RadioBanter - View Single Post

November 24th 05, 10:30 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors

wrote:

Where's the chassis

$20 of Korean sheet metal shaped and drilled by a firm in Africa, see
recent post

You've never done business with Africa and seen the quality of work and
the production delays when the "mail isn't working right".

knobs

Digikey

tuning caps

4-gang soviet surplus from EBay, see recent post

IF cans

toroids

Tube sockets

PC mount sockets, 50 cents each.

Xtal filter

$1 each, $5 total, see recent post

Ask for 400 of all of the above and see how quick those 'surplus'
sources go dark.

Using your figure of 20 hours I calculate that you'll clear an
income of $40 per week on 2 rigs, $60 if you work nites, if you do it
all yourself.

No, I'll be using Mexican labor for final assembly

Not for a buck an hour. Figure 4/hr for Mexican assembly labour but
you'll wind up doing this type of job on unit pricing. Add on about
15-30/hr on the stateside end to QC and align the works.

What I have to find out is determine how much someone is willing
to buy a glass rig for that delivers similar functionality as a 60's
rig,
and then determine how many people would buy for that price. At
that point, I have to work backwards to see if I can make parts,
labor, intermediate freight, and customs fees work inside the
interpolated wholesale figure.

So let me ask you... if you had the ability to buy a rig, in glass,
capable of 4 band operation where you could manually tune
and dip the amplifier, that gave you an operating range of 2000
miles on a reference dipole, AND it was built new, HOW MUCH
would you pay for that?

As a ham, anybody who tried to sell me with a pitch that suggested that
I could talk 2000 miles anytime I wanted to would be met with a red flag
in front of my checkbook. As for pushing the product onto other venues
like missionaries...maybe. There's probably a couple dozen brand names
that have gone down that same pike in the past 20 years and they don't
seem to have survived.

Ok, enough of the nay-saying. Suffice it to say you have no clue about
the costs of production or the market. You're infatuated with making a
tube xcvr for the masses on principle. That, in itself isn't a bad
thing. The results found along your route can ultimately be more
tangible than my opinions and a great resource for the next guy.

I might be interested in a 'Beta' rig for $199, post back when you get
there.

-Bill