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Old August 7th 07, 10:36 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
Duncan Duncan is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Feb 2007
Posts: 20
Default degan/kaito 1103

On 7 Aug, 04:52, American Insurgent wrote:
On Aug 6, 3:12 pm, Stephan Grossklass
wrote:



M Peraaho schrieb:


Yes Degen/Tecsun are the same company see:


www.degen.com.cn/english/info.asp


They only share the same office for overseas business, but the
headquarters are located in different towns:http://www.tecsun.com.cn/english/index.htm
So I insist that these are two separate companies. I vaguely remember
something about Degen having been founded by former Tecsun folks,
however. Degen's production techniques and products seem to be quite a
bit less oldschool than Tecsun's (which seem to involve a lot of things
getting done by hand).


Stephan
--
Home:http://stephan.win31.de/
Team Mostly Harmless


Tecsun is largely an operation of the Communist Party. It's hard to
get more oldschool than that. I imagine that Tecsun is operated
similar to the collective farms, where the CCP tries to overcome lack
of technology through brute force, such as armies of peasants knee
deep in rice paddies tending the crops. There is little incentive to
change the system because it keeps the people from rebelling by
keeping them occupied.

The functionaries probably tolerate Degen because Degen can cut
through the red tape better than they can because it keeps the Party
at arm's length. There's probably a certain amount of admiration on
the part of the hacks. Any other company finds itself largely shut
out, at least when it comes to shortwave radios, because China
considers shortwave to be vital to keeping the peasants in line. Most
Chinese peasants cannot afford satellite TV, and FM coverage is out of
the question for much of the country, so shortwave is it.

Sangean has largely died on the vine, and Sony has moved on to greener
pastures. Other Chinese radio makers exist, but shortwave is a no go
area for them, because of its strategic importance to the Party. Even
though Degen is tolerated, it has fewer resources than Tecsun, and is
largely unknown outside China except among SW aficionados.

SW may seem hugely unimportant to Americans, but to the Chinese
Communists it's everything, thus they control it. Tecsun dominates the
US shortwave market, even though few Americans notice. The Party sees
increasing shortwave listeners in America as a good way to convert
people to its point of view. CRI blankets America with quality
signals, and Tecsun's Eton line of radios is easy to find. Eton
advertises heavily in Passport, likely keeping it alive. Mao may have
been mad, but he always had a method behind it.


I rather like CRI; much better than the vast majority of American SW
stations I receive which are always sod-awful Christian ones. I once
answered a request from one of these to provide a reception report and
now am bombarded with ridiculous begging emails from them. Can't see
CRI doing this to mailbox respondents.

To me it is clear which continent is trying hardest to 'convert
listeners to its point of view'.

And long live the DE1103!