Date
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K3/K3S Options Last time buy UPDATE
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K3 & K3S Options Last Time Buy Update (12/02/2022)
I apologize for the delay getting this info out to everyone. (See my final comments below after the status section for more info on what has caused much of the delay.)
First - The current K3 & K3S option status. The following boards are now in process, and should ship close to these dates ranges if there are no new parts issues or surprise manufacturing delays.
P3TXMON 6-8 weeks
K3EXREF 8 weeks
KAT3A: 8 weeks
KDVR3 8 weeks
KPA3A 6-8 weeks
KIO3B 8-9 weeks
KSYN3A 8 weeks
KBPF3A 8 weeks
KXV3B 6-8 weeks
K144XV and K144RFLK 7-10 days
We've completed building an additional batch of K144XV 2M options and we're finishing up the matching K144RFLK lock boards, which lock the K144XV's frequency to the K3's reference oscillator.
We'll be contacting the remaining customers for these two items in order to confirm shipping information (and collect the other half of the funds due for shipping and those who made a half deposit.)
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Remaining 3 Last time Buy items:
P3: Still seeing long parts delays from Analog devices and Microchip.
P3SVGA: Still seeing long parts delays from Intel (FPGA) and Microchip (uC).
K3/0 Mini: Microchip (uC) delays plus qualifying second sources on several other parts. We are also evaluating our demo stock of K3/0 Minis to see if that can help with regular orders or our wait-list orders.
We will update everyone on these last three items as we get new information.
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General comments:
We've been navigating a wide range of parts and manufacturing issues these past months. The K3 Options suffered in focus as we first had to keep our primary product lines rolling out the door to you. (K4s, KX-Line, Amps (100, 500 and 1500W) etc.) We've been successful sourcing parts for these primary products and keeping them shipping :-) , but its taken way more focus and effort that anyone expected..
We've also had to contend with one of our key circuit board assembly subcontractors becoming unavailable after being sold to another company. (All of our boards are built in the U.S.) That resulted in our other assembly subcontractors becoming overloaded. Fortunately we have now qualified and brought on-line several new U.S. circuit board assembly companies with excellent results. In addition to smoothing our regular production, this has made it possible to get our focus back on the K3 Options.
We will be posting updates these products as they each get closer to shipping.
Thank you again for your patience. 73,
Eric WA6HHQ |
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Thanks all for your contributions.
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Kent, can't blame you for being a patriot or being an Elecraft-groupie, but let's face the truth. While ordering this module, to validate the deal, I HAD to pay or the order was simply not placed. As amount was low I didn't mind. So to be exact, I chose to order, but consequently was positively made to pay. And in practice amount is not in escrow. Debited from my VISA. Proof below: Convinced? 73
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Apologies for the delays (in production, due to the supply chain, and in responding, due to dealing with the supply chain). Eric will be posting an update soon.
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Wayne N6KR On Nov 28, 2022, at 7:29 PM, Kent Trimble, K9ZTV <k9ztv@...> wrote: |
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Kent Trimble, K9ZTV
I feel for ya, Christian, but let's use the proper word. Nobody "made" you pay anything. You "chose" to do so. And, like everyone else who chose that particular ordering option, you undoubtedly did so based on sound reasoning cogent at that time. But neither you, nor Elecraft, nor God Almighty himself could have foreseen all that has transpired over the last two years.
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Moreover, your money is NOT in their wallets, it's in escrow. Elecraft will readily refund your prepayment upon request. Lastly, K4 orders no longer require any deposits. 73, Kent K9ZTV On Nov 28, 2022, at 6:16 PM, Christian F1GWR <f1gwr.groups@...> wrote: |
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W2XJ
Are you following what’s happening in China?
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On November 28, 2022 1:59 PM Christian F1GWR <f1gwr.groups@...> wrote: |
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+1 on Jim's comments. Many companies and industries are having similar challenges. Take Ford Motor Company as one example. Last February I needed to buy a 1-ton pickup truck. Nothing close to my features locally. So, I said, "fine, I'm willing to go anywhere on the west coast". I called all the largest Ford truck dealers in CA, AZ, NV and OR. These are dealers that normally stock several hundred trucks. Only a very few 2022 units were available and also very few late model used ones. None were anywhere close to my vineyard needs. Most were 4-door, short bed vehicles for towing RVs. Unfulfilled orders from back to September 2021 were due to the widespread microchip shortage. Ford had over 50,000 trucks sitting in acres of lots waiting for chips. New trucks were essentially unavailable. With a stroke of luck, a late model pristine truck came into a dealer up near the OR border just as I was on the phone with a salesperson who asked if I would consider it instead of a new one. It was 105% of my desired feature set, but with a 2-foot longer wheelbase. Mary and I jumped in the car and sped up there to potentially get it. Upon arrival we were told 3 other locals were on a wait list for it if we didn't take it. Demand was extremely high. Two weeks later, Ford stopped accepting orders for new trucks and some of their other vehicles. Dealers were marking up the few available trucks as much as $5,000 and being completely transparent about it due to demand. Since then, Ford has temporarily dropped features where they could mitigate the chip shortage. They, like Elecraft, are also redesigning for more available parts. We should all be thankful that Elecraft has figured out how to ship what they've been able to while still remaining in business. 73, Ed W0YK P.S. I'm on the K3 module list for a number of items and just as frustrated with the delay as everyone else, including Elecraft. -------- Original message -------- From: Jim Brown <k9yc@...> Date: 11/28/22 16:34 (GMT-08:00) To: Elecraft-K3@groups.io Subject: Re: [Elecraft-K3] K3/K3S Options Last time buy UPDATE > Let me say this: it is definitely disrecpect and bad business. To such an extent that this becomes suspicious regarding the company's viability. Your suspicions are not justified. The pandemic caused massive problems with supplies of all kinds that are needed to build things, and this has improved for some parts, others are still in short supply, still have long lead times. And to make matters MUCH worse, some parts are discontinued, and in some cases, their replacement requires some redesign! One of my neighbors is an engineer at Elecraft (the company is about 30 miles from me). His major task is dealing with supply chain issues. As a wise man once told me in my youth, "the other guy's job always looks easier," and in my 81 years, I've observed MANY examples of this in all sorts of occupations, businesses, and industry. 73, Jim K9YC |
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Jim Brown
On 11/28/2022 10:59 AM, Christian F1GWR wrote:
Let me say this: it is definitely disrecpect and bad business. To such an extent that this becomes suspicious regarding the company's viability.Your suspicions are not justified. The pandemic caused massive problems with supplies of all kinds that are needed to build things, and this has improved for some parts, others are still in short supply, still have long lead times. And to make matters MUCH worse, some parts are discontinued, and in some cases, their replacement requires some redesign! One of my neighbors is an engineer at Elecraft (the company is about 30 miles from me). His major task is dealing with supply chain issues. As a wise man once told me in my youth, "the other guy's job always looks easier," and in my 81 years, I've observed MANY examples of this in all sorts of occupations, businesses, and industry. 73, Jim K9YC |
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Nope money is *already* in their wallets. Since 84 weeks.
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Had to pay the full amount at ordering. Like hundreds of customers who had to wait for years. OK there where pandemia and fires, but now this is over. Let me say this: it is definitely disrecpect and bad business. To such an extent that this becomes suspicious regarding the company's viability. 73, Christian Le 28 nov. 2022 à 17:07, Kent Trimble, K9ZTV <k9ztv@...> a écrit : |
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Of course they do. Doesn't change the fact that status updates are not occurring, which are not blocked by Covid.
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On Mon, Nov 28, 2022 at 10:08 AM, Kent Trimble, K9ZTV wrote: If boxes don't go out their door, money doesn't come into their wallets. They have considerably more at stake in you getting your toys than you do. |
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Kent Trimble, K9ZTV
If boxes don't go out their door, money doesn't come into their wallets. They have considerably more at stake in you getting your toys than you do.
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73, Kent K9ZTV On Nov 28, 2022, someone wrote: |
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Yeah. No promised updates. No delivery in due time. Ordered a K3EXREF on 4/19, 2021 which is 84 weeks today!! The said 14-16 weeks, even with +/- change, are far, far away! Elecraft make America great again... 73, Christian
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Geert Jan de Groot
On may 2 Eric reported on the last time buy:
A good friend, who has ordered and paid for things like KSYN3A, P3 and some more goodies and who has not received any single notification yet, I'm asking which of the above has materialized? With the exception of group 5, everything is way past "2 may plus 14-16 weeks". I have not seen a single message "my long-awaited KFOOBAR3 showed up this week" on the reflector, and together with the stories from my friend, I worry. Where do we stand? 73, Geert Jan |
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Thanks for sharing, Nolan. That's definitely the most straightforward update yet, and really sheds light on where things stand.
And thanks to Eric for responding to the reflector with his honest assessment of the situation. Appreciatively, Tony W3FLH |
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Rene Correa, K5JX
Thanks so much for sharing.
73. Rene K5JX |
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Here is Eric's update on the Last Time Options Buy. I copied this from the Original Elecraft Reflector.
=============================================== [Elecraft] K3/K3S Options Last time buy update
Eric Swartz eric at elecraft.com
Mon May 2 02:46:48 EDT 2022
Previous message: [Elecraft] Elecraft CW Net Report
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Hi Everyone,
I apologize for not posting this update last week. It was quite busy
at Elecraft HQ, plus I had two unexpected visits to the dentist. (Lots of
fun :-)
As you know by now, the logistics and parts production shortage problems
caused by the COVID pandemic have caused huge production problems for us
and the rest of the electronics industry, car manufacturers etc. The delay
getting the K3/K3S Options status out has primarily been due to the fact
that our Elecraft production, purchasing and engineering teams, in addition
to their normal day to day tasks, they have also been heavily focused on
working together to find production quantities of parts (and alternate
parts) for our primary product lines (K4, K4D, KX2, KX3, KPA500, KPA1500,
KXPA100 etc.) This is a herculean task, with new shortages popping up
every week. Even 'confirmed' scheduled parts ordered 12 months in advance
from major distributors can suddenly not show up on time. So far we have
been successful dodging these issues, finding alternate suppliers, locating
alternate parts, buying larger quantities of hard to get parts for
inventory etc. This has kept our primary products moving out the door in
steadily increasing quantities each month, (Feb. and March were record
months) but it also has slowed us from working on finding and purchasing
all the parts for the last run of K3/K3S options. That said, we are now
focusing more directly on this and have been successful getting many of the
critical K3/K3S option parts in house. Below is our current Status.
I've initially broken the options into 5 groups with estimated shipping
dates, depending on which options we are currently focused on, parts we
already have in stock, expected parts delivery times, certainty of
acquiring parts, manufacturing time and how close we are to having all
parts for each option in house. Dates will get firmer in general as we
move forward.
We will contact customers with currently booked orders (and wait list
customers in some cases) as each option gets close to shipping. (Please
try to resist calling sales for new updates as they are heavily loaded and
will not have new K3/K3sOption information until the next update comes out.)
Group 1:
a.) K144XV will be ready to ship within the next week. (We will start
contacting customers this week).
b.) K144RFLK: 6-8 weeks if everything goes ok. This board can be
installed after the K144XV is installed. (We're working to get this one
faster, if possible.)
Group 2: (These two options received the highest quantity of orders)
a.) KSYN3A: 7-12 weeks if there are no last minute surprises. We have been
successful locating and purchasing the primary problem parts, including the
SI570, Pic processor etc.
b.)KIO3BUPKIT: 8-12 weeks
Group 3:
KXV3B, KBPF3A, P3TX Monitor, KAT3A:, KPA3A 10-14 weeks
Group 4:
K3/0-Mini, K3EXREF, KDVR3. 14-16 weeks est. This may change +/- depending
on parts deliveries and availability.
Group 5:
P3, P3SVGA: After Group 4. Working on locating several hard to get
parts. Will update with estimated ship dates in following status updates
as this becomes better defined.
I will work to post updates every 2-3 weeks as we move forward. As parts
come in we hope some items in groups 2-4 will move to shorter times.
73,
Eric WA6HHQ
*elecraft.com <http://elecraft.com>*
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-- 73 - KI5IO - Nolan K. |
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