Grant, No ideology here, just the brutal facts of business.
If people do not like the feature set of a product, people will not purchase it. If Elecraft does not appeal to the market segment that buys a radio for the features they offer, they will soon begin to dwindle and ultimately die. Then there are zero resources for anything. I personally think a better CW code reader would be a better use of resources compared to AM. Do you think new buyers of radios are more interested in AM performance, or the ability of the radio to decode CW (for those that don't know CW). Of those two categories of buyers, which one has a larger number of people? A company (or senator, or representative, or president, or any elected official) MUST focus their efforts, or fall prey to competition that does focus on the majority. If not, they perish. Technology, while important, is not the only factor. There are more CW operators in the world than there are AM'ers. That fact makes Elecraft's decision easier. Focus on CW as opposed to AM. They did this very same thing with the recent release of the synth. The new synth makes little difference on SSB (and AM for that matter) and has it's impact on CW. BUT not that much of an impact on a band that is not crowded. It only shines on a crowded CW band like Sweepstakes, 160 meter contests, and the like. My interest is CW, without a computer. Hence my decision to go with the K3. I had a TS-480, and it worked great and met my CW needs. There was no real reason to change to a K3, as for my style of operation, the 480 was good. But the 480 did not have a panadaptor or a roofing filter, that was important to me. So, Kenwood lost a customer, and Elecraft picked one up. Those are the realities of the market. If Kenwood loses to many customer, the will go the way of the Globe's, the Vikings, the Drakes, the Eicos, the Heathkits, the Hallicrafters, the Collins. The list goes on and on and on. BTW, I am an old phart too. Jim W6AIM -----Original Message----- From: Grant Youngman [mailto:n...@tx.rr.com] Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 2:55 PM To: jim Cc: Elecraft Reflector Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 AM Performance I don't know who you consider to be the "big 3". Some oh-not-so-old Kenwood radios are excellent on AM. The Orion I/II is truly an excellent AM transmitter (I owned 3 of them, and even now they aren't exactly shabby on any other mode). The Flex-most-anything can be broadcast quality (perhaps you should seek one out). There is a large, vibrant, and growing AM community (who's technology is far younger than CW). Universally, they dis the K3 for its poor (relatively) AM performance, and avoid it (in some quarters with great disdain) for that reason. Frankly, I'm getting too old to keep hauling around a Globe King 500 and a Globe Champion 300. Given the K3 is an SDR -- there is no reason (well, other than "mode" bias perhaps and a few (100/1000) lines of code that it could not also meet the needs of the AM community and become a popular radio there. I get exceedingly tired at being scolded for being an old f*rt, simply for enjoying an operating mode that is younger than CW. (And, by the way, I like CW too, and SSB, and various digi modes from time to time). There are many groups of hams involved in many different aspects of the hobby. I'd respectfully suggest we might want to be a bit more respectful of ALL, even if they don't fit with our personal ham radio ideology. But that's another subject for a different venue. .. :( Grant NQ5T Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 23, 2015, at 4:28 PM, jim <jbol...@outlook.com> wrote: > > A more gentlemanly form: > > Elecraft needs to remain competitive in the market. > > They have limited resources to advance the art. Lose focus and they > fritter the valuable resources and die. > > The other "Big 3" do not concern themselves with AM, or for that > matter, anything short of selling a new radios at kilo-dollars for new > revisions, which Elecraft can do with upgrades that are little or no cost. > > Elecraft users are the benefactor of their focus. > > They do NOT need to focus resources on AM. > > For us old-timers here, if R.L. Drake focused on AM when they designed > and released the Drake 1A (targeted for the SSB mode), they would have > gone the way of Compaq, Commodore, Digital Equipment and others. > > Jim > W6AIM > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Grant Youngman [mailto:n...@tx.rr.com] > Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 2:14 PM > To: jim > Cc: Elecraft Reflector > Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 AM Performance > > Is it not possible to have a rational discussion on this list without > this sort of gentlemanly comment? > > :( > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Mar 23, 2015, at 2:54 PM, jim <jbol...@outlook.com> wrote: >> >> Turns out my buggy whip is tattered. >> >> Guess I will have to find an older buggy whip, or move on into the >> 70's and use a car. >> >> Wow, I just looked, and it is a new century. Time flies. >> >> Jim >> W6AIM >> >> It took God 6 days to create the universe, only because he did not >> have to be downward compatible with anything........... >> >> >> >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of >> Grant Youngman >> Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 12:46 PM >> To: Elecraft Reflector >> Subject: [Elecraft] K3 AM Performance >> >> Turns out (as usual) I'm late to the party .. on AM transmit performance? >> which is pretty dismal compared to quite a few competitive SDR and >> POTS (plain old) radios and what COULD be done, especially given a 13 >> KHz transmit filter. >> >> http://www.w1vd.com/ElecraftK3.html >> >> Plus it would be good to have a fix (or an explain of how to fix) the >> receive response difference between sync AM lsb/usb. >> >> End of rant ... :) >> >> Grant NQ5T >> >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> ______________________________________________________________ >> 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 Message delivered to >> jbol...@outlook.com > ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
