Commercial Off The Shelf, as opposed to mil-spec (military
specifications) or custom.
73,
Dave, AA6YQ
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Steve Baron - KB3MM
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 16:13
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] 7800 purchases (was Orion in contests)
What is a COTS radio?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Farson" <farson@shaw.ca>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 18:55
Subject: RE: [TenTec] 7800 purchases (was Orion in contests)
> Hi Rob,
>
> You made some very good points concerning the "target audiences" for
> the IC-7800.
>
> I believe that the street price will be in the $7K ~ 8K range; a
> little
rich
> for Joe Ham, but peanuts for the alphabet-soup agencies who normally
> buy from the likes of Rockwell-Collins, R&S, Racal/Thales, Harris etc.
> I am
sure
> that GCHQ, NATO and their brethren are looking to replace their
> venerable IC-781's. It is probably true that Icom's bread and butter
> lies in the mil/gov and commercial sectors.
>
> Several matters bear pointing out here:
>
> 1. There is a big international marketplace out there. North America
> is
not
> the only land-mass on the planet.
>
> 2. Hams are not the only people in that wide world who buy and use HF
radio
> equipment. There are all kinds of military, governmental and
> commercial entities to whom a first-class COTS radio represents an
> excellent, cost-effective alternative to full mil-spec.
>
> 3. These entities do not need to concern themselves too much about
> type-approval. In many cases, they either are, or control, their
> national radio regulatory agency. When the defence procurement
> service, the radio regulatory service and the ministry of finance are
> all playing on the same team, things can go remarkably smoothly.
>
> 4. As its transmitter and main receiver are restricted by design to
> amateur-band coverage only, the Orion is by definition locked out of
> these potentially highly lucrative markets which, as you intimated,
> will more
than
> pick up the slack once amateur demand begins to taper off. This is
> regrettable.
>
> Cheers for now, 73,
> Adam VA7OJ/AB4OJ
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Rob Atkinson, K5UJ
> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 07:12
> To: tentec@contesting.com
> Cc: k5uj@hotmail.com
> Subject: [TenTec] 7800 purchases (was Orion in contests)
>
>
> <<<I was at the Fort Wayne, IN Hamfest last wk end. Talked to Icom,
> the
7800
> will be more like $10,000?
>
> AND the first run is spoken for. Go Figure...
> Lee>>>
>
> I also doubted there would be very many 7800s sold at that price but--
> Quick story to give some insight into this: I was at a vendor last
> summer and the talk turned to the 7800. Now, this is someone who has
> been in the business side of ham radio for many years and knows a few
> things about the market I'd never realize. He asked me to guess how
> many 7800s Icom would sell to hams:
>
> Me: World wide?
> Vendor: Yeah.
> Me: (thinking) Umm, oh, at $10K, probably 300.
> Vendor: Ha, try more like three thousand.
>
> He went on to explain that there are a lot of guys with lots of money
> for this hobby--many more than I would have guessed.
>
> Also, a couple of other points: Firstly, you all don't really think
> Icom
is
> making the 7800 just for hams do you? I have been told when their
> last super rig, the one with the CRT (781?) came out, they sold around
> a
thousand
> to NATO. Those are old rigs now; the 7800 (or it's mil spec cousin)
> is supposedly being built to be sold to government users as a
> replacement. This is heresay--I do not have any facts to support this,
> however it seems in some way plausable since the cost of designing,
> building and selling a really high end product can't be borne by the
> ham market alone. Collins owners laugh when people act as if the S
> Line was built for hams.
Secondly,
> the civilian ham product price will probably drop after a few thousand
> are sold around the world to goverments.
>
> Rob Atkinson
> K5UJ
>
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>
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