In article
,
D Peter Maus wrote:

Telamon wrote:
In article
,
D Peter Maus wrote:


wrote:

This is probably nothing, but I noticed that Universal has deleted
the message that once used to be on its R-75 ad, stating that the
R-75 is discontinued. I then went to the Icom America website, and
noticed that the R-75 is there, even though I seem to recall its
having been removed at one point.

Is there more to this than I think?

Steve



That's a good question. And one that bears investigating.

In the last few years, a number of the major manufacturers of
desktops have exited, or threatened to exit, the market. At least
in North America. AOR withdrew 7030 and its variants from the US
market. Icom announced the discontinuation of R-75. Drake appears
to have left the building. Yeasu had announced that it had gigged
the Frog.

And yet, FRG-100B appears to be alive and well. AOR returned
7030+ to North America, and R-75's demise appears to be on hold.


It may be that with declining competition, some manufacturers
are
rethinking their product life cycles. In the case of Icom, they're
still in production with a wide range of radio gear, some popular
HF ham gear included. With the appropriate economies of scale,
production of R-75 in a competition reduced market could remain
profitable.


Has anyone contacted Bellevue for a definitive position on R-75?


Maybe they did one last production run.




That's a good thought. And it's possible that Japan hasn't really
been clear with Retail. If you'll recall when R-75 was released, I
mentioned here a conversation with an ICOM rep I'd had at a ham show
in which the rep said that complaints as echoed here about R-75's
sync detector had been heard loud and clear in the hallowed halls.
And that there were, indeed, revisions coming. And that the case
clearly contained space for future hardware developments. Additional
conversations with other ICOM reps repeated these details.

But no such revisions have been forthcoming, to date.

Conversations I've had with Bellevue, over the years, have
indicated that they really don't know what the hell Japan is doing.

So, your thought is as good as any.

Oh! So they might actually fix it. That is good news. If it get fixed
right I might buy one. It would have to be offered with some filter
options good SWBC listening for me to consider it.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California