RadioBanter - View Single Post - NPRM

July 24th 05, 01:15 AM

wrote:
wrote:

I knew I'd coax you outta yer lair when I tossed that one out.

I suspect that if
somebody put the effort into pulling together the actual
facts they'd
find that the total number of manufacturers in the ham
radio market is
higher today than it's ever been in the past.

Well, let's see...

Back in the '60s we had Collins, Drake, National,
Hallicrafters, Hammarlund, Gonset, Heath, Swan, Johnson...

.. . . five dollar 12V ARC-5 Jeep radios . . . or were they 6V?

and that's about it for major manufacturers of ham gear
that lasted more than a few years and made more than a
few products. Even in the above list there were limitations
because many of the above did not offer a complete line (EFJ
made mostly transmitters, for example).

Today we have Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, TenTec, Alinco, Standard,
Elecraft, SGC, and maybe a few more. But see below.

.. . . yeah, OK so far . . .

. . . Within ham radio Hallicrafters, Swan, National,
Hammarlund, Drake and Heath simply evaporated with barely a
trace left . . .

Yep. In some cases it was that the founder had died or retired, and the
company wasn't able to adjust to the new market reality.

Founders exits aside it was the "adjusting to the new market realities"
which knocked out the U.S. radio builders. GM is still trying to catch
up with Honda. Darwin prevails.

. . . Collins offered only two basics routes a ham could use to get
on the HF
bands with their gear at any given point in time. One xcvr and one pair
of separates. Period. Ditto Drake and for the most part Heath
too.

Drake and Heath had slightly more elaborate product lines - but not by
much. The point is still valid, though. The variety of new rigs today
is amazing.

Not even a discussion.

Here's a game: Look up all the "100 watt class" HF rigs available today
(mid 2005). Compare to what was available 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago.
I bet today's variety is the largest.

Not even a discussion

Not counting all the HF mobile rigs and the equipment being
developed in various skunk works.

*And* not counting the enormous variety of clean, late-model used
equipment that is still very much usable. Take TenTec - if an Orion is
too much and you don't like the Jupiter, there's the Omni 6 in various
flavors, its predecessor the Omni V, the Pegasus, the Paragon, and the
Corsair 2, among others.

Well yeah, scarfing up used gear to get more bang for the buck has been
a ham tradition going back into the mists of time long before either of
us came about.

The other night I saw an ad for the Kenwood TS-520 in a 1975 QST. $629.
That was back in the days when a new car was less than $4000 and
starting salary for a degreed engineer was maybe $12,000.

Sounds low to me because most of my classmates started for $9-10k right
out of school in 1963. I started for $7,600 for the gummint which was
quite low then.

Or look at the SB-101 from the mid 1960s. $369 for the rig, almost
another hundred for the power supply, CW filter and speaker. Say $450 -
for a kit! What's that in today's dollars?

Beats me but the point is there.

73 de Jim, N2EY

w3rv