On 1 Jul 2004 06:42:36 -0700, (N2EY) wrote:

"No Spam " No wrote in message news:ifgU75G3LLdo-pn2-6dc5RepOHFeN@localhost...
On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 16:31:34 UTC, (Michael
Black) wrote:

And I think it was other issues that got Heath out of the kit business.
there was a period when they were selling to a wide range of the public.
...
Michael VE2BVW

All reasonable points but I'm interested in what people observed
happening, not their interpretation of why it happened. You make
good points and are welcome to expand on them but I wonder how the
die-off appeared to folk who saw it happening.

Here's what I saw:

Byt the mid-1960s there was a wide selection of US-made ham gear, new,
kit and used. Surplus was still all over the place and dirt cheap. If
you knew where to look for parts, homebrewing could be done easily.

Heath stuff was OK but not in the same league as Drake or Collins.
Drake was the poor man's Collins, Heath was the poor man's Drake. Swan
was in there someplace but opinions varied widely on it, and no
serious contester or DXer used Swan stuff. Hammarlund, Hallicrafters
and National were still in business but not nearly so popular as
Collins/Drake/Heath/Swan

There were a few Japanese imported rigs, but they were generally
considered to be inferior. Some were disguised - most Lafayeete stuff
was "imported", and the popular Henry 'Tempo One' was actually a
rebadged Yaesu FT-200.

All this may seem like BA nirvana but there was one big problem: Very
few rigs did everything well.

What I mean is that most rigs lacked basic features that we take for
granted today. Consider the SB-100 - nice SSB rig, 100W, 80-10. Pretty
good on SSB. But it had no provision for a sharp CW filter, no RIT,
and no AGC off/slow/fast choice. No processor or noise blanker,
either. The later SB-101 and -102 added the sharp filter option but
kept the other problems.

Now if you spent the money for an SB-300/400 pair, you could have a
sharp CW filter and AGC selection, plus independent control of
transmit and receive freq. But no transceive-with-RIT, no processor,
no noise blanker, and you had two boxes and their interconnecting
cables.

Similar problems dogged almost all other makes and models. There was
always something left out that could have been easily incorporated,
but wasn't in the designer's vision.

Most of the ham gear outfits were not as big as we hams like to think.
In the case of Collins, ham gear was a sideline that existed in large
part because Art Collins wanted it that way. Heath sold far more
non-ham kits - we were just one division.

Most of the big names were still being run by their founders. These
folks were getting on in years by the 1960s.

Then in the '70s 'serious' Japanese ham gear began to appear. Yaesu's
FT-101 and the Kenwood TS-520 families showed up with lots of desired
features all in one box, at a reasonable price. They were almost all
solidstate, too.

What American-made setup of the time could compete with a TS-520S? It
was a 100W transceiver that covered 160-10 plus WWV. Optional CW
filter, DC supply and external VFO. AGC switch, processor, fan for the
finals, RIT, etc., etc. All in one receiver-sized box.

Heath and Drake at least tried to compete. But the Japanese had the
advantage of a head start, plus a favorable exchange rate and cheaper
labor.

Heath had the double whammy that their designs could not require
serious test gear for alignment.

The result was that the hams who bough new gear bought so much
Japanese-made and so little American made that the bottom fell out.

By the way, the old Heath Tube-Audio junque commands a premium from
the audio-nuts. I don't know why. It's not like -cough-cough-
tube SSB transceivers.

Three reasons:

1) It's hollowstate

2) It sounds pretty good as-is, and even better with a few mods.

3) It is well documented and easy to modify.

A word about tube audio vice tube (boatanchor) radio. The audio
nuts say that tube audio is superior, produces better sound.

I could give you a pile of reasons for that, but it all comes down to
one thing: What constitutes "better sound" is purely subjective.

Generally tube SSB/CW types don't claim that. I have tube radios
because they are inexpensive and I can fix them. Solid state
radios could be just as maintainable but the manufacturers make the
parts too small for me to work on. My SB-104A and SB-303 are
really tube style radios (except for the 104A's digital readout),
mostly big, cheap common parts.

They're also 30 years old. When I built my HW-2036, the parts looked
tiny. Now they look huge.

It wasn't just the economics of kits, the Hallicrafters, National,
etc were done in by something else.

They did not/could not keep up with the competition.

In the 1960's, during the ramp up to Incentive Licensing, Wayne
Green was blustering and pounding the table about how Japan, which
was toying with both no-code and a low-barrier licenses, would
produce millions of engineers and technicians, Their skills would
design and build products that would dominate ham radio and
eventually electronics.

Wayne was and is full of it.

Japan has had no-code-test ham radio since 1952, when their government
took over the licensing from the occupation government. They got away
with it because of some creative interpretation of the treaty.

They have never had "low barrier" licenses - their written tests are
and were quite involved. Licensing beyond the 4th class required code
tests in both International Morse and Katakana.

While other factors contributed to the die-off, there is no question
that Wayne called it exactly right.

I disagree.

Remember in the 1960's, there
was essentially no Japanese amateur radio gear imported, except for
that mechanical key and maybe code practice oscillators..

Not true. Lafayette was importing ham/SWL receivers from Japan in the
'50s. Allied did the same somewhat later.

It probably wasn't until the early 1970's that Yaesu and Kenwood
showed up. Now ICOM, Japan Radio, and others have the lions share
of the market.

What really happened was that Japan was devastated by WW2, but began a
longterm process of rebuilding everything. It took some years before
they got to niche things like ham gear.

Post WW2 Japan did not get involved in big military spending, a space
program, or foreign entanglements. Their focus was on rebuilding their
country and becoming a world economic and industrial power. Once the
basic industries and infrastructure were rebuilt, they focused on
specific areas like consumer electronics because such items are
relatively small and high-value. And because so much of their pre-1945
industry had been destroyed, everything was relatively new compared to
US industry.

What happened to Hammarlund? EF Johnson? Were there fire sales
every year at Dayton? What happened to the last run of HQ-215's or
the last batch of NC-270's. Did National ever make a solid state
radio, other than the HRO-500?

See above. Their managements reached retirement age and the required
investments in new designs were not made.

Some designs were simply not that good, too. Compare the NCL-2000 to
the Drake L-4B or even the SB-220. The latter are more rugged, less
fussy and use cheaper tubes.

When they turned the lights out at Hallicrafters, were there a batch
of SR-500's in a warehouse that took that last ride to Dayton?

Did people see bins of bare chassis or front panels at the tailgate
sales? Incomplete NCL-2000's?

Some of that. Usually, however, the way it worked was that the last
batch was sold off and then there were no more.

I'm guessing that the die-off happened about 1970, give or take a
few years. I didn't go to Dayton until around 1980 so I missed it.

I also stopped reading the ham magazines between 1966 and almost
1980.

The ads alone tell the story. Collins hung on the longest, I think,
making the KWM-380 because it was part of the deal when Art sold the
company.

Ten Tec apeared in 1968 making little QRP rigs and just kept on
growing. Look at the Orion...

Signal One came and went, but was a factor in "paradigm shift" about
ham rigs.

By the by, I'm here because I have started collecting and restoring
boat anchors. I believe these are valuable collectables and that
in 5, perhaps 10 years, these old radios will be incredibly
expensive. Currently the prices are rediculously low but that is
about to change.

Not compared to what they used to be in the '70s, '80s and very early
'90s. That was a "golden age", in a way. 'Nobody' wanted tube stuff.
You could get all kinds of gear and parts at hamfests for a song.
Examples:

- Working SX-101A in good condition - $35
- Very clean, almost mint working Viking 2 - $35
- Viking Valiant that needed the VFO dial coupling replaced, otherwise
working and good shape: $25
- Unmodified clean ARC-5s - None more than $10. Often a whole batch
for $10.
- Unmodified clean working BC-342-N - $2 (Not a typo - two dollars)
- QSTs back to pre-war: Dollar a year
- Receiving and small transmitting tubes - $1 each NOS, less for used
- I-177 or Hickok 6000 tube tester with book - $10
- 75A-4 receiver, VGC, working, with all mech filters, reduction knob,
book, spare tubes, just aligned - $250

I could go on and on but you get the idea. I didn't get all of these,
but I saw all of them at various 'fests within 2 hours of
Philadelphia.

Current prices are low because as hams age and go to the QSO party
in the sky, their prized radios are being dumped on the market,
primarily eBay.

That was going on 20 years ago, too, only it was at the 'fests.

If BPL doesn't kill HF and I don't think it will, not because we
will defeat it but because cable, DSL, fibre to the home, sat, and
Gen-3.5 cell fones will crush the interest in BPL,

I hope you are right!

the proposed
no-code Generals and the almost no-exam entry HF licensees
will double and triple the interest in Ham Radio.

Maybe, but I doubt it.

The requirements for a ham license have been dropping since 1975. They
were radically reduced (both written and code) again in 2000, but we
have not seen lots more new hams. There are a bunch of reasons, but
I'll name just three:

1) Antenna restrictions
2) Free time doesn't come in big blocks for a lot of folks
3) You are looking at it.

When that happens, everything Ham Radio, especially the historic
radios that have "class" will soar in value.

That started 10+ years ago.

Even if that isn't a factor, the weird, useless stuff that people
collect, pottery, knick-knacks, wood furniture, carvings, Hummels,
and so on, if an HT-32B appreciates as much as that stuff, it would
be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

But it won't because the market for an HT-32B is far smaller.

Maybe that won't happen but when I can buy a 1960's tube radio for a
couple hundred dollars, it seems like a bargain. Especially when
that radio originally cost two or three times that much.

Even more when you adjust for inflation. A 75A-4 in 1959 cost about
$700 - back when $5000 a year was a really good middle-class income.

whatever. Tell me your stories from the die-off.

Just did.

And if you want to see what ham kitbuilding has become, check out
Elecraft.

73 de Jim, N2EY

Thanks Jim,
Your response was well written.

Wayne Green has gotten too much credit - mainly from his own self
promotion.

Incentive licensing hardly killed off Amatuer radio or the
manufactorers of the time.

Increased competition from the Japanese probably was the largest
factor in the die off of the old American companies.

I've got a Swan/Cubic Astro-150A.
It's totally synthesized, solid state using military construction,
with plug in pcb's, full QSK, built in CW filter, etc, etc.
Its design date from around 1978.
Yet, they were only able to sell less than 1000 of them.
Why?
It cost $999 at a time when the Yaesu FT101 listed at only $699.

In my opinion, the Astro-150 is a much better rig, but at the time
Amateurs voted with their wallets.

When the Drake TR7 was introduced, it was a $1400 rig that didn't
include things like a speech processor or standard noise blanker when
equivalent rigs from the Japanese makers were available for less than
$1000.

The story of ham radio makes is no different than the story of U.S. TV
makers. There are no TV's being made in the USA by companies that are
based in the USA. Likewise, no VCR's, no CD players etc, etc are being
made by USA owned companies.

Doug/WA1TUT

On Fri, 2 Jul 2004 21:31:54 UTC, Doug wrote:

On 1 Jul 2004 06:42:36 -0700, (N2EY) wrote:

Wayne was and is full of it.

Even if that isn't a factor, the weird, useless stuff that people
collect, pottery, knick-knacks, wood furniture, carvings, Hummels,
and so on, if an HT-32B appreciates as much as that stuff, it would
be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

But it won't because the market for an HT-32B is far smaller.

I think most "collectors" only collect what the appraisers and
antique sales people tell them to collect. Watch a few episodes of
the antique shows on PBS. That junque is genuinely weird.

Compare it to a fine HQ-150 or a Johnson Valiant.

Wayne Green has gotten too much credit - mainly from his own self
promotion.

Incentive licensing hardly killed off Amatuer radio or the
manufactorers of the time.

In the early 1960's, Wayne predicted that there would be lots of
Japanese hams. When I got on 15 meters as a novice. I was running
a DX-60 with one 15 meter novice crystal and a ZL-special. I used
to work pile ups of JA stations all running 10 watts or some other
strangely low power. It suggested to me that they had an entry
license, perhaps comparable to our Novice that gave them 10 or maybe
it was 15 watts of CW.

I figured that Wayne was right and that the same "hook" that got me
fiddling with antennas, peering into the chassis of my SX-101A
trying to get a little more ooomph out of it, got them too.

I ended up an assembly language and PL/I programmer doing MVS
internals, telecommunications using TCAM, TSO internals.

Later when Japanese electronics took over, I figured that the same
fellows who I worked on 15 meters were now electrical engineers.
That was what Wayne predicted in his rambling editorials in 73
magazine.

"No Spam " No wrote in message ...
On Fri, 2 Jul 2004 21:31:54 UTC, Doug wrote:

On 1 Jul 2004 06:42:36 -0700, (N2EY) wrote:

Wayne was and is full of it.

Even if that isn't a factor, the weird, useless stuff that people
collect, pottery, knick-knacks, wood furniture, carvings, Hummels,
and so on, if an HT-32B appreciates as much as that stuff, it would
be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

But it won't because the market for an HT-32B is far smaller.

I think most "collectors" only collect what the appraisers and
antique sales people tell them to collect.

That's true in some cases, not true in others. But it's certainly a
valid point that at least *some* collectors are more interested in the
fact that something is worth $X or is considered "rare", rather than
its intrinsic value.

IOW, would they still like it if it was worth almost nothing?

Watch a few episodes of
the antique shows on PBS. That junque is genuinely weird.

I love that show. Besides the *smokin'* new host, the incredible
prices attached to some things are always a source of amazement. I
mean - a table lamp made in 1906 that's worth $120,000? A small table
from the early 19th century worth almost $500,000?

Compare it to a fine HQ-150 or a Johnson Valiant.

One *big* difference is that we'd get the HQ-150 or Valiant and put
them on the air, not just look at them.


In fact, I find it's starting to work the other way with me. One thing
I used to love about BA'ing was getting some rig or other for a low
low price, fixing it up, putting it on the air, having a ball with it
and then eventually passing it on to somebody else. And if I blew
something up, or couldn't fix it, no big loss.

But when they are fetching prices higher than new, it's a whole new
ball game.

Wayne Green has gotten too much credit - mainly from his own self
promotion.

Incentive licensing hardly killed off Amatuer radio or the
manufactorers of the time.

In the early 1960's, Wayne predicted that there would be lots of
Japanese hams.

There already *were* lots of JA hams back then.

When I got on 15 meters as a novice. I was running
a DX-60 with one 15 meter novice crystal and a ZL-special. I used
to work pile ups of JA stations all running 10 watts or some other
strangely low power. It suggested to me that they had an entry
license, perhaps comparable to our Novice that gave them 10 or maybe
it was 15 watts of CW.

They've had four classes of license for years, with the entry class
having no code test. Entry class is QRP but allows a variety of HF
modes. They used a twisted interpretation of the treaty to do it.

In years gone by, many countries required more than passing tests for
a license upgrade. In some cases, construction of receivers and/or
transmitters of a given level of complexity was required, and an oral
examination given on how the set worked. Another element was
requirement of a certain number of stations heard/worked with the
constructed equipment. The old USSR was a big one for that sort of
thing. JA may have done it, too.

I figured that Wayne was right and that the same "hook" that got me
fiddling with antennas, peering into the chassis of my SX-101A
trying to get a little more ooomph out of it, got them too.

The trend was clear early on. Building up the nation's technical and
manufacturing base was a national priority in Japan from VJ day
forward.

Interesting thing about 'prophets' like W2NSD - people remember the
few times when they were right but forget the many many times when
they were not.

I ended up an assembly language and PL/I programmer doing MVS
internals, telecommunications using TCAM, TSO internals.

Later when Japanese electronics took over, I figured that the same
fellows who I worked on 15 meters were now electrical engineers.
That was what Wayne predicted in his rambling editorials in 73
magazine.

Maybe. Ham radio has led many of us to engineering careers, me
included.

But consider this:

Since 1995 the number of Japanese ham stations has been in free fall.
Google up AH0A's website - interesting numbers.

Don't be fooled by the enormous number of JA *operator* licenses -
their operator licenses never expire, so what you see under operator
license totals are the total number of hams that have been licensed in
Japan since 1952. One ham can have as many as four operator licenses.

The important number is the number of *station* licenses, which cost a
fee and have to be renewed each year.

73 de Jim, N2EY

N2EY ) writes:

I figured that Wayne was right and that the same "hook" that got me
fiddling with antennas, peering into the chassis of my SX-101A
trying to get a little more ooomph out of it, got them too.

The trend was clear early on. Building up the nation's technical and
manufacturing base was a national priority in Japan from VJ day
forward.

Interesting thing about 'prophets' like W2NSD - people remember the
few times when they were right but forget the many many times when
they were not.

And he's had more time after the fact to write about it than he did
to talk about it before incentive licensing came into being.

While it's been some time since I've gone through them, I read and reread
back issues of 73. I don't recall any mention of Japan in the sixties.

Indeed, Japan seemed to be a non-entity at the time. They were starting
to make inroads, likely a lot of the accessories were increasingly "made
in Japan", but as you already mentioned, they were often sold with
a US name on it. "Made in Japan" still seemed to be a fairly derogative
term, denoting sloppy design and/or workmanship.

But then when Japanese companies were the major players, say from the mid
to late seventies, of course Wayne wrote about Japan. Saying after the fact
that the Japanese rules made for such growth, in hams and their ham industry,
is a lot different from seeing it (or not seeing it) before it had happened.

The same can be said about incentive licensing. I have no doubt that Wayne
disliked incentive licensing, but I'm not so sure he foresaw what would
happen. I don't think he cared. He didn't want to lose frequencies, and
that was his main opposition. But after the fact, he could find all kinds
of things that happened, whether or not they were a result, and blame
them on incentive licensing, and of course say "I told you so".

I don't have the animosity towards Wayne that many seem to have. I liked
73 when it was in its prime, and that was a serious contribition to amateur
radio. But you can indeed see his "after the fact" predictions. He often
stretches things to fit his scenario.

One really has to go back and read his editorials from the sixties in order
to define how much of he foresaw, and what it was he foresaw. His later
editorials are much more vivid (and were repeated many times), but that does
not mean they were what he said in the sixties.

Michael VE2BVW

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 20:35:05 UTC, (Michael
Black) wrote:

And he's had more time after the fact to write about it than he did
to talk about it before incentive licensing came into being.

While it's been some time since I've gone through them, I read and reread
back issues of 73. I don't recall any mention of Japan in the sixties.

Indeed, Japan seemed to be a non-entity at the time. They were starting
to make inroads, likely a lot of the accessories were increasingly "made
in Japan", but as you already mentioned, they were often sold with
a US name on it. "Made in Japan" still seemed to be a fairly derogative
term, denoting sloppy design and/or workmanship.

When did Incentive Licensing take effect? I thought I took the
advanced about 1965 but maybe not. Maybe it was later.

I "thought" Wayne Green in the early 60's predictied the collapse
of the U.S. electronics industry, which was invincible at that time.
Given the outcome, and not to take anything away from Ten Tec and
Elecraft, Drake if they're still in business, but the U.S.
Electronics industry, at least in the HF RF side, has died off.

I was in high school in the early 1960's. While the Japanese made
a few small in-roads in consumer electronics, the U.S. owned Ham
Radio. The U.S. stuff was QUALITY.

I still remember the excitement of the HRO-500, the SBE-33, and
seeing the pictures of the FPM-200 in the magazines.

The proprietor of the local radio shop said that the S-Lines and
KWM-2s were going to Vietnam so a lot of guys were going for Drake,
"the DX-er's like Drake."

Recently, I've heard two stories from that era, one is that at the
end of the war, they stacked up KWM-2's and R-390As, and ran tanks
over them.

The other story is that there are cache's in Vietnam with
KWM-2s wrapped in plastic and buried.

I don't know if either story is true.

I have a nice collection of boat anchors and hope to restore them to
their glory, to be used, not to sit on the shelf, as "shelf queens".


I don't have a lot of time to work on the radios. I'm trying to
earn enough money to retire some time.

I got my novice license at 15 and passed the general at 16. Two
other guys and I took the bus down the the FCC because none of us
had a driver's license. We all passed. I still remember the
snippits of the code, it was a ship talking to the harbor. One
minute solid out of five, 13 consecutive words. That was the rule.
I don't get this new style exam.

Someone help me remember. Didn't the FCC give out Techs as a
consolation prize if you only got five words in sequence? I'm
trying to figure out how John ended up with an FCC credit Tech.

Or was it, if you failed the 13, they gave you a shot at a 5 WPM
tape and then let you take the general written. Or did people show
up and ask to take the Tech?

I remember before I took the novice, I was pretty confident that I
could pass the general theory and mentioned the possibility of
taking the Tech and not the novice. John was adament about
getting the novice first, for the HF code practice.

I gotta say that those were my best ham radio years. This was in
Hawai'i and you could work inter island easy on 40 all day.
Saturday, I'd fire up my DX-60 and call CQ de WH6FHN. It was great.
There were lots of novices but every other station was a general or
extra who slowed way down to give the novice some practice.

I had a crystal dead in the middle of the novice band, 7175.
Several others had the same crystal and we'd work zero beat.

I used my 40 meter dipole on 15 meters and began working DX, JA's
mostly but a few ZL's and VK's too. Not to shabby for a novice with
a straight key and a DX-60.

Heathkit should have named it the DX-75 and added, power can be
increased to 90 watts when you pass the General. It sounds odd now
but I remember wondering if a novice could use the 90 watt DX-60.

In 1963, I sold my DX-60 for $40 to put toward an HT-37. At the
time, I didn't think much of it. 40 years later, I bought a
"doesn't work" DX-60 on eBay for $70. It's on the floor of my
workroom. When I get it going, it'll be my novice station.

My SX-101A is still in Hawai'i cluttering up my mom's house but I
have the next best thing. A fellow GAVE me an excellent SX-100 with
an outboard digital display. I can use it with the DX-60. It even
has the same wide skirt IF filter sound of the SX-101A and the Notch
Filter to fiddle with.

What fun. Forget that cell fone junk. I'll ease into geezerhood
with 1960's radio's. I got a 100 foot coil of stranded copper wire
and some RG-8X. 66 for a 40 meter dipole, 33 for a 20 meter dipole.
I also have a TH3jr tucked behind the woodpile.

de ah6gi/4

No Spam No wrote:

Recently, I've heard two stories from that era, one is that at the
end of the war, they stacked up KWM-2's and R-390As, and ran tanks
over them.

I _SAW_ the folks at the Osan AB MARS shack tossing R-390s or R-390As
into a dumpster in October 1969, when I was outprocessing at the end
of a TDY. They told me I could have as many as I wanted, but my hold
baggage was on its way back to Camp Drake already.

The other story is that there are cache's in Vietnam with
KWM-2s wrapped in plastic and buried.

A friend was in charge of the Army program to teach ARVN troops to
operate KWM-2 rigs; I'll ask him what he knows about that.

I don't know if either story is true.

They're both consonant with what I saw.

I have a nice collection of boat anchors and hope to restore them to
their glory, to be used, not to sit on the shelf, as "shelf queens".

I'm trying to get a collection of R-390As going again. It's ...
interesting.

I don't have a lot of time to work on the radios. I'm trying to
earn enough money to retire some time.

BTDTGTTS. Didn't like it; I'm back where I retired, because I don't
like sitting still.

I got my novice license at 15 and passed the general at 16. Two
other guys and I took the bus down the the FCC because none of us
had a driver's license. We all passed. I still remember the
snippits of the code, it was a ship talking to the harbor. One
minute solid out of five, 13 consecutive words. That was the rule.
I don't get this new style exam.

Second Phone at 16, Novice at 17.

--
Mike Andrews

Tired old sysadmin

"No Spam " No wrote:
Someone help me remember. Didn't the FCC give out Techs as a
consolation prize if you only got five words in sequence? I'm
trying to figure out how John ended up with an FCC credit Tech.

After 1954 Techs were by mail order *only*. Before that they were before the
examiner (or by mail if the distance requirement was met) so I suppose the
consolation prize thing at the FCC office could have been policy then. I had not
heard the phrase though until some years later after the VE testing started.

"No Spam " No wrote in message news:ifgU75G3LLdo-pn2-9xjQwCynTYJD@localhost...
On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 20:35:05 UTC, (Michael
Black) wrote:

When did Incentive Licensing take effect?

1967: Advanced reopened, 2 year Novice
Nov. 22, 1968: First reduction in bandspace (CW/data and 'phone) for
Generals and Advanceds
Nov. 22, 1969: Second reduction in bandspace (phone only)for Generals
and Advanceds.

Note that in those days the 30, 17 and 12 meter ham bands did not
exist, and that the 'phone parts of 80, 40, 20 and 15 were narrower
than today. Originally the Extra-only CW/data subbands were supposed
to be 50 kHz in the second reduction but this was eliminated by FCC
shortly before it was supposed to have taken effect.

I thought I took the
advanced about 1965 but maybe not. Maybe it was later.

1967 wasn't that much later.

I "thought" Wayne Green in the early 60's predictied the collapse
of the U.S. electronics industry, which was invincible at that time.
Given the outcome, and not to take anything away from Ten Tec and
Elecraft, Drake if they're still in business, but the U.S.
Electronics industry, at least in the HF RF side, has died off.

Consumer stuff anyway.

I was in high school in the early 1960's. While the Japanese made
a few small in-roads in consumer electronics, the U.S. owned Ham
Radio. The U.S. stuff was QUALITY.

I still remember the excitement of the HRO-500, the SBE-33, and
seeing the pictures of the FPM-200 in the magazines.

Yep - but in reality they were not as good as expected. The FPM-200
never made it to market, IIRC.

The proprietor of the local radio shop said that the S-Lines and
KWM-2s were going to Vietnam so a lot of guys were going for Drake,
"the DX-er's like Drake."

Recently, I've heard two stories from that era, one is that at the
end of the war, they stacked up KWM-2's and R-390As, and ran tanks
over them.

The other story is that there are cache's in Vietnam with
KWM-2s wrapped in plastic and buried.

I don't know if either story is true.

I don't either but I know the following story *is* true: Pallets of
used R-390As were stacked ~10 feet high and left out in the weather at
a supply location. I saw the picture and it was claimed to be genuine.
These were units that needed work but were mostly complete. The stack
was at least 25 x 25 feet, and the picture didn't include the whole
pile. Even as parts units, their value to hams is staggering.

Dunno if there were any Helena Rubenstein '390As in there....

I got my novice license at 15 and passed the general at 16. Two
other guys and I took the bus down the the FCC because none of us
had a driver's license. We all passed. I still remember the
snippits of the code, it was a ship talking to the harbor. One
minute solid out of five, 13 consecutive words. That was the rule.
I don't get this new style exam.

I got the Novice at 13 (1967), Tech and Advanced at 14 (1968), Extra
at 16 (1970). That was back when you had to wait two years as a
General or above for the Extra.

Someone help me remember. Didn't the FCC give out Techs as a
consolation prize if you only got five words in sequence?

Yes.

After 1954 the Tech was a by-mail license, like the Novice. But if you
showed up at the FCC office and missed 13 per, but they could find
five legible words, you could do the Tech/General written and get a
Technician. Then you'd only have to come back for the 13 wpm code.
Saved a little FCC time and paperwork, I think. Also made it easier
for the ham because you could focus entirely on the code test.

I know 'cause that's what happened to me first time. Examiner couldn't
read my writing well enough to find 65 consecutive legible characters
but he did find 25. I got a Tech, went home and taught myself to block
print rather than the stupid "Palmer method" longhand script, and
passed it after the 30 day retest wait was up.

After I did, the examiner said "Kid, why not try the Advanced while
you're here?" Though I had not studied for it, a 14 year old kid did
not say no to The Man, so I tried and passed.

Or was it, if you failed the 13, they gave you a shot at a 5 WPM
tape and then let you take the general written. Or did people show
up and ask to take the Tech?

Normally Tech was by-mail.

Good times.

73 de Jim, N2EY

On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 12:43:22 UTC, (N2EY) wrote:

Good times.

These times too. This is not a boat anchor story but my old clock
radio was getting hard to set. I did fix it once but I recall I
paid $10-$15 for it, a while ago, 20 years maybe.

Big spender that I am, I was in "Big Lots" and saw a GE AM/FM/CD
clock radio, model 7-4901. $29.95. This is a great clock radio.

It comes with the time preset and backed up by 2 AA cells. One
slide switch sets the time zone, a button toggles day light savings
time on and off. Two of the biggest headaches of digital clocks
solved. If you have to set the clock, there is a forward and
BACKWARDS time set button. You don't have to go all the way around.

Two side firing speakers. I'm not an audio nutcase. I know that
monster wire is a scam and toob audio loonies are nuts. The sound
is GOOD.

Half my boat anchors are solid state, SB-303, Signal/One CX7A, and
half are tubes, 75S-1, SB-102. Give me better than 1 uV sensitivity
and 2.1 kHz filter and 1 kHz read out and I'm happy.

de ah6gi/4

Doug wrote in message . ..
On 1 Jul 2004 06:42:36 -0700, (N2EY) wrote:

"No Spam " No wrote in message news:ifgU75G3LLdo-pn2-6dc5RepOHFeN@localhost...
On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 16:31:34 UTC, (Michael
Black) wrote:
(big snip)

Thanks Jim,
Your response was well written.

Thanks!

Here's two more factors:

Sometime in the very early 1960s, SSB became the dominant HF 'phone
mode, replacing AM. The trend had started in the very late 1940s with
ham SSB homebrewing became common and just kept going. One factor that
really sparked the SSB boom was the introduction of the SSB
transceiver, starting with the Collins KWM-1 and KWM-2, and the
Cosmophone 35.

These were "stations in a box" that needed only antenna, power supply,
mike and speaker to go on the air. Their cost and size was less than a
comparable transmitter-receiver pair, and the headache of zerobeating
was eliminated - just tune in the other guy right, and you are
automatically on his freq. HF SSB transceivers became popular very
quickly, to the point that they rapidly replaced all "separates"
except those that were matched-pair transceive capable, like the Drake
4 line and the S line.

Before transceivers, there were several ham mfrs. who specialized in
receivers or transmitters, or were best known for one or the other.
E.F. Johnson made transmitters, National, Hammarlund and Hallicrafters
primarily made receivers, etc. Those who made the transition to
transceivers survived longer than those who didn't. Johnson, for
example, developed the Avenger transceiver, which was way ahead of its
time. Dual VFOs, all solid state except the finals and driver,
compact, high performance - and it cost more to make than the list
price of a KWM-2. A dozen or so prototypes were made, and a few
survive.

The main market for "separates" were Novices, who were limited to
crystal control and 75W input until the mid 1970s.

Some new mfrs. like Swan and SBE, started out making SSB transceivers
from Day One.

The shift to SSB and transceivers from AM and separates had a bunch of
effects:

- Homebrewing, steadily declining with increasing affluence and
complexity of ham gear, took a big nosedive with the advent of the SSB
transceiver. Few hams could homebrew the equivalent of an NCX-3 or
SB-100 in their basements for less than the cost of those rigs, let
alone the time.

- The space and cost required for a ham shack shrank dramatically.
This was particularly true if you wanted to operate high power 'phone.
Look at the price and size of an SB-100/200 combo - for about $600 and
the kitbuilding time you could have a 1200W PEP tabletop SSB/CW
station. Compare that to, say, a Viking 500/NC-300 combo...

- Old gear that could not do SSB transceive was sometimes kept, and
other times rapidly unloaded as its resale value dropped. The value
drop was driven by the limited market for such gear.

- The number of new hams recruited from the SWL ranks dropped
dramatically. In the AM days, folks with SW receivers would come
across hams on AM. This would lead many SWLs to become hams. But most
SWL receivers don't receive SSB well, if at all, and completely
different tuning skills are needed. So most SWLs just tuned past the
unintelligible ham SSB garble.

This last was part of a much larger trend. From the reopening of US
ham radio to about 1963, the number of US hams grew from about 60,000
on VJ day to about 250,000 in 1963 - quadrupling in just 17 years.
Then the growth stalled and didn't pick up again until the early
1970s.

This loss of growth happened fully 5 years before "incentive
licensing", and it was only after the new rules were in place that the
numbers picked up again, so IL can't be the cause. What *did* cause it
we

- changeover to SSB
- competition from 27 MHz cb
- drastic reduction of the places where a Conditional license could be
issued
- license and test fees
- changes in society, particularly young people. Ham radio has always
been kind of a "square" activity, and in the '60s such perceptions
"turned off" a lot of young people.

Wayne Green has gotten too much credit - mainly from his own self
promotion.

The rooster taking credit for the dawn. JA has had nocodetest ham
licenses since 1952. They were on a rebuilding/industrial boom. They
were investing in development and new tooling at a furious rate while
US companies weren't. Favorable tax and exchange rates. Etc.

Incentive licensing hardly killed off Amatuer radio or the
manufactorers of the time.

Agreed.

Increased competition from the Japanese probably was the largest
factor in the die off of the old American companies.

Yep.

I've got a Swan/Cubic Astro-150A.
It's totally synthesized, solid state using military construction,
with plug in pcb's, full QSK, built in CW filter, etc, etc.
Its design date from around 1978.
Yet, they were only able to sell less than 1000 of them.
Why?
It cost $999 at a time when the Yaesu FT101 listed at only $699.

And a TS-520S was even less IIRC.

In my opinion, the Astro-150 is a much better rig, but at the time
Amateurs voted with their wallets.

When the Drake TR7 was introduced, it was a $1400 rig that didn't
include things like a speech processor or standard noise blanker when
equivalent rigs from the Japanese makers were available for less than
$1000.

There's also the "line" aspect. Most US manufacturers of the time made
just one "line" of ham gear - Drake had the 4 line, Collins had the
S-line, Heath had the SB line, etc. Many did not offer VHF/UHF gear,
or the offerings were limited. But very early on the Japanese produced
multiple lines, such as the TS-520S and TS-820S, and a whole line of
VHF/UHF stuff. A ham could have an "all-Kenwood" (or Yaesu, or Icom)
station that covered 160 through 440. Few US manufacturers offered
such variety.

The story of ham radio makes is no different than the story of U.S. TV
makers. There are no TV's being made in the USA by companies that are
based in the USA. Likewise, no VCR's, no CD players etc, etc are being
made by USA owned companies.

Sadly true.

At least in ham gear we have a choice: Ten Tec and Elecraft, to name
just two.

73 de Jim, N2EY