On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 10:14:43 GMT, HFguy wrote:


Although it doesn't cost that much these days to extend the range of an
HF-transceiver for general coverage, it could be harder to come up with
a good sync' detector that doesn't infringe on another manufacturers
design. Look what happened to the R-75. I'm sure Icom knows how to
design a good sync' detector but there may have been legal limitations
to what they could implement. This could be the main reason the
manufacturers are not interested in adding a sync' detector to a general
coverage HF-transceiver. I also don't think it's really so "apparent
that a significant number of radio amateurs have an interest" in
listening to international shortwave broadcasts. It's been my experience
that few do.

Synchronous detection is old enough to be in the public domain.