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Popular radios
My interests was aroused to do a little research on why shortwave HF
radio receivers are steadily going off the market. The only new receivers coming on the market these days with upmarket features are the computer based SDR's (Software Defined Radio). Many of us don't like computer SDR receivers, but prefer the traditional radio with lots of knobs and buttons. OTOH ham transceivers continue to sell like hot cross buns at Easter with new and advanced models coming out all the time. Mainly the ham transceivers also represent good value for money, even for listeners only. So listeners wanting the latest technology are moving forward in two directions; some are migrating to the new computer SDR receivers and some,like me, have migrated to using the latest ham transceivers. To get a feeling for this I referred to the popular eHam website reviews, that has hundreds of reviews of both receivers and transceivers. http://www.eham.net/reviews/ When looking at the number of reviews I quote below, consider that they are a reflection of what sales are like for the various radio's. When I was at marketing/advertising school years ago, I was taught that for everyone who wrote in, some many more didn't. If I remember rightly the figure was about 25:1, so for everyone who wrote a review there are about another 25 who didn't, and that is why I believe the figures for the number of reviews gives some indication of the sales volumes and popularity for each radio. Number of reviews = R (receivers vs. transceivers) Drake R8/A/B - R33 versus Icom 746PRO series - R241 Icom R75 - R62 vs. Icom 718 - R301 AOR7030 - R17 vs. Kenwood TS-2000 - R370 Yaesu FRG100 - R14 vs. compact transceivers - R643 JR NRD545 - R10 vs. Icom 756PRO series - R449 Ten Tec RX340 - R12 of which there is no such expensive transceiver, but it may interest you that the coming Icom 7700 has attracted over 40,000 views on the You Tube website, an enormous response and interest! This top end transceiver will sell at $6300. Other popular transceivers in the $2000/3000 category that reviewed well: Yaesu FT-1000 - R440 Yaesu FT-2000 - R136 Elecraft K2/3 series - R229 So the conclusion to be drawn is that ham transceivers are hugely popular and attractive for manufacturers who can turn them out in good volumes, whereas even the most popular receivers have very limited popularity and there manufacture cannot be very profitable or economical. I wonder therefore if Mr. Thorpe will be allowed to make another high end replacement receiver for the AOR7030, or if AOR UK will find the prospect unattractive commercially? John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods Drake SW8 & ERGO software Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100 BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A. Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270 Kiwa MW Loop, PAORDT Roelof mini-whip http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx |
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