[Boatanchors] Re: Today's gear in 2055?

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 9/27/05, Jim Wilhite <w5jo at brightok.net> wrote:
> One has but to try to find some of the processors in ham
> equipment produced just 5 - 10 years ago today to find what
> you are speaking about in modern commercial equipment.  It
> will be gone after the lightning strike or when a voltage
> surge comes down the electrical line.

This was very clearly illustrated a few weeks back when I retrieved a
1946 Raytheon RA-1000 from certain demise in NC. It was built almost
60 years ago but was taken out of service only 2 years ago this
November, and then only because the new station owners had gotten a
new solid state not-so-trouble free transmitter. The Raytheon not only
came with plenty of spares from tubes to transformers, but some
zorched iron had been replaced by Peter Dahl custom wound jobs. Not
cheap by any means, but it shows how simple it is to keep older gear
going as opposed to today's stuff with manufactured obsolescence
included. QualComm was even able to retrofit this old transmitter for
AM stereo, with excellent results according to the station engineer.

I'd attribute its survival to the fact that the equipment was
manufactured to work 24/7 and not fail, a sharp contrast to today's
whizbang gear that will be outdated by design in the near future. That
and engineers who care(d) more about signal quality and reliability
than $. This transmitter was obviously well-cared for, over many
decades.

> Change for the better is one thing, change for the sake of
> change is not good for anyone.

Unless it sells more subscriptions and new equipment for your
advertisers. The neverending band aid fix for something that was never
really broken. (o:

~ Todd/'Boomer'  KA1KAQ