"Am I willing to pay for a throw away plastic rig in order to get all kinds of
cool extras to play with..."
Since I own an Omni VII, my answer is evidently "yes", though didn't buy it to
get cool extras but for the receiver, which I still think is pretty good, noise
floor always impresses me. Also wanted to own at least one new rig built by
professionals ( not me ), with a warranty, while recognizing that it's
operational life was probably closer to a PC than anything else. That's how
everything is these days, it's a throw-away world and the time from production
to landfill keeps getting shorter.
OTOH, also own a Drake 4 line and 2B, several CW ransmitters from the 50s, and
Ten-Tec 509, 540, 544, and 546. The old stuff is fine, but working on stuff
all the time gets kinda old. Especially the old tube gear has resistors
changing value, capacitors becoming leaky, and the available "NOS" tubes
probably someone else's castoffs. It's tempting to have a "parts" rig because
some of the components ( like switch decks ) are made from unobtanium.
Sometimes the shack seems to more resemble a junk yard than anything else.
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