Having dealt in the past with tech support from Yaesu and Icom, and now enjoying the incredibly better support that Elecraft offers, I have three observations:
1. With any of the Japanese manufacturers, your ONLY option is to ship to the factory. If it's under warranty, you void the warranty if you do anything to the rig, even just removing the cover in some cases. Out of warranty, shipping to the factory is still your only reasonable recourse. With Elecraft, through a combination of outstanding Elecraft communication and support mindset, and this user group, there's at least an opportunity to fix a problem on your own. If the issue is damaged SMD components or a damaged board trace, then it's back to the factory, obviously, but for many problems, users have obtained the guidance to fix it themselves. The modularity of the K3 is also helpful; you can remove one board and keep the rest of the rig in your shack. Yaesu turnaround, in my experience, was 4 to 6 weeks, and I live only 30 miles from their US repair facility in Orange County, CA. Score: Elecraft 1, Big Boys 0. 2. Elecraft monitors this group closely, and responds at lightning speed when issues arise. For example, if somebody flags a bug in the K3 Utility program or in firmware, it's typically fixed and a revised version made available in days, or even hours. Yaesu and Icom (and I presume Kenwood) presumably monitor their equivalent discussion groups, but they NEVER, EVER participate in the discussion, and never respond to anything posted on the groups. Score: Elecraft 2, Big Boys 0. 3. Elecraft documentation makes it far easier to identify and fix problems than any documentation I've seen on any ham radio equipment since Heathkit was in business. With modern micro-scale technologies, repairs aren't as easy as they might have been on Heathkits, but we're not in Kansas any more, (or Benton Harbor, to be more accurate). Score: Elecraft 3, Big Boys 0. In the World Cup competition, a 1-0 lead usually wins, 2-0 is insurmountable and 3-0 is a slaughter. Same is true here. Nobody's perfect, but Elecraft comes as close to perfection as we're all likely to see before we become SK and go to Ham Radio Heaven. Lew K6LMP ______________________________________________________________ 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
