[TenTec] 7800 purchases (was Orion in contests)

[Steve Baron - KB3MM]

What is a COTS radio?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Adam Farson" <farson at shaw.ca>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 18:55
Subject: RE: [TenTec] 7800 purchases (was Orion in contests)


> Hi Rob,
>
> You made some very good points concerning the "target audiences" for the
> IC-7800.
>
> I believe that the street price will be in the $7K ~ 8K range; a little
rich
> for Joe Ham, but peanuts for the alphabet-soup agencies who normally buy
> from the likes of Rockwell-Collins, R&S, Racal/Thales, Harris etc. I am
sure
> that GCHQ, NATO and their brethren are looking to replace their venerable
> IC-781's. It is probably true that Icom's bread and butter lies in the
> mil/gov and commercial sectors.
>
> Several matters bear pointing out here:
>
> 1. There is a big international marketplace out there. North America is
not
> the only land-mass on the planet.
>
> 2. Hams are not the only people in that wide world who buy and use HF
radio
> equipment. There are all kinds of military, governmental and commercial
> entities to whom a first-class COTS radio represents an excellent,
> cost-effective alternative to full mil-spec.
>
> 3. These entities do not need to concern themselves too much about
> type-approval. In many cases, they either are, or control, their national
> radio regulatory agency. When the defence procurement service, the radio
> regulatory service and the ministry of finance are all playing on the same
> team, things can go remarkably smoothly.
>
> 4. As its transmitter and main receiver are restricted by design to
> amateur-band coverage only, the Orion is by definition locked out of these
> potentially highly lucrative markets which, as you intimated, will more
than
> pick up the slack once amateur demand begins to taper off. This is
> regrettable.
>
> Cheers for now, 73,
> Adam VA7OJ/AB4OJ
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Rob Atkinson, K5UJ
> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 07:12
> To: tentec at contesting.com
> Cc: k5uj at hotmail.com
> Subject: [TenTec] 7800 purchases (was Orion in contests)
>
>
> <<<I was at the Fort Wayne, IN Hamfest last wk end. Talked to Icom, the
7800
> will be more like $10,000?
>
> AND the first run is spoken for. Go Figure...
> Lee>>>
>
> I also doubted there would be very many 7800s sold at that price but--
> Quick story to give some insight into this:  I was at a vendor last summer
> and the talk turned to the 7800.  Now, this is someone who has been in the
> business side of ham radio for many years and knows a few things about the
> market I'd never realize.  He asked me to guess how many 7800s Icom would
> sell to hams:
>
> Me:  World wide?
> Vendor:  Yeah.
> Me:  (thinking) Umm, oh, at $10K, probably 300.
> Vendor:  Ha, try more like three thousand.
>
> He went on to explain that there are a lot of guys with lots of money for
> this hobby--many more than I would have guessed.
>
> Also, a couple of other points:  Firstly, you all don't really think Icom
is
> making the 7800 just for hams do you?  I have been told when their last
> super rig, the one with the CRT (781?) came out, they sold around a
thousand
> to NATO.  Those are old rigs now; the 7800 (or it's mil spec cousin) is
> supposedly being built to be sold to government users as a replacement.
> This is heresay--I do not have any facts to support this, however it seems
> in some way plausable since the cost of designing, building and selling a
> really high end product can't be borne by the ham market alone.  Collins
> owners laugh when people act as if the S Line was built for hams.
Secondly,
> the civilian ham product price will probably drop after a few thousand are
> sold around the world to goverments.
>
> Rob Atkinson
> K5UJ
>
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