On 5/19/10 18:35 , Gregg wrote:
Exactly Bruce. I just don't understand why these companies don't do it
right the first time. IMO- both the 398/909 and the DX394 were
basically nothing I could use when I bought them new and actually I
thought there wouldn't be much of a difference, but what a difference
those receivers are now with all the mods.



Products like these radios are manufactured to a price point. To
keep a profit in the line, every shortcut that can be taken, must
be. The end product is usually a shade of its potential self.

Peter G, here, has often recommended some staightforward upgrades
to receivers that include swapping diodes, and making mods to
circuitry that cost the end user little, and could well have been
done at the beginning, during manufacture. But we don't know what
decisions are made by the manufacturer to keep the product at its
price point. Or, if compromises are not made, what the actual cost
differential may be.

Parts sources dry up, some parts are discontinued, and
replacements must be found. In a lot of cases, manufacturers take a
shortcut such as found in your 398/909, and the dreadful DX394, and
avoid more advanced designs or using some types of part in the first
place, both to facilitate a long production cycle, and to retain the
price point.

There was a discussion in this newsgroup about 15 years, ago
about a function that was missing from a radio, I don't recall
which, but the solution was the addition of a single switch. Which
many users had done. After much talk, and many complaints, someone
from the manufacturer jumped in and said that they were aware that
the solution was simple, but that adding the switch at the
manufacturing stage would add another $100 to the price of the
radio. And then explained why. So the decision had been made to
retain the current product design, and let users make the mod
themselves.

The hard reality is that if all desigin compromises were
eliminated at the manufacturers' end, that 909 would cost about the
same as an RX 350. As it is, you can do the mods yourself and save
about $900.