Julian, I think Elecraft have realised they are into completely new ball
game with the K3. There are probably thousands of FT1k, FT2k, Kenwood,
Icom etc owners who will want to change to the K3, purely because it is
a better radio, but who will have no interest in any DIY aspect. They
will expect the kind of warranty and after-service they would get when
buying those radios.
I think the K2 brought in a step-change. Some of us newer owners found
satisfaction in building the kit first, but the ultimate reason was for
a better radio and there are a lot of owners who have purchased
pre-built/owned K2s purely for that purpose. The K3 then enables these
people to purchase a brand new radio and I suspect many will not want to
assemble it themselves, and therfroe will require warranty and service.
For me, I was impressed with the fact that the Voodoo Contesters, a
consistently leading CQWW CW contest group changed to K2s, and several
of the ops also use them for dexpeditions also, but haven't gone through
the loop of assembly it themselves. I saw one for the first time the
week before Dayton last year and purchased my K2/100/SSB/160 kit at
Dayton. I gained immense pleasure out of building it, but only had
slight pangs of sadness when the new owner collected it last week. I am
moving to K3 purely because I think it is even a better radio for my
purpose, ie multi and single op contesting on CW and SSB, low band dxing
and very occasional /P work. I am keeping my FT1kMP as the 2nd radio for
SO2R and MO contesting as I feel its is better ergonomically and ahs
better skirt slectivity with its Inrad roofing and IF filters.
73 Chris G3SJJ
Julian G4ILO wrote:
On 7/9/07, Thom LaCosta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Strongly suggest you call your issuing bank to confirm that
they offer that benefit. You might be surprized by the number
and "reputation" of the banks that do not.
When they tell me they don't offer it, I simply tell them I
will use their card for gasoline and other products that
do not have warranties that can be extended.
Surprising to see "consumer" issues raising their heads here.
I would have thought people would want to order a K3 because:
a) it's exciting to be one of the first to have a new radio;
b) knowing the guys behind it, you can be confident that any problems
will be sorted out eventually; and
c) If the worst comes to the worst, we're hams, we can try to fix it
ourselves.
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