D. Peter Maus wrote:
On 12/5/09 06:55 , Drifter wrote:
dxAce wrote:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catal...rxvr/0070.html

Note the 'may be available'.

dxAce
Michigan
USA


Morning Steve. you know i'm following this closely.
Richard tells me the major trouble, as with any new
receiver, etc., coming out now is parts and supplies.
company's come and go. design with supplies today,
may dry up next week.


That was the problem with the highly touted Sat 900. The chip upon
which the set was designed dried up before the prototypes were built.
Then Grundig took it's boning from Philips, and...well....

A lot of today's radios are becoming unserviceable because relatively
common chips are no longer in production, and substitutes are rare.

But, then, this isn't new. It's been going on in consumer electronics
for years. The product cycle of a Sony TV is less than 19 months,
because of it.

And you're right...who can afford to drop the kilobucks on a new rig,
that will be obsoleted by parts availability issues within a few years.

I've wondered how much this cycle has been an impact on hobbycraft
like amateur radio/swl.

I mean, my grandfather had an impressive radio installation in the
house. And many receivers over the years. But I inherited his rigs, and
comparatively, there just weren't that many of them. I have more high
end radios sitting on my desk than he had over his lifetime.

I'm still using his Super Pro. Even though tubes are hard to come by,
these days, it's still more serviceable than many of today's modern
performance receivers.

Peter, you and Dave are both right. Icom has a bunch of trouble. the R75
no longer has a DSP board because of this. at this date i don't believe
they have a replacement yet. so, where do we go from here? i think in
a few years the newer receivers will mostly be SDR. which, maybe down
the road, but as of today, is not a real receiver to me. BTW, yes Dave,
i know some of the high buck jobs are mostly computer inside.

Drifter...