[TenTec] OT: Radios? Why are they Radios? (Was Radio debate)

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

I was QRT for around 18 years and became active again around 4 years ago.  
When I was active before, transmitters-receivers/transceivers were called 
rigs.  When I came back they all had become "radios."  I kind of went with 
it with some perplexity but I've decided to ask what happened because a guy 
wrote an article in CQ this month, telling his tale of being QRT for around 
45 years and coming back, and he asked the same thing in his article.  
What's this "Radio" jazz all about?  Where did that come from?  A radio is 
this consumer electronics appliance folks use to swl, hear weather alerts,  
broadcast transmissions, police, fire etc.  A T4 isn't a radio.  Neither is 
a KWM2, or an Orion or anything else in a shack that delivers and receives 
RF.  They're rigs.  We're hams.  We have rigs.  We don't need no stinkin' 
radios.  Next, the shack will be called the radio room.

Rob Atkinson
K5UJ

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