K3 # 238 build experience -standards have dropped IMO

[bobatbay]

After waiting 9 months for the radio .. vital parts were
missing form the shipment. (antenna connector and its special
pigtail lead, plus a whole pack of US style '4-40'  screws
unobtainable in the UK.

So despite passing all the preliminary checks #238 remains
off air for the foreseeable future. I await the missing parts
from Elecraft, who were immediately notified of the shortages
upon receipt of the package via email some 10 days ago.

Having built the K2 from a kit of many hundreds of individual
components, of which not one was missing from the kit,  I
have to say that the whole K3 buying experience is not one I
have enjoyed.  

Elecraft standards have dropped IMO.  

I just wonder how many others have been missing vital parts
from their consignments?.

a less than happy

Bob G4DBW
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[Ken Wagner K3IU]

I wag missing nothing for K3/100 s/n 202 w/ATU, KXV3, TXCO-1, & various
crystal filters.
73, Ken K3IU
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[hidden email] wrote:

> After waiting 9 months for the radio .. vital parts were
> missing form the shipment. (antenna connector and its special
> pigtail lead, plus a whole pack of US style '4-40'  screws
> unobtainable in the UK.
>
> So despite passing all the preliminary checks #238 remains
> off air for the foreseeable future. I await the missing parts
> from Elecraft, who were immediately notified of the shortages
> upon receipt of the package via email some 10 days ago.
>
> Having built the K2 from a kit of many hundreds of individual
> components, of which not one was missing from the kit,  I
> have to say that the whole K3 buying experience is not one I
> have enjoyed.  
>
> Elecraft standards have dropped IMO.  
>
> I just wonder how many others have been missing vital parts
> from their consignments?.
>
> a less than happy
>
> Bob G4DBW
> _______________________________________________
> 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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[Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ]

Hi Bob,

Have you contacted [hidden email] for the missing parts? I've
alerted Scott to look for your email and we will get these out to you
immediately.

I apologize for the missing parts. We strive to be 100% accurate in our
kitting and it pains us immensely any time something is missing. (I take
each error like this personally as I know from my Heathkit days how
frustrating it is to be building a kit and to come up short parts.)

The missing antenna connector (SO-239) was left out of several kits when
our manufacturing supervisor was out sick. We thought we had caught them
all, but it looks like your kit slipped through.

This is the first time I've heard about a full package of screws
missing. Please make sure to look at the other areas in the kit to make
sure it is not hidden somewhere.

I have heard of individual screws missing, usually just 1 or 2,  either
through a kitting error or by being lost during the customer inventory.
We do include extras of many of them, but I'm going to increase the
amount of the key screws for future kits to cover this.

73, Eric   WA6HHQ
Elecraft
----


[hidden email] wrote:
> After waiting 9 months for the radio .. vital parts were
> missing form the shipment. (antenna connector and its special
> pigtail lead, plus a whole pack of US style '4-40'  screws
> unobtainable in the UK.
>  
_______________________________________________
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

[AD6XY]

I have heard of individual screws missing, usually just 1 or 2,  either
through a kitting error or by being lost during the customer inventory.
We do include extras of many of them, but I'm going to increase the
amount of the key screws for future kits to cover this.

73, Eric   WA6HHQ
Elecraft
----

This is one of the problems of using USA specific components. People are always going to lose screws or want to use new ones where they have damaged the heads through frequent removal and replacement of panels.

It is not just a K3 problem. It apples to almost all USA sourced equipment that uses UNC. As much rest of the world now uses metric threads, the market for the specialist suppliers of the many different threads we used to use has reduced dramatically. This makes it almost impossible to buy anything other than metric threads locally. There are still specialist suppliers but they tend to have high minimum order thresholds or are expensive, or more usually both of these.

The solution is fairly simple, if Elecraft were to make available screw packs for sale that could be ordered at the same time as the kit and flagged up in the order page as "recommended for foreign buyers".

This also applies to any other unobtainable items.

Mike