That makes zero sense.
What are you going to make a "Lifetime Buy" on? A synth? A front
panel? A tuner? You might as well buy a second (or third) rig since
you don't have a clue what might fail in the future, and if you buy all
those things separately (or worse yet the individual components that go
into them) you better plan on working an extra year or so before retiring.
By the way, I spent my career in the semiconductor business (operations
manager) and I can say with great authority that many discontinued
devices had no business being offered for sale in the first place.
Companies (not just mine) would often develop a new product line and bin
sort for different ranges of performance. Component A might have a 30%
yield but have better specs than Component B that had a 90+% yield.
Component A would get designed into more demanding applications and sell
for a higher price, while Component B was higher volume, sold for less,
and essentially subsidized the yields for Component A. That worked fine
until somebody decided they wanted a LOT of Component A, or the demand
for Component B dried up. No matter what anyone says, the market won't
simply bail you out by paying you three times more money for Component A
when you get in trouble, and after a while you have no choice but to
announce a discontinuance. I strongly suspect that's what happened to
the tight tolerance caps Elecraft used in the K1 band modules.
When I was the ops manager, I tried my best to squash that kind of
practice. Either make the process capable or face reality.
73,
Dave AB7E
On 3/7/2020 6:02 PM, Fred Jensen wrote:
You can always emulate the US Department of Defense if you'd like ...
it's called a "Lifetime Buy." When the airplane builder's contract
finally ends and he no longer is required to stock parts, the
engineers and logistics folks decide on the further lifetime of the
airplane fleet and buy enough parts to keep it flying until it will
be retired to Arizona which might be in 20 more years.
A lot of folk believe that science and engineering are the same
thing. They're not. Engineering is science coupled with economics,
logistics, mathematics, fabrication, maintenance, supply chain
management, and a host of other trade-off's, sometimes including
labor relations and law. Bell Labs "invented" the transistor.
Companies like TI, Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Motorola, and AMD
put them in the marketplace and they get to stop making them when
something better comes along. See if you can find a Moto 68000
replacement for your old Mac. [:=)
My K3 is S/N 642, and has been upgraded multiple times. I think it's
about 10 years old and I think Elecraft has done a very good job
compared to what the other guys do. I'm a little in awe that
Elecraft has been in business long enough now for the inevitable to
be happening.
73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County
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