Michael, a lot has changed in the 47 years since I got onto amateur radio. Early on, many hams built, and even designed, their own radio equipment. In fact, much of what was in QST and other amateur publications at that time were articles on construction, and many built from those designs and parts lists.
Commercially-available receivers, transmitters and transceivers have been around well before 1965, as was the term "appliance operator." For many of us at that time, interest in amateur radio often led to career opportunities, or led us to studies in the electronics field in college or technical schools. Advances in technology and deregulation by the FCC caused many of those opportunities to vanish. Except for a cadre of QRP enthusiasts and VHF/UHF experimenters, we are all becoming appliance operators or are heading in that direction. Heathkit went out of business many years ago, although their kits continue in operation to this day. Today, with the advent of SDR technology, so much of what's in a K3 or KX3 is SMT. How many of us really would want to install all of those miniature components? I know that I wouldn't, even with having good eyesight and a steady hand still. So, most of us who buy from Elecraft are reduced to being mechanical assemblers, although it is still possible to have the enjoyment of soldering through-hole parts and winding toroids with the K1 and K2. I had not been to HRO in about 10 years, and visited the San Diego store when we were visiting my father-in-law. Looking around, I noticed a number of pre-built G5RV, dipole and J-Pole antennas; things that could be easily constructed, and probably at less cost. I had to wonder what was sacrificed in order to display these items. That being said, I will buy coax cable with the connectors attached. To this day I still have an arrogance about putting connectors on coax cables. As we used to say in radar maintenance in the Air Force, "That's 3-level work;" with "3-level"meaning guys who just arrived from tech school with no field experience. I'm also a believer in Linux, but realize that most software developed for the amateur radio market is Windows-based. Thus, I continue to expand my knowledge in Linux as a hobby, having retired from the IT profession. 73 de Jim - AD6CW ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
