Well, over the years Elecraft has solicited input as to features and new products. I think this continues to be a great idea. And we have been surprised a few times about a new product that did more than we had anticipated. An example is the XG-3. Some of us pushed for a 6-band signals source. But what we got was way beyond that.
I like their way of thinking. I believe giving our input as to what we would like is a good marketing practice. Because others have viable products does not mean there still isn't a market for something that goes above and beyond what is currently available or fits a particular nitch market at a profit. Am I still interested in something like the KPA1500 that was displayed several years ago at Dayton even though I have a very nice 1500W tube amp? You betcha. But I want it to be in my basement and operate it remotely from the shack either with a hardware or software remote controller. And I want it rock solid like my tube amp. Instant on is a nice feature. I want a remote "K3-0/KX3" so I can throw it in my brief case to operate my home station when I am traveling on business and sitting in a hotel room. But I want it self-contained with everything in one case so I don't have to haul a bunch of stuff around - almost empty box, remote controller, walwart. I want to be able to plug in a keyboard in my P3 to operate digital modes with the screen displaying the decoded signals and my transmitted info. Maybe this one isn't too far off? Also would want an improved KRC-X that would control manually and automatically all of my antennas from the K3. And I would want to select two different banks of antennas using the front panel ANT switch. This way on any band the KRC-X would automatically select a particular antenna I had programmed. And if I had a second antenna on a particular band I could select that from the front panel ANT switch on the K3. Trying to keep things focused on the K3 so I don't have to be moving hands around and possibly making mistakes when changing bands in a contest or DXing. Maybe stack KRC-X's so you can toggle though banks of antennas if you have more than two antennas per band? Got in my wish list :-) 73, N2TK, Tony -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jim Brown Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2012 5:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Elecraft] Elecraft's Business Model On 2/25/2012 1:04 PM, Oliver Dröse wrote: > But what do monitors/displays have to do with amateur radios/transceivers? The key here is that products that are high volume items that can be sold to a very large market are CHEAP because they are built and sold in very high quantities. This means that design, manufacturing, sales, and support costs can be spread over hundreds of thousands of pieces rather than the 5,000 or so that is typical of a popular ham radio rig. It is also true that mass market products are sold with very low mark-ups over their cost. For these reasons alone, it is pointless for Elecraft to manufacture or market anything in product categories for which high quality products can be bought in the mass market. This includes products like microphones, headsets, computer monitors, and so on. We can buy CM500 headsets for $40-$50 -- Elecraft would have to add $20 or so to that cost to sell it to us, and they still wouldn't be making money on it. It also does not make sense for Elecraft to build products in categories that are well covered by other high quality manufacturers. One big reason that there IS a KPA500 is that Alpha does not sell a 500W amp. Another is most other 500W amps aren't great. And Elecraft is building the KAT500 because other options in that product category either aren't so great or that the KAT500 can provide much better integration with the KPA500. 73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ 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
