"Alan Dye" wrote in message
m...
Hello All,

First Yaesu discontinued the FRG-100
Then Icom discontinued the IC-r75
Then Drake discontinued the R-8B

All within the last two years.

Two questions:

If a person wanted a decent tabletop in the $500-900 range and didn't want
the Grundig boom-box model what would he get?

Secondly, why are they all being discontinued?

Alan

(Copied from a preious responce of mine on another thread, but on target
here)

For the most part, listeners in third world countries tune in to get news
and
information. They aren't into it for any "hobby" appeal. They just want
the info that they couldn't get otherwise. It would go to reason that third
world listeners wouldn't be in the market for rigs like the R8b, IC-R75 or
NRD-545. They would be well served with a capable and economical portable
like the ones being churned out in China by Degen. As far as most of the
western/modern world is concerned, with internet and satellite
communications widely available, sw listening for content is a second string
medium. It is less reliable and it is always of a lesser quality as far as
the clarity of the transmission. It is true, however unlikely that the
internet could go down and satellite com could be interrupted for any one of
a number of reasons. If that does occur, you can count on it coming back up
in a fairly short time. Not to mention, solar occurrences that are intense
enough to wipe out satellite communications would also wipe out hf
propagation. So, for getting information of all kinds, you dont have to
worry about needing a pricy tabletop sw rig. It isn't 1920-1980 any longer.
For the most part, the only ones left in the western/modern world who want
an expensive sw tabletop rigs are hobbyists like us. So, I can see why
fewer and fewer manufacturers are sticking with making tabletop sw radios.

Michael