AFAIK, ML&S have never officially repaired Elecraft products. You may be confusing them with Waters & Stanton.
W&S were the main UK agents for Elecraft when the K4 was about to be launched, but IMO their projected prices were far too high, especially for the internal tuner. AFAIK W&S lost their only (Elecraft) qualified engineer, ISTR sometime around when they moved premises and merged with other companies. The move may be the reason for the engineer not going with them. They never recovered their facility and although they were still advertising Elecraft products (K4 included) they didn’t appear to have any, only old stock. I can’t remember whether it was Wayne or Eric who announced a short while back that some negotiations were taking place with Moonraker. You’d have to ask them for progress news. The VAT situation in the UK for overseas repairs is an absolute farce, but nobody seems to have the inclination, time or money to take on a government department, knowing that they would most likely not win. I don’t use my internal xverter in my K3S much either and as it’s not easily transferable to the K4, I’ll be selling it as part of the K3S/P3. I wouldn’t be sending my K3S across the pond for a rotary encoder either. Fortunately, I have quite an advantage in that I’ve been a service engineer and programmer in the past for major companies selling various unrelated products and I have an SMD workstation and anti-static facility, so I have no real worries about carrying out my own repairs. I guess the most difficult part is obtaining obscure components. 73, Alan - G4GNX South Coast UK Elecraft K4D / KPA500 / KAT500 / IC-9700 > On 15 Dec 2023, at 15:07, Richard Corfield <richard.corfi...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I thought ML&S serviced Elecraft in the UK. Sad that that's gone. My > experience with my KX3 was to send it to America. This was pre-Brexit, so... > > It was sent to America for repair of a rotary encoder and addition of the > 2m module back in 2019. This was a paperwork nightmare as I had to export > it as goods for repair, and it had to come back with the right paperwork to > connect it to my export in order that I don't pay import duties and taxes > on over £1000 worth of radio! I had to find the original receipt from the > original owner so that Elecraft on returning it could be sure to prove that > tax had been paid on the radio in the UK. The paperwork I filled in is > designed for goods export for sale, and I ended up writing on it in large > letters something like TEMPORARY EXPORT FOR REPAIR. > > It came back I think without the 2m module installed (my emails to UPS are > about it having a significant part missing), though it looks like I may > have paid VAT on that (I can find a VAT bill for £85 which implies an item > cost of £425 which would be the repair, parts, 2m module and shipping > > It was sent to repair in Italy for uniting with the 2m module and > calibration. We were in the EU at the time so this was easy. I imagine the > experience now we are out of the EU would be like the experience I had > sending to America. > > In retrospect I've not used the 2m module that much. I'll have to get out > for more UKAC contests with it, but family is keeping me very busy at the > moment. I think the filter module would be a good purchase for my use of > the radio for CW. > > The rotary encoder failed again, and I repaired it myself this time. It was > easier to risk my repair skills on a >£1000 radio than go through that > shipping/customs polava again. The original repair with Elecraft did allow > for the radio to be thoroughly checked over and any other needed updates to > be made, which was good. > > - Richard > ______________________________________________________________ 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
