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Can Elecraft take over the global HF ham radio business ?

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Marinos

Can Elecraft take over the global HF ham radio business ?

Dear fellow Elecrafters,
This is going to be an out of the ordinary post, and I am sure will get
quite a bit of criticism, but since there has been a recent discussion about
looking for ways to satisfy as many potential customers as possible (with
the QRO kits etc), I would like to hear some opinions about this:

What are the reasons for the popularity of the K2 radio not being equal to
the Japanese made rigs worldwide ? Yes, the rig is very popular but its
production/sale numbers are just about 5000, a rather small number compared
to any of the commercially available units.

In my view, which may be wrong of course, the answer is that the K2 is not
considered by the majority of the hams worldwide as the radio that can
substitute all others in HF in their shack. It is rather seen as a
specialized 2nd or 3rd "luxury" radio.

And here comes the question:
Would it be possible and financially profitable for Elecraft to introduce a
full feature transceiver kit that can maintain the well known RX advantages
of the K2 while adding other features that have come to be considered as
"standard" in modern radios ?

* General HF coverage
* IF manual Notch
* Continuously variable PBT / Rx Bandwidth
* Maybe 200W RF output
* Band (manual) preselector

Of course many people will argue about the usefulness of these features, but
having a radio with the above would make it an extremely attractive choice
as the only radio for many more hams worldwide, and since the vast majority
of us like to build equipment, certainly would prefer it over ready made
"black-boxes".....

Just some philosophical thoughts, and topics of debate.
73 to all,
Marinos, ki4gin

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NR5A

Re: Can Elecraft take over the global HF ham radio business ?

Why?? I can't see anything wrong with the way it is QRP. I prefer it over
the rice boxes, for one thing I don't need 10,000 bells and whistles, I
don't even use many of the K2's extra features. I like it cause even stuipid
me and fix it, or get tons of help on this group. Why mess it up?? Guess I
just don't get what your getting at. I probably should not have even posted
this.

Jerry - NR5A - South DAkota
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marinos Markomanolakis, M.D." <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 8:51 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] Can Elecraft take over the global HF ham radio business
?

> Dear fellow Elecrafters,
> This is going to be an out of the ordinary post, and I am sure will get
> quite a bit of criticism, but since there has been a recent discussion
about
> looking for ways to satisfy as many potential customers as possible (with
> the QRO kits etc), I would like to hear some opinions about this:
>
> What are the reasons for the popularity of the K2 radio not being equal to
> the Japanese made rigs worldwide ? Yes, the rig is very popular but its
> production/sale numbers are just about 5000, a rather small number
compared
> to any of the commercially available units.
>
> In my view, which may be wrong of course, the answer is that the K2 is not
> considered by the majority of the hams worldwide as the radio that can
> substitute all others in HF in their shack. It is rather seen as a
> specialized 2nd or 3rd "luxury" radio.
>
> And here comes the question:
> Would it be possible and financially profitable for Elecraft to introduce
a
> full feature transceiver kit that can maintain the well known RX
advantages

> of the K2 while adding other features that have come to be considered as
> "standard" in modern radios ?
>
> * General HF coverage
> * IF manual Notch
> * Continuously variable PBT / Rx Bandwidth
> * Maybe 200W RF output
> * Band (manual) preselector
>
> Of course many people will argue about the usefulness of these features,

but
> having a radio with the above would make it an extremely attractive choice
> as the only radio for many more hams worldwide, and since the vast
majority

> of us like to build equipment, certainly would prefer it over ready made
> "black-boxes".....
>
> Just some philosophical thoughts, and topics of debate.
> 73 to all,
> Marinos, ki4gin
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Post to: [hidden email]
> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>

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Earl W Cunningham