There is a "service department" in the form of Gary Surrency ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). He will do whatever is necessary to get your Elecraft rig working to factory spex, even to the extent of dragging in the design engineers (usually Wayne or Eric) if needed to look at an issue.
Most issues are simple building mistakes that can be located with a little troubleshooting help such as that found right here on the reflector. Once in a while an issue shows up as builders do things a little differently while building the kit or manufacturer's parts tolerances all add up in one direction that might produce an unexpected result. It might be something that shows up only once in a hundred or more kits. In that case the engineers jump in to study the problem, why it happened, and decide what can be changed in the design of the rig, the specifications for the parts or in the documentation to prevent its happening again. That process is how some of the modifications to the Elecraft kits have come about such as the recent change to the KPA100 and, some years ago, the change to the I.F. filter crystals and the addition of the PLL stabilization circuit in the K2. In most cases, Elecraft then offers an "upgrade" kit for anyone who might want to incorporate the changes into their rig, even if it's currently working FB, so no one's rig ever need be "out of date" no matter how old the serial number. Gary gets rigs to "fix", but as far as possible the idea is for the builder to fix it so he/she knows what happened and how to fix similar issues in the future. Elecraft has demonstrated its commitment to ensuring that every builder who seeks help gets it to get their rigs working correctly. I've had the privilege of watching that process up close and it's impressive to see the attention and effort given to get a builder's issues fixed quickly. For those who are on the Internet (remember, some Hams don't mess with computers) this reflector has always been the first place to go and most of the problems are solved right here by the members of the list. When a member does offer an idea, posting the message to the list instead of sending it direct is important so everyone can see it. That's how others can learn. It also saves the bandwidth of the same question being asked again and again. Of course, Don, W3FPR, is almost always right there with an answer and suggestion based on his huge experience and knowledge of the Elecraft products. Frankly, I get a kick out of noticing a question on a subject I know about but which Don hasn't responded to yet and answering it, then I check back later to see if Don had anything to add to my answer. Don's sort of the pinnacle of Elecraft kit knowledge we all can strive to reach, and probably won't, Hi! But anyone who has an answer or a question is encouraged to post it. There's an old saying that I've always found to be true: we teach what we most need to learn. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- Elecraft, best we can figure, does not have a "Service Department", or at least discourages builders from using it. It's sort of a do-it-yourself repair process. I've read hints, on the list, of those who had sent in their K2's for service and alignments. But when I asked Elecraft that question - the answer was no. A recent post indicated perhaps 1/2 of the K2's out there, could be mis or poorly aligned, an important process. There may be rentable builders out there who will do such work, not sure. For straight out repairs .... don't know. As Don says, they are fairly easy to re-repair, especially if one is the original successful builder. Fred, FL N3CSY _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
