How many kits

[Paul Gates]

Can anyone tell me how many kits.... K1, K2, KX1 kits have been sold. I have
a friend that says very few people build radios anymore... I want to blow
his socks off! <g>


Paul Gates
Elecraft K1 #231
XG1
[hidden email]


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[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy-2]

Hello Paul,

I don't know Paul, but going by the K2 serial numbers there must be some
4500 K2s out there, and that's a lot of one product especially for a young
Company. I recall the long hours of discussion spent at RCA working out how
many of a certain type of SSB transceiver should be built in the first
production run - 500 was the choice. Eventually about 1000 were sold into
the point to point market worldwide, which was a large share.

Personally I prefer to build my radios for many of the reasons that have
been mentioned already. Perhaps one of the main reasons, and this is
especially true for receivers, is that it is possible to keep ahead of the
black box manufacturers when it comes to the performance of the device,
sometimes by a few years, without having to sell one's wife, cat and dog in
order to get that top end performance. Furthermore one must not forget
Property Rights that could prevent some company from incorporating a piece
of serious circuitry, and they might not get there if the R&D budget is
small. The big price that the homebrewer pays is, of course, time to do
this. So years ago I adopted the modular approach to construction where
possible, and the work in progress concept, upgrading as technology moved
along. And I am very sure that there is a large number of amateurs who do
something similar for whatever reason. With respect to your friend I wonder
how he came to his conclusion and what he means by *very few*.

Having said all that, if money was no object I might buy the best black box
for my purposes, slow down the homebrewing a little keeping the black box as
a backup. But personally I would find it difficult to choose between the
black boxes because it appears to me that this year's model is last year's
model plus a thing or two, or minus a thing or two.

K2 is the only kit or commercially manufactured radio that I have owned in
58 years of ham radio, and it is a very much appreciated member of the shack
community.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD
K2/100 #3255

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Gates" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 10:46 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] How many kits


> Can anyone tell me how many kits.... K1, K2, KX1 kits have been sold. I
have
> a friend that says very few people build radios anymore... I want to blow
> his socks off! <g>
>
>
> Paul Gates
> Elecraft K1 #231
> XG1
> [hidden email]
>

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[Kevin Rock]

Howdy Paul,
    I get serial numbers on the net so can give you a rough estimate.  The
KX1 series is over 1000, the K2 series is nearing 5000, K1s are somewhere
around 2000.  So totalling this give close to 8000 kits not including all
the fiddly bits.
    Hope this helps,
       Kevin.




  On Mon, 02 May 2005 05:46:23 -0400, Paul Gates <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Can anyone tell me how many kits.... K1, K2, KX1 kits have been sold. I
> have a friend that says very few people build radios anymore... I want
> to blow his socks off! <g>
>
>
> Paul Gates
> Elecraft K1 #231
> XG1
> [hidden email]


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