[Amps] Vertex_Yaesu Merger

[Peter Chadwick]

Roger said;
>It takes little searching through older Yaesu radio models on the net to 
find that they used many solid state components that were near the end of 
life cycle which would have made supporting them after new models came out 
problematic at best. <

This is likely to happen whenever integrated circuits, other than perhaps standard logic families, are used.

With the experience of some 28 years in the semics industry, I say it will be more and more likely to happen that spares just cannot be obtained. Whenever an ASIC (Application Specific  Integrated Circuit) is used, continiuity of supply is a problem. So much so that at the company at which I work, the UK Government has funded keeping people on for 5 years who otherwise have been laid off, to support special military ASICs made in low volumes!
So an old rig full of discrete transistors has a better chance of being kept going....another reason to keep my FT102..

The UK military HF/VHF system called Clansman had integrated circuits especially designed for it - some of them became the Plessey Semiconductors SL600 series, which were also used in various US mil projects, such as the the PRC104 HF man pack from Hughes. When in 1982, Plessey stopped making some of the more specialist devices for Clansman ( those on a gold doped process), a 'last buy' put spares in one warehouse. A susbequent fire wiped those out.......I gather that the Clansman radios are now being cannibalised to provide a number of radios and spares to sell to various African armies.  But without the availability of spare ICs, it seems a bit dodgy to me. The same applies to modern amateur radios.
Too much 'unobtainium'.
The semiconductor industry likes to see 'design to total obsolence' in five years. There are times when one wonders if they want that to apply to the employees, too, because it sure seems like it.
73
Peter G3RZP