K3 Design - Cost, Schedule and Performance

[John - N0EVH]

K3 Design - Cost, schedule and performance

First, I am not a radio designer by any stretch of the imagination. Love my K3. Now about the Elecraft design philosophy versus their competition. When you design and ultimately go into production with any piece of equipment for the purposes of making a profit/paying the bills you have three variables that are always competing with each other as your team proceeds.

These are: cost, schedule and performance. For most engineers/designers who work for a large corporation the bosses usually control one and sometimes try to control two of these, making it extremely difficult for the technical staff to deliver the goods without compromised performance. This can usually be traced to too much influence from marketing staff/share holders and others not knowledgeable in these technical fields.  This is not the case at Aptos.

I have been watching Elecraft for several years now and own three of their radios. What sets Elecraft apart from their competition is their priorities and focus. As several have so well pointed out the K3 design is not new. What is new to the market place is the high level of performance and low cost of the unit to the consumer. The Elecraft design/production team has demonstrated that they want to deliver a radio that delivers on performance foremost, then at a very attractive price vs performance and then finally on schedule. They also include consumer relationships and support as part of their on going cost to be sure that their product performance is just not limited to the laboratory, but ultimately how it performs in the hands of the buyer.

The K3 will not please everyone, because not all consumers have the same set of priorities. However, Elecraft certainly has found a chunk of the market that agrees with their philosophy. Just be thankful that when it comes to cost, schedule and performance at Elecraft, they know the correct order and how to pragmatically make trade offs.  Now back to the bands.
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[k6dgw]

John Watkins wrote:
> K3 Design - Cost, schedule and performance

> When you design and ultimately go into production with
> any piece of equipment for the purposes of making a profit/paying the
> bills you have three variables that are always competing with each
> other as your team proceeds.  These are: cost, schedule and performance.

While I was working for a defense contractor, a Marine General asked me
how we priced our bids and what could he do in the RFP's to keep the
bids low.  I told him the ancient engineering mantra:  "Fast, Good,
Cheap ... pick two, Sir"

I recall the days on this reflector when a place in the queue for the
yet-to-be delivered K3's [I was in the queue] was almost becoming a
salable item; "Pay me for my place in the queue, I'll go to the end,
you'll get your K3 sooner." Fortunately Goldman Sachs didn't find out or
we'd have had derivatives based on "securitized places in the K3 line"
to add to the economy woes.  Elecraft seems to have chosen Good and
Cheap [i.e. cheaper than the competition].  "Fast" sort of fell by the
wayside until they got it right.

I think it was a very wise decision.  Delivering a product that wasn't
Good or didn't compete well with the existing products in the market
would have spelled death to the K3 ... and likely the company.  Some
folks left the line, but most of us stayed and now have a really cool
radio that is both Good, and Cheaper than the competition ... which
actually may not be quite as Good as a K3.

I lost most of my hearing 40+ years ago on the other side of the planet,
and SSB is very hard for me.  This last weekend in Sweepstakes, I posted
the best score I ever have, thanks to the K3.  I'm a pretty happy ham
right now.

73

Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA USA
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