Hello.
I am considering the purchase of a full-option KX1 (or a K1, see later)
and have spent some time comparing the prices on the main Elecraft site
and on that of the German distributor at http://www.qrpproject.de/
Here comes the price breakdown:
US)
-base KX1: 279 USD
-ATU: 52.93 USD (special offer until Sep.30th)
-30m kit: 29 USD
-shipping: 93.87 USD
pre-tax total: 454.8 USD, or 370.38 EUR (rate conversion by oanda.com)
Italy vat: +20% (on pre-tax total)
total, vat included: 444.45 EUR
Europe)
-base KX1: 335 EUR
-ATU: 82 EUR (full price)
-30m kit: 31 EUR
-shipping: 8 EUR (whoa!)
total, vat included: 456 EUR
It would appear that even without the ATU special discount, the EU price
is nearly the same as the US one, plus the customs fees still have to be
taken into account and the German distributor allows payment on delivery
via intra-EU bank transfers (free of charge, with my online bank).
Funny thing is, only the KX1 prices are _so_ close: the K1 (+atu) comes
in at 497 EUR from the US and at 573 EUR from Germany and the K2 (+atu,
ssb and serial) at 987 EUR from the US and at 1187 from the US. I can't
really afford the K2 (hell, even the KX1 price isn't pocket money!) and
I wasn't really looking for it, but Andrea IK1PMR (from the T33C Banaba
dxpedition) really praised it so much that I had to at least evaluate
the full costs 8-)
Has anyone from the EU, or even better from Italy, purchased the KX1
kits direct from Elecraft? Any comments wrt recent customs experiences
and such? From my little research on the list archives, it would appear
that the gap was much wider in the not-so-distant past, so I'm quite
surprised it has shrunk to the point where it is now nearly negative
(just exclude the discount for the ATU and recalculate), albeit for the
KX1 only.
Another (partially related) question: would you recommend the KX1 over
the K1 to someone who only marginally appreciates the extremely limited
weight? I do appreciate not having to bother with an external battery or
with a rather expensive option, though, and most of my activity is on 20
and 40m. When it comes to filtering and rx performance, is the K1 really
so much better than the KX1 or can the difference be ignored for
practical purposes?
TIA & B73,
Andrea
--
Homepage: http://andrea.borgia.bo.it / Amateur radio: IZ4FHT
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