[TenTec] New Radios in the Future

[Al Gulseth]

If "modern hams have moved beyond the crystal radio" why are there so many web 
pages on how to build one? While quite a few are tinkering with computerized 
stuff there is still a lot of interest in non-digital radios - look at the 
QRP forms as an example. (Note that the TT 13xx series must still be selling 
reasonably well as they haven't disappeared from the web site.) Also, I still 
haven't found a digital rig that is as "ear pleasing" to me as a well 
designed pure analog rig - and I think I'm not alone in this regard.

While you may not be aware of it, computer tinkering (by hams and otherwise) 
has been going on for as long as I can remember - there were kits for "analog 
computers" in the 1950s, and later on the ham mags were packed with ads for 
6800 and 8080 based systems and parts. I remember a guy back in the mid 1980s 
who had significantly modified an Osborne "portable" (in quotes because it 
was about the size of a sewing machine case) with extra disk drives and no 
telling what else. He had a surplus IBM power supply which was bigger than 
the computer sitting under the desk to power it. It was a hoot to see.

"The more things change, the more things stay the same."

Just my $0.02 worth.... 73, Al

On Sat November 1 2014 7:11:14 am Richards wrote:
> Geeze, Rick ... now you sound ... well...  kinda OLD ... ;-)      ;-)
>
> Modern hams have moved beyond the crystal radio and (as someone on this
> list says)  building a kit without experimenting is just solder practice.
>
> What was fun for you may not be fun for other hams.  Stuff changes and
> it is neither good nor bad... just different.  I don't want to build my
> grandfather's radio kit - I want to build the future of radio.   Look at
> all the computer programming that is going on in ham radio.  Would
> anyone suggest we go back to when we did not have computers?   I think
> of N8LP who builds complex power meters and panadapters, and who will
> (someday) will release the very complex and capable LP-500 station
> monitor - very advanced stuff unavailable just a years ago.