Chuckle! At the moment we have some pictures; a description that has the
earmarks of something written by an Advertising Executive jg instead of an
insider in the engineering staff; and lots and lots and lots of rumors.
Casting Dame Rumor aside for the moment, we know very little about the new
JA Wonder. Except that it will be large and expensive. And it will supposedly
have world class performance - whether it does or not.
The picture I see has the earmarks of a preproduction sample with a computer
generated display. For all I can tell the screen may be a backlighted
translucency instead of a display. I try to keep up with the latest devices
and circuits, but the quoted specs seem much too good to be true.
Particularly if even a fraction of the rumors about the architecture are
true. But perhaps Icom has breakthrough devices that haven't been announced
yet. We will have to wait and see what develops.
Personally, I hope Icom does bring out their "world beater," and establishes
a substantial market for such an expensive radio in these rather shakey
economic times. If there is a developed market, TenTec has proven they can
produce a competitive radio at the much lower price points and can surely at
least equal the performance of any other makers radio. But without a proven
market smaller players would be foolish to pioneer a really high end rig.
73 Pete Allen AC5E
|