I concur with Don,
I have a small kit building business (not Elecraft kits) and one of
my kit suppliers provides the pcb half populated with sm
components. The kit uses the same pcb for several different bands
and changes components to fit the frequency and options chosen. My
guess is the kit seller buys his boards with these select components
pre-installed due to cost, efficiency and quality control issues. I
suspect this has a lot to do with the K3 in the form it is
offered. Customer service headaches is the other.
It is very hard for someone to break into building ham radio products
due to the economy of scale issue (little guy can't buy components as
cheaply as a big outfit that orders in multiples of thousand
quantities. I supply full testing results and a set up/operation
manual and that is not as easy as it may seem.
Days of kits assembled from military surplus parts (Heathkit) are
long gone. If you are clever or the first one out the gate with a
brand new concept (niche product), you have a chance (for a short
time). 600m equipment for the pending new ham band has this
potential (an already many players coming onto the field).
73, Ed - KL7UW
-----------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 20:09:32 -0400
From: Don Wilhelm <w3...@embarqmail.com>
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft Wish List
Message-ID: <5216a83c.5050...@embarqmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Bill,
I sympathize with you, but the reality is that a large scale SMD kit
would create a great number of customer support problems. You and I may
be able to do SMD, but that is not the majority.. Add to that the fact
that the "board houses" can produce boards fully populated with SMD
parts for a price that is less than what it would cost Elecraft to
provide an SMD kit with the assembly manual.
73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
dubus...@gmail.com
"Kits made by KL7UW"
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