[1000mp] QST Product Reviews whitewash

[Joe Subich, K4IK]

> your forgetting , Yaesu , Icom , kenwood are major advertising income 
> for qst. there not going to bite the hand that feed them !!!
 

Actually, I am not ... 

Products have been slammed before - even products from major vendors - 
and the vendor has fixed the problem or developed a better replacement. 
If the product review process had a clear and reasonable standard of 
expected performance, I suspect Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, etc. would make 
every effort to market products that would meet the standard. 

Over the last few years standards product reviews have done a great 
deal to improve receiver MDS, dynamic range and phase noise issues.  
However, there hasn't been the came attention to detail when it comes 
to transmit characteristics.  Thus we now have transmitted IMD as bad 
as -18 dB (based on the commercial standard) and significant key click 
problems with most of the rigs on the market (even the high dollar 
rigs like the FT-1000D, MK-V, high end Icoms, etc.).  

It is time for the product review process to expect the same level 
of performance from transmitters as receivers.  Features are nice 
but they should not come at the expense of basic performance! 

73, 

   ... Joe, K4IK