I don't think Wayne and Eric necessarily need my thoughts on their business plan...they seem to be doing quite well as it is. However, my two bits on future is that I would rather see a few, elegant projects than a project for every interest. What Elecraft has done well is to focus on the "elegant" portion of design, from the perspective that designs are elegant when they are simple and highly effective. This generally means focusing on performance and simplifying interfaces. It takes a lot of engineering (and cost) to create fancy interfaces that do not improve basic performance of the receiver, transceiver or test instrument.
So, I think the mini-modules are good ideas, but test equipment in general is not. As a practical matter, you can buy extremely good used test equipment at a fraction of the original price if you want to go in that direction. (Ask my xyl whether it is possible for someone to buy lots of used test equipment...) I seriously doubt you could build an oscilloscope kit that rivals either the Tek 7000 series or the Tek portables for anywhere near their current prices. Ditto for signal generators if you include wide coverage, modulation options, precision output and frequency control. And then there is the calibration issue... And while I will continue to buy Elecraft gear (if there is a K3, I'm a clear candidate), I also think that it is good for the amateur community to have a variety of quality products/kits available. If you are interested in an swr/vector power meter, look at the LP-100 that is just being released. There are also some nice kits available if you are happy with surface mount. (Actually, I find surface mount to be pretty straight forward, even with my 54 year old eyes and would like to have had my KX-1 as a surface mount kit.) I'm also quite impressed with the Buddipole products carried by Elecraft, as well. So, I like the approach of Elecraft working on core projects and supporting related projects by other designers and manufacturers. (Buddipole, Heil) >From my perspective, I would like to see Elecraft address performance issues in the K2, such as the SSB board, noise blanker, and the birdies, especially in the K2/100. I'm looking into quieting the audio on the K2, which may turn out to be useful. The user interface could also use improvement so that it doesn't require remembering button press sequences and remembers settings across bands. A slave receiver based on the K2 would also be an interesting project. I'm also probably going to build a small linear for the KX-1 because I get very frustrated listening to people who don't answer... But I think that may be a homebrew. Summary: 1) Elecraft is great. 2) But the amateur community needs more than one option 3) Elecraft should stick to "elegant" gear 4) And support quality related products Ok, it was 4 bits. Howard Ashcraft, W1WF -----Original Message----- From: Fred (FL) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 5:19 AM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] Ideas - new Elecraft Products K2/K1 Owner-builders I posted a "Elecraft New Product Ideas" email last week - which received mixed responses - "good", "old stuff", "too difficult for Elecraft", "done that ....", "won't work", etc. I think Elecraft is a great ham company. And as every builder knows - their support to us the ham community - is superb! And their quality of products and kits is excellent and higher. I'd suggest, we K1/K2 builders - continue to send in "product ideas" to Elecraft, via this email list - and let Elecraft Management know, what product ideas we'd like to see and what product ideas might help us in our amateur endeavors. We might be surprised, and see some of them come to reality. If they have to hire another designer & tech or two, so be it. If you like the product(s) which Elecraft now markets and sells - I myself, would like to continue to buy my next products from them too. Frankly I've never been fully satisfied with MFJ items - for some reason many of them look aluminish and of poorer quality. BUY ELECRAFT, TELL ELECRAFT WHAT YOU'D LIKE and WHAT YOU THINK WOULD BE HELPFUL, FOR OUR HOBBY! My Kits - short list 5/23/2006: - outboard RF OUTPUT METER Indicator (in-line) - inboard RF OUTPUT INDICATOR (panel, neon/eye) - outboard POWER METER (ala Birdy), w/SWR option - poor man's 6146 200w PEP outboard TUBE AMPLIFIER (relive your youth) (FCC ham-project form) - matching Elecraft 6146 AMP POWER SUPPLY - 200w match-anything TUNER (coils, meters, R/L/C's) - a HF K3 TRANSCEIVER, with general coverage, 2 meter, 440, and bigger footprint & displays - an Elecraft K2/K3 MOBILE MIKE, w/up-down, functions - an Elecraft quality, HEADPHONE set, K1/K2/K3 - a couple HF porta-ANTENNAs, back pack carryable - a "hide-able" HF ANTENNA (gutter?, bush?) - Elecraft Mobile VERTICAL ANTENNA (hf, tuneable) - Elecraft SCOPE for alignment jobs - Elecraft SIGNAL GENERATOR, for alignment jobs Thanks, 73's Fred N3CSY FL/upstate NY 5/23/2006 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! 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