On Tue, 27 Jan 1998, Jim and Kate Belt wrote:
> I hestitate to bring this up but have things shrunk up a bit in amateur
> radio. Back when I started there was Collins, E.F. Johnson, Drake,
> Hallicrafters, Hammerlund, Swan, WRL, Allied, and Heathkit who were major
> players. Now we have Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, Ten-Tec and a new one from Long
> Island. What's happened?
I'll take a stab at it...
Collins - hand made high-end (expensive) radios and left to pursue more
lucrative military/aviation market. REALLY popular now with the
yuppies with more money than brains crowd.
E.F. Johnson - Sunk by going into CB radio, crashed when the CB craze did.
Drake - Clobbered by the efficient japanese manufacturing process.
Hallicrafters - could not keep up with technology changes.
Hammerlund - couldn't even keep up with Hallicrafters.
Swan - came up with one too many crappy radio designs.
WRL - Never really a player in the post-transatlantic period anyways. I
think my grandfather may have heard the Hindenburg blow up
on a WRL radio.
Allied - Swallowed by Tandy.
Heathkit - Swallowed by Zenith, bet big on computers and lost.
So that leaves those dear people in Tennesee... who have a day job selling
lots of plastic cases and other enclosures. Every now and then they turn
out a quirky little low-production radio that just enough people fall in
love with. The phone gets answered by english-as-a-native-language
technicians and they keep parts in stock for radios out of production
before Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu sold rig number one in the US.
73! =paul= W8KC
Collector of Ten*Tecs and other fine plastics
www.acs.oakland.edu/~prvalko
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