Five years ago - almost to the day - I attended my first (and, thus far, only) DX convention in Visalia. Barely a week or two before heading for the convention, I had delivered my unbuilt K2 kit to W4DAS for construction. I saw on the Elecraft web site that the visually impaired hams had volunteers for building the radio. I didn't qualify for that - I was just frightened of what I could do with a soldering iron! So, I drove down to Doug's place of work and dropped everything off, including some funds to pay for the construction.
When I got to Visalia, it wasn't very long until I wandered into the room where most of the vendors had set up shop. Lo and behold, there was the K3. Damn! Picked up a brochure and wandered away, disgruntled and disappointed that my brand-new K2 was already obsolete. Fast forward.... Obviously, my K2 was *not* rendered obsolete. When I returned from the trip, I drove back down the turnpike to Doug's place and picked up my newly built K2. Doug was very much (and apparently still is) an Elecraft "groupie" (I write that as a complimentary term) and can often be found at ham gatherings somewhere in or around the Elecraft booth. He asked me if I had seen the new K3. I expressed my chagrin that I barely got my K2 and here was the K3. My analysis was that the K2 looked very much like it was built from a kit, while the K3 looked very much like a professionally manufactured rig. Needless to say, it wasn't very long before the specs (and the slobbering began!) convinced many users the K3 was the state-of-the-art rig for many of them. Events following that point are well-known. It wasn't too long before I also ordered my K3 (a friend semi-shamed me into ordering the kit - and I was glad he did!) and found a buyer for my K2 - wish I hadn't, but.... Like my friend, Doug, from that point I've been an Elecraft "drink the kool-aid" guy. Despite five terrific years having elapsed between the K3 and the KX3, one can only hope it's just another chapter in a long, long book. To Wayne, Eric and a great staff, it's been a great ride and the amusement park is still growing! Art - N4PJ On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 11:34 AM, NZ0T <nz0t...@gmail.com> wrote: > Elecraft would be a great case study for graduate level business students. > Way back in the '70's when I was studying for my MBA we used Winnebago as a > case study but Elecraft is much, much more interesting plus being a heck of > a lot more positive then learning how Winnebago handled the fuel cost > crisis > of the 70's. > > 73 Bill NZ0T > > -- > View this message in context: > http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/A-Success-Story-tp7505878p7506536.html > Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > ______________________________________________________________ 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
