I consider the K3S to be what Gordon Bell called a “mid-life kicker”. That is a technology upgrade with small changes to the design. It extends the life of a product without the cost of a major redesign. It can be a very smart move.
For example, the VAX-11/785 was the same as the VAX-11/780, but built with a faster logic family so it was 50% faster. That is a pure example—a DEC spokesman called it “bug for bug compatible”. This is the section on “mid-life kickers” from a long chapter by Bell, Mudge, and McNamara about technology and product strategy. https://books.google.com/books?id=SDOoBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=gordon+bell+mid-life+kicker&source=bl&ots=qrJ7DM7xPt&sig=YZyqZTRujNvDkGTgPQffOUv2UBo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjI6fGJkJDbAhWHO48KHVSyCWUQ6AEwAHoECAEQKg#v=onepage&q=gordon%20bell%20mid-life%20kicker&f=false And of course, you stay on top by obsoleting your own stuff before your competitors do that. wunder K6WRU Walter Underwood CM87wj http://observer.wunderwood.org/ (my blog) > On May 18, 2018, at 1:41 PM, Jim Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > > When your topline rig are is at or near the top of Rob Sherwood's list of the > best receivers and of the cleanest CW transmitters tested by ARRL, and your > super-portable rigs give most desktop rigs a run for their money on > performance, and when you've got first-rate power amps at the 100w, 500W, and > 1,500W level, it's hard to justify the argument for a new transceiver. > > 73, Jim K9YC > > On 5/18/2018 1:07 PM, Peter Pauly wrote: >> I asked Eric if there were any new products and he said just the new amp >> and the little portable antenna. >> >> On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 3:36 PM, mark roz via Elecraft < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Wow. No K4 at Dayton? > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [email protected]
