I wrote that statement, Jim: I'm just stating my opinion that, in the big picture, the price point for the KPA500 seems a bit on the high side for what you get. Now seeing photos, its certainly better looking than my ALS600. And the build quality is probably better than my Ameritron product, but for that power level, and taking into account the value of my time if I had to build it, the cost is a bit high in my opinion.
I'm not in this to have a pretty shack to impress my friends with lots of lights, gingerbread and ham status symbols. If I were into that, I would take out a 2nd mortgage and buy a 7800/PW1. :) Maybe I'm "cheap", maybe not. After all, I do own a rather well equipped K3. But with two kids in college and a mortgage payment in today's economy, what I have does an admirable job. I did have to do "final QC" on my ALS600, and I did have to integrate a band decoder to it to switch bands from the radio, and I did have to install Phil AD5X's marvelous little QSK board, but the K3/ALS600/MFJ998 combination I currently operate does exactly what it needs to do with little fuss and surprisingly high reliability at a very reasonable price point. While its true that you get what you pay for, as I used to say when I was in TV and purchased EFP cameras instead of the 5 times more expensive studio versions of the same thing for my station. "Nobody at home can see the difference". It would be nice to have a matching amp and panadapter to go with my K3. The Panadapter is well priced for what you get, what it is, and for its computer-less feature set, and I will probably end up with one of those next year. The KPA500, in my personal environment, is not. Again, my opinion, and your mileage will indeed vary. Matching boxes are not high on my priority list because, well, "You cant hear the difference at home". -lu-w4lt- Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:59:58 -0700 From: "Jim Brown" <j...@audiosystemsgroup.com> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] News from Visalia! (:-)) To: "Elecraft" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Message-ID: <20100419170000.2a58c58...@gw1.nlenet.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:16:58 -0400, Terry Posey wrote: >ALS600 with the Linear Power supply, AD5X Full Break In mod and an >external bandswitching accessory plus an MFJ998 would come in considerably >under the $2,000 price. Do I understand that you are equating MFJ with Elecraft? That's quite a stretch! While I have great respect for W8JI's engineering, that does not extend to MFJ's manufacturing, and Ameritron has common ownership with MFJ. :) I can also buy at least twenty different models of 100 watt HF transceiver for much less than the cost of a K3. Yet I OWN two K3s. I just returned from Visalia. The exhibit hall included large booths showing Icom and Yaesu rigs. The Elecraft booth was JAMMED from the minute the doors opened until they closed. The Yaesu and Icom booths had only modest traffic, and were oftn next to deserted. 73, Jim K9YC No virus found in this outgoing message Checked by PC Tools AntiVirus (6.1.0.25 - 6.14780). http://www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/ ______________________________________________________________ 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
