How much can adding QSK to
a Mega-Bucks Amp cost ??
A rather small percentage of
the purchase pride I expect.
Sounds more to me like the
bean-counters are ruling the
roost.
73, Dick, W1KSZ
On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 9:00 AM Manfred Mornhinweg <manfred@ludens.cl>
wrote:
>
> Tom,
>
> > Just because you don't operate CW doesn't mean there isn't a market out
> > there for a CW amplifier.
>
> I fully agree on that. The question is just how large that market is,
> compared to the market for an amplifier without QSK capability but
> slightly less expensive.
>
> > "More than 10,000 logs have been submitted for the CQ World Wide DX
> > Contest, according to Contest Director Bob Cox, K3EST.
>
> That shows how very few hams engage in contesting! Assuming that one
> third of all contesters worldwide participated in this most important
> international contest, that would tell that about 30,000 hams worldwide
> are at least occasional contesters - among a total ham population of
> roughly two million!
>
> Of course almost ALL contesters own at least one amp, while among the
> general ham population maybe one in ten owns an amp. Even so, contesters
> are only a minor part of the potential customer base for amplifiers, and
> a very minor part for other equipment.
>
> > In addition, Cox
> > reports that the number of CW logs have exceeded the number of phone logs
> > for the first time in more than 20 years.
>
> So this tells that CW is on the rise, at least among contesters. Indeed
> I have noticed some more interest in CW among local hams than, say, 10
> or 20 years ago. But I wonder what percentage of CW operators value QSK
> capability high enough to be willing to spend extra money on it. Surely
> many do, but just how many? In what little CW activity I ever had, I
> never really missed QSK. And those CW ops I know all have non-QSK amps,
> and seem to be happy.
>
> I'm not saying that QSK is worthless - far from it! I just think (and I
> fully admit the possibility of being wrong in this) that only a
> relatively small percentage of hams really values QSK highly enough to
> only buy an amp that features it.
>
> Just tuning through the bands, I do hear about as much CW activity as
> SSB activity. Also a lot of activity in a few specific digimodes. But
> most of the CW activity I hear does not seem to be in QSK. Only rarely
> do I hear a CW op breaking in and the other reacting to that. Most
> activity is with very clear and explicit TX/RX changeover, suggesting
> non-QSK operation. This is pretty much the same as VOX operation in SSB
> - most SSB operators aren't using VOX.
>
> > Evidently there is still a LOT of interest in CW.
>
> That's for sure. CW is far from being dead.
>
> > At least 5272 potential customers are out there.
>
> Assuming that every ham who submitted a log for the CQWWDX contest in CW
> is a potential customer for a specific QSK-capable amp is very
> misleading. Firstly, many CW ops seem to be happy with non-QSK amps.
> Secondly, those who buy only QSK amps will still spread out among all
> available QSK-capable amps, as customers. Thirdly, each ham might buy
> one amp in his lifetime, or perhaps a few, but will hardly run and buy a
> new amp just because it has become available. So the actual sales of a
> specific amp model to contesters, over its entire production run, will
> be FAR lower than the number of active contesters. And more importantly,
> a LOT of hams who aren't contesters also buy amps, so it would be wrong
> to judge the market for an amp by just looking at contesters!
>
> Well, anyone really wanting to know why that specific amp doesn't
> provide QSK capability should ask the manufacturer. Surely Flex has good
> reasons for it. In my previous post I outlined what I THINK these
> reasons could be, but I'm just speculating. I have never talked to
> anyone at Flex.
>
> And I don't mean to put down CW or its enthusiastic followers! I think
> that it's good that enough hams continue to cultivate this mode and keep
> it alive. The more variety we have, the better. But a manufacturer
> doesn't have any obligation to optimize all his products for a specific
> mode. Instead he might optimize SOME of them for CW, and others for
> other modes. And typically manufacturers will choose what tradeoffs to
> make according to what has the best market chances.
>
> Manfred
>
>
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> http://ludens.cl
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