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#1
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And of course, people want the boatanchors because they are old
Collectors rather than operators, right? they are the rig they had when they were first in the hobby Yes, but also because they found later, purportedly more modern equipment, to be harder to operate or repair, or easier to break, with replacement parts and labor costing more than the rig itself? they lusted after the rig decades ago but couldn't afford it. And still can't, in the case of Collins for example. I suspect that is the major reason, rather than because they are tube-based. Really? I think it takes a different mentality to operate a tube rig than a semiconductor or digital rig. I really think the casual tube rigs were easier for children and adolescents to operate on HF. I had the worst time trying to understand an ICOM during my 20's, for example. Take away that familiarity, and the interested number will also drop. But what if I kept the familiarity of operation rather than the familiarity of brand name? Would it drop drastically? The Eternal Squire |
#2
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#3
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) writes:
And of course, people want the boatanchors because they are old Collectors rather than operators, right? they are the rig they had when they were first in the hobby Yes, but also because they found later, purportedly more modern equipment, to be harder to operate or repair, or easier to break, with replacement parts and labor costing more than the rig itself? they lusted after the rig decades ago but couldn't afford it. And still can't, in the case of Collins for example. I suspect that is the major reason, rather than because they are tube-based. Really? I think it takes a different mentality to operate a tube rig than a semiconductor or digital rig. I really think the casual tube rigs were easier for children and adolescents to operate on HF. I had the worst time trying to understand an ICOM during my 20's, for example. Take away that familiarity, and the interested number will also drop. But what if I kept the familiarity of operation rather than the familiarity of brand name? Would it drop drastically? Thirty to forty years ago, hams abandoned those old boatanchors. They wanted the solid state, they wanted the features. The rigs could barely be given away. Circa 1972 a lot of boatanchor equipment went through my hands, because people were giving it away, or they would sell at the radio club auction for five or ten dollars. I let it go just as easily, because I could trade it for something more interesting or just to sample what were new things to me. It's only in recent years that people became really interested in that old gear. Nostalgia. And the demand raises the prices of those once useless rigs. If simplicity is the issue as you think, then through the decades there would always be basic rigs being manufactured, because there'd be demand. If people wanted basic, they'd not be waiting decades for it. And of course, basic does not have to mean tubes. The bells and whistles were added because ICs and the like made it easier to add them, but there was no need to actually add them. There could have been basic solid state rigs, and of course Ten Tec did offer them, as did some of the other manufacturers (though Ten Tec lasted longer than the rest). If you think there's a market for a bare tube rig because of ease of repair, then it's just as easy to use discrete transistors (or discretes with some common ICs) to build a basic solid state rig that is just as easy to repair as that old HW-100. The only difference is that with a solid state rig, there's no tubes that can easily be pulled out to take to the drugstore to test in the tester, which does't matter because the tube tester isn't there anymore, and neither does the drugstore sell the common tubes that was the purpose of the tester being there in the first place. I can't say I'd spend the money, but I want a Clegg Interceptor from the early sixties. There is nothing about that receiver that is better than a more recent and decent receiver. It lacks features, and of course suffers from a relatively high noise figure that came with the tubes. I suspect its selectivity is broad compared to more recent receivers. I don't want it for what it can do, I want it because I remember reading about it, a decade after it was being sold, and simply thinking it was a neat receiver. A copy of the receiver wouldn't be the same, and is pretty inconceivable given that there will be little demand. I am conveying what I think about boatanchors, which may be wrong. But I suspect you are trying to judge a market for such a rig based on your own desires. If you think there is a market, you need to find those people who would actually buy it, who actually do share your thinking on the issue, to prove that there would be a market for such a project. I still think that most people who pursue boatanchors are doing it for nostalgia. A case can even be made that they long for simpler days. But that doesn't mean that they want to give up bells and whistles and modern designs on a permanent basis. I doubt newcomers to the hobby are going off to buy that Drake 2B, they'd pursue it later as another facet of the hobby if they do so at all (though of course there was a time when they might have started with it, because it was seen as a "novice" receiver or because it was available used for cheap). I think most who go after boatanchors have more recent rigs, and they use the old rigs in tandem, for variety. Michael VE2BVW |
#4
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Come to think of it, those are good points. I guess nostalgia can
supply its own technical justifications. The Eternal Squire |
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