where hams can work on their own rig.  I would not even attempt that with my 756PROII
   
  I wonder how many of the YIKT engineers/designers/managers actually talk with the end user - meet them at hamfests - answer emails - and know alot of them by their first name?
   
  All the development was done by....who....two guys?  Wow!  Amazing!  Incredible!
   
  I wonder how YIKT would like to sell over 5700 units of the same model?  Now that would be a great deal for anyone?
   
  How many YIKT rigs have a price tag that makes your eyeballs bulg?  Yes, I know that a full fledge K2 - loaded to the gills - is around 1800 smackers but how can YIKT offer parts and pieces as you can afford them?
   
  How does YIKT (Ten Tec is really excluded) offer the incredible help in repair and service?
   
  As for operation, what does the K2 not do that YIKT does so much better?
   
  When, I first got my K2, I thought that the rig was a transistorized HW-101 ($259 in 1969 dollars) - but I soon realized I was wrong.  I would call the K2 the "Barry Bonds" of the HW-101 - a rig on a life-time of steroids.
   
  Feature for Feature, the K2 has it all, but you have to know the rig to really get the operating effciency - but you have the same situation for YIKT.
   
  The RX is superb - still holds its own with the news high dollar rigs from YIKT.
   
  Size is small - but it was purposely designed that way!  This is a portable rig designed for portable operation that has become a desktop rig.  Yes, bigger knobs-buttons-and-do-dads would be nice (you see my ham-hock fingers trying to get around the rig) and it is easy to "fat-finger" the rig.  But, it was designed that way.
   
  The K2 is an engineering marvel because it is designed for the ham to build it and I am always amazed how much forsight was put into the engineering of the package to accomodate the builder.  That alone is astounding.
   
  The K2 is one of the capstone (remember, there are more capstones) of a engineering team, close friends, and wonderfull people who put the FUN back in ham radio.
   
  The E-Team has done more for HR in the last five years than YIKT.
   
  Do I want to see at K3?  Sure, but it would be hard to top the K2...and I look forward to seeing what the boys from Aptos (and all their cronies) come up with.
   
  I truely appreciate the K2 as a radio - as a work of art - and an engineering acomplishment that should win national awards.
   
  Lee Buller
  K0WA
   


In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply.  If you don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it.  If you can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense.
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[wayne burdick]

Lee Buller wrote:

> Ladies and Gentlemen....I would call the K2 the "Barry Bonds" of the
> HW-101 - a rig on a life-time of steroids.

<blush>

Well, it was designed just down the road from San Francisco  :)

We appreciate your elegant synopsis, Lee. Thank you!

73,
Wayne
N6KR


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