Jim Lux wrote:
>
> or, a bit more subtly, that the vendors of products such as quads that are
> small companies, particularly ones with a small product line. These
>
> Antenna manufacturing is probably one of those businesses where the
> capital
> investment required is fairly low. You can contract out the manufacture
> of
> the machined parts in small lots, and all you do is package up the parts
> and mail them out. The trick is in hitting a ham-acceptable price target,
> which is very, very difficult to do (unless you have access to some other
SteppIR is also a small business, yet it's only problem is that the volume
of sales is so high they have trouble making enough antennas, and the
price is actually fairly high (expensive but worth it). The difference is
that
you can't homebrew a SteppIR like you can with a quad. SteppIR shows that
if you have a really good product, you will be successful. The LB quad
was a nice implementation, but nothing special.
The price target thing comes up with products like the Hazer that are
expensive, but NOT worth it. In that case, you can homebrew a better
version AND save money (speaking as an owner of a previously owned
Hazer and glad I didn't pay the new price).
BTW, one way of cultivating suppliers if you are a low volume
business is to find small suppliers for which your volume is significant.
In the long run, you may be better off paying them more than the
big guys, who could suddenly lose interest. Where I work, we go
through mom and pop distributors to buy connectors at ridiculous
markups. Sure beats getting long delivery and high minimum orders
from the manufacturer. We'd rather make less money and stay in
business.
Rick N6RK
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