[TenTec] The Near Future

[al_lorona at agilent.com]

AN INTERVIEW WITH JACK SPRAT - VICE-PRESIDENT, AMATEUR RADIO SALES, KENSUCOM, INC.


CW Forever magazine caught up with Jack Sprat at his Seattle apartment to talk about the current state of amateur radio inside Kensucom.

CW Forever:  Thank you for spending a few minutes with us.

Sprat: It's an honor and a pleasure.

CWF: What can you tell us about things?

Sprat: Well, exciting things are happening. We have a new high-end transceiver that will revolutionize ham radio. We are coming out with a line of ham "gadgets". And we are finally dropping CW capability from our product line.

CWF: Did we hear you correctly? Your radios won't have CW any more?

Sprat: It's about time! For more than twenty years, our research has told us that CW was dying. Use of that mode has steadily decreased, and with the growth of the World Wide Web we believe that not only will it die, but that the FCC will actually outlaw it.

CWF: On what grounds?

Sprat: On the grounds that it is a poor use of spectrum. The new digital modes are much more efficient with bandwidth. We expect that both AM and SSB will also be phased out for the same reason.

CWF: So, the FCC will only allow those modes that are the most spectrally efficient to continue? Is that the only criterion applied nowadays to determine the suitability of a particular mode?

Sprat: You bet. Bandwidth is everything. That's why you have such an outcry over SSB signals wider than 1.8 kHz. There's no point to it! Guys doing that are just plain crazy.

CWF: But the CW waveshapes transmitted by Kensucom's transceivers have been part of the problem. Poor shaping that increases the width of a CW signal.

Sprat: We always believed that CW operation was never a showstopper for the typical ham shopping for equipment. There are other things that are far more... that offer the 'curb appeal' that sells equipment. For example, our knobs don't wobble. Another example is our screen fonts. Another is the size of our logo. Things that hams are much more concerned about, and great differentiators for us.

CWF: But then if what you are proposing comes to pass, that would leave only... the digital modes.

Sprat: And your point is? Voice communications with digital modulation have been around for decades. 

CWF: It just seems a little totalitarian to restrict the options that your customers have.

Sprat: One man's totalitarianism is another's socialist paradise. Hams for years wanted the FCC to take an active role in policing the bands, and hams are very happy with the result and in fact are clamoring for more government intrusion. Kensucom would like to share in that intrusion.

CWF: And your plans for AM, FM, and SSB?

Sprat: Eventually, they will go the same way as CW and spark. The 2.4 kHz taken up by an SSB signal can be recycled for many, many other better uses. We've already demonstrated the success of a two-way digital voice contact in a 500 Hz bandwidth.

CWF: But the quality was horrible!

Sprat: Hey, have you ever heard the astronauts? You can barely understand them, but somehow they tolerate it. Ham radio communications is not about high fidelity, it's about suffering through distortion. It's about listener's fatigue. They're *amateurs*. Why do you think up until now our transceivers have sounded like they do on SSB? And why do you think the CW waveshapes are the way they are? Besides, how much fidelity do you need to say, 'How's my signal?', and, 'You're 50 over 9 here tonight.'

CWF: Are you concerned about the declining numbers of hams?

Sprat: Of course we are. That's another trend we've been following closely. There are two ways to deal with this. The first is to get competitive with pricing, but why start a price war if you don't have to? The second is to incorporate features and marketing techniques we've developed for our consumer market. It's amazing what a few blue LEDs will do. Same goes for S-meter graphics and a few other tricks. 

CWF: What else is in the works?

Sprat: Well, once the number of modes has been reduce to digital protocols, we believe that we can do away with tuning knobs. Once again, our research department is right on it. Hams only ever operate on multiples of 1 kHz. Have you ever heard a QSO where one ham insists that the other tune to exactly 3.9700000000 MHz? You know, 'You're 10 Hz high today. Get on frequency.' Of course, that will eliminate an important differentiator-- our low knob wobble, but we are confident that we can fill the void with other features important to hams. Like the shapes of our buttons.

CWF: You mentioned a new transceiver at the beginning of this interview. What can you tell us about it?

Sprat: Not too much. You won't know too much until it hits the stores because we don't publish advance information. However, you can expect a 3 GHz processor with LAN ports, 15-inch color display, and CD-ROM drive.

CWF: But that sounds just like a--

Sprat: --A computer? Wait until you see the built-in TV tuner and MP3 player.

CWF: But no CW.

Sprat: Right.

CWF: And no knob.

Sprat: No knob.

CWF: Is there anything else we should know about?

Sprat: Not really, unless you mean our first 'no-RF' radio. That is, a radio that puts out packets on the Internet. Amateur radio is really going on-line. DX with phone lines, instead of humungous antennas. It's the next big thing.

CWF: Thank you for talking to us.

Sprat: It's been my pleasure.

CWF: I think I need a drink.