Folks, I am sure we all wish that supply at Elecraft was conveniently equal
to demand. Order a K3 today, and have it by the end of the week or so.
Clearly that isn't the case. I don't profess to know just how sophisticated
Elecraft's market analysis is, but I'm relatively sure they aren't doing any
exotic market surveys either. They are a small company with a big product!
Also, I have no idea how they are evaluating just how much they can/will
ramp up production. Doing so is expensive for one thing. It also adds
greater complexity to the organization, particularly if that includes adding
staff. I'm reasonably sure they don't want to increase staff only to reduce
staff later. Some of that may be necessary, but it gets very sticky making
those kinds of moves. Training new employees to get them up to an
acceptable level of productivity, and then dropping them later, really
hammers the bottom line.
Personally, I would have expected the wait time to have decreased more than
it has. But it hasn't gone down as much as I thought it would, and that
suggests to me that K3 demand remains relatively strong--even 1 year later.
I can only assume that it has surprised Wayne and Eric a bit too. Although
all of us can fuss and complain about the wait time, it's really their
product, and they are presumably doing what they think is right. Whether
they are dealing with it correctly or not, it's their decision, not ours.
So we just need to grin and bear it. That doesn't mean that allowing the
"wheel to squeek" a bit won't encourage some positive response from them,
but generally I think there will only be limited success in doing so.
I think the best thing to do is to try and view all of this positively. By
proceeding on a "conservative" path, Elecraft is hopefully minimizing
screw-ups, not to mention protecting the company's viability. The longer
they can sustain strong demand, the longer you have assurance that they will
be around to help you keep their products running. Dealing with smaller
companies can be somewhat risky. If they run out of demand, or ideas, or
both, they tend to disappear. You don't have to think very long to come up
with a bunch of names of companies like this who met an abrupt demise.
If you don't like that suggestion, consider this one. I think the strong
demand for the K3 would have easily enabled Elecraft to raise prices even
more than they did. That would have probably have helped lower demand
closer to supply, and they could later offer some "blue light" specials to
prop up demand when it started waning. But they didn't do that--yet! So,
even though I'm a bit frustrated about some things just like most of you
are, I think I'll keep my complaints muzzled a bit. Besides, few if any of
us have all the facts anyway. We have no idea what all the issues are that
Elecraft is dealing with. We are all just a bunch of "sidewalk
superintendents", and what we think should be simple may well be just the
opposite. In truth, I think a lot of our frustration is enhanced by the
knowledge that the K3 is a great product with superior product support. We
want it! Now! We don't want to go for the closest alternative. We just
don't like dilemmas.
Dave W7AQK
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