Olli, I have personal experience in the past of how popular weak signal work on 2m is in Europe. Judging from QST columns there is also a lot of 2m dxing on the U.S. East Coast. So, there is definitely a significant market for good V/U gear, but I cannot judge whether it is big enough by itself to be profitable. My current personal perspective is a little different. My QTH is in Arizona. Look at the diagrams of VHF DX QSO paths in QST. Almost never does such a QSO involve Arizona. It must be the Rocky Mountains acting as a barrier. I have decent 2m weak signal gear, but in practice it is quite useless because there is noone to qso with, at least until the day I make a serious effort at moonbounce. Not suggesting that my situation is typical of the prospective market for a V/U rig, but I could not justify the purchase by the V/U capability alone. On the other hand, if the rig were a fully functional K3/10 capable of being my all-band HF backup rig, then I could see maybe buying an optional, high performance internal transverter or two as upgrades. It would have to be high performance and high flexibility, not forcing me into single feedline or RF switching of the mast mounted preamp. I reject the latter because it usually limits max power, and maybe just because I am old school. The rig might even have enhancements in the area of frequency accuracy, although today's K3 already looks good in that respect. The transverters would definitely need to put out enough power to drive kilowatt amplifiers.
73, Erik K7TV -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Oliver "Olli" Dröse Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2011 1:04 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3V - another new product speculation > That is an extremely small market. There is a reason the rigs you > mentioned are no longer around. Serious ops go the transverter route. The problem is that there are NO good VHF/UHF radios anymore! That's why the serious OPs MUST go the transverter route. Believe me, there's quite some market in Europe for really good VHF&up equipment. We have a high population density here with lots of active stations. Especially during contests were the big guns do > 1.000 QSOs alone on 2 m in a 24 h contest. Ever wondered why companies like DB6NT technologies can sell monoband 20 W transverters for 1.400 EUR? Because there is demand for extra-ordinary performance. To my mind a "K3V" incl. 10, 6, 2 m with 100 W, crossband capability (satellites) and with optional internal 70 & 23 cm and 4 m modules would be a really good seller as long as it could be produced for a price as the stock K3 + 100 W amp ranges today. But surely the market is smaller than that for a K3 as is today. External transverters are rather a pain, again some extra boxes, cabling needed, a.s.o., not really portable/mobile friendly. Put it all into one package and it will be a real plus. Unfortunately this will never happen, I fear. :-(( Vy 73, Olli - DH8BQA ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
