Very good assessment, Roger. The 269 was designed during days when the PIC was king. While it does a lot of functions, it¡¯s not easy for the end-user to cal.
You Kits as a company can¡¯t keep any reliable production schedule, even before Covid-19 hit the supply chain. They only manufacture sporadically. (I¡¯ve been waiting fo over a year for their qrp watt meter to come back into stock.) That¡¯s why MFJ quit being their worldwide distributor.
RE has its own domestic issues right now so I won¡¯t comment there. Documentation is a weakness.
The SARK 110 device is useful, easy to cal and update firmware, but is very small physically.
Frank
K4FMH
Frank K4FMH