> However, Cadillac advertises their cars on GOLF shows. If they were just
> interested in the numbers then they would advertise on MTV but
> they know that
> the viewers who watch Golf shows buy expensive cars - Thus, that is where
> they advertise. If the Ham Radio advertisers want to put their
> money where
> the big buyers are they would support the contesters and DXers.
> The "Shacks
> on a Belt" are like MTV. There are a lot of them but they don't
> buy the big
> gear.
> IMHO
> Jerry
> W3DMB
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wouldn't be too quick to put down the 'shack on a belt' group. They may
very well be what keeps the manufacturers interested enough in producing
radios for the ham market to even produce HF radios.
Someone mentioned there being 10k contesters and somewhere around 600k other
hams (I know, it's about 750k).
If only 50 percent of those 600k SOAB, non-contesting hams went out and
bought HT's for $300 each, that would
be a nice $90,000,000. Then they would have to buy a VHF/UHF radio (and
accessories) for the house and maybe a VHF/UHF radio and antenna for the
car(s) or maybe radios for the wife and kids, too. That $90M has now
ballooned up to about $300,000,000.
If 100 percent of the 10k contesters went out and bought a new radio at
$3,000 each, that would be a nice $30,000,000.
Even if each of us bought a tower, rotator and beam, it would still fall way
short of the numbers in the above paragraph.
If I go to the local amateur radio club (membership>100) and count heads, I
can count on one hand the number of hams with towers and HF antennas.
IMHO
73,
dale, kg5u
--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
|