[CQ-Contest] Lost leading 'dit' - summary

[VR2BrettGraham]

KC1F & W9SZ have noted some examples of Japanese cars with long lives,
which counter my point about our perceived quality of Japanese products
(such as radios), which tend to "work right out of the box", have various slick
features that aren't necessarily so important, but in the long run aren't 
made to
last.  The perception of "quality" is increasingly based on the frills & not on
things of substance.

Although the trend is towards longer lasting & less or not serviceable major
components & this could skew things as later cars put in the time to equal the
examples given, weren't most JA-brand cars for NA still built in JA during 
the early
to mid-80s?

Kind of like other things, the nifty, practical & refreshing JA cars of the 
70s only
later started sprouting things like motorized wing mirrors, adding the 
frilly bits to
the basic economical, reliable product in the 80s.  The domestic market started
adding turbos & four wheel drive to just about everything in a vendor's product
line, whilst some of the philosophy got hollowed out as it no longer needed to
last due to road tax (plenty of value left in a 2nd-hand JA car at the time 
in UA0
or VR2 & even after use in VR2, 3rd-hand on to JT, AP, YA & even 4W).

Meanwhile, NA domestic market started to get NA-built JA products based on
the previous generation of domestic product (which I would liken to the 
late 70s
to mid 80s Honda car - best mix of fluff, reliability & longitivity).  It would
take time to recreate the same manufacturing environment in NA as existed in
JA previously & this was a part of the Japanese success of the proceeding
decade.  As manufacturing equivalence ramps up, wake-up call sounds loud &
clear with domestic industry, who make a bit of a come-back...

Kind of like the rise & falls of civilizations, the evolution of product 
design,
manufacturing & the markets for motor cars or consumer electronics products
have interesting parallels sometimes.  I feel that the Japanese era may be on
the way out for amateur radio equipment... perfect time for someone to fill the
void.

73, VR2BrettGraham