[Boatanchors] vacuum tube radio kits

[manualman at juno.com]

These are a few things that came to my mind:
1. You need to develop a detailed business and marketing plan
2. Is there really a market to justify time and effort and monetary
investment
3. Is your goal to make any profit or just recoup costs
4. How do you plan to advertise or make your product known
5. Can you write a detailed construction manual
6. Are you prepared for possible liabilities
7. If the kit offering is a transmitter, is there any interaction with
the FCC
8. Support, and costs of support, need to be considered


Pete, wa2cwa


On Thu, 5 Aug 2010 08:51:24 EDT Troglodite at aol.com writes:
> In a message dated 8/5/2010 4:40:35 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
> np2or at yahoo.com writes:
> 
> As a  boatanchor fan and user, I favor the technology of vacuum tube 
> 
> radios.  
> There are many solid state kits on the market these days but few 
> offering  
> vintage design and Heathkit-style assembly. I am considering 
> developing  
> and 
> offering vacuum tube kits through an internet store. The kits would  
> focus 
> on, 
> but not be limited to QRP radios starting with a design  developed 
> and 
> published 
> in QST a few years ago based on the Tuna Tin II  model. This kit 
> would be a 
> vacuum tube model. An auxiliary device is the  power supply. 
> 
> 
> Vacuum tube components are not as inexpensive as  solid state stuff 
> so the 
> kit 
> for the radio would have to sell at about  $99.
> Before I get too far in this I need to assess the potential market.  
> 
> 
> 1. Would vacuum tube kits be of interest to you?
> 
> 2. Would you  spend $99 for a kit to build a vacuum tube QRP 
> transmitter?
> 
> 3. If we  were to essentially reproduce a Heathkit AT-1 type radio 
> and 
> could 
> market  it for under $200 would you consider purchasing?
> 
> 4. What vacuum tube  kits would you like to see on the market?
> 
> Thank you for your time and  attention.
> 
> Jack,
>  
> I grew up with vacuum tubes, built many vacuum tube rigs, and 
> certainly  
> have a fondness for them. However, I think that there may be 
> problems with 
> such  a product, based on what I have seen in the last few years. 
> This is just 
> my own  opinion, based on experience, and the fact that I would 
> probably 
> qualify as a  potential customer.
>  
> Most of the people who would be interested in such a product are 
> probably  
> "old timers." The newer Hams don't really seem to have all that much 
> 
> interest in  old technology, except as a curiosity. There are 
> younger Hams those 
> who might  restore an old vacuum tube product, but might not be 
> interested in 
> building one  from scratch. The "old timers" are probably capable of 
> home 
> brewing their own  vacuum tube QRP gear, if that is their interest. 
> A kit 
> would have to be fairly  cheap to be attractive, and in that case it 
> isn't as 
> good a business proposition  unless you can convince the Chinese to 
> make it. 
> :-)
>  
> Several years ago a club in the South attempted to market a copy of 
> the  
> (in)famous Ameco Novice transmitter. They were sincere and did a 
> good job on  
> design and fabrication, but they gave up after a few months and 
> probably 
> ended  up eating a lot of hard tooled chassis and parts. I don't 
> really know, 
> but they  didn't succeed. The Ameco was about as bare bones as you 
> could get, 
> but was  complete on one chassis including an AC power supply.
>  
> Similarly, there was a guy making an AA5 tube receiver kit on a 
> plastic  
> chassis, which was also available as a shortwave model. Irrespective 
> of the  
> usual criticism of transformerless designs, it wasn't a bad kit at 
> all, but 
> he  too failed after a few months.
>  
> No doubt there have been others of which I am unaware. There are 
> also parts 
>  supply problems with vacuum tube kits. NOS tubes are still 
> available in  
> quantity, but they are no longer cheap. Some Russian tubes like 
> 6V6's are 
> also  available and are quite good, others, like the Chinese copy of 
> the 6L6 
> are not  very good. Tube sockets, RF chokes, higher voltage 
> capacitors,  
> transformers etc. are all available, but not cheap like they used to 
> be.  
> Everything these days is geared to solid state and PC boards. No 
> doubt you  already 
> know this.
>  
> But the biggest problem appears to be that there just isn't the 
> interest  
> any more from the general Amateur Radio populace. Those that are 
> interested 
> will  probably roll their own.
>  
> This is what I have found. Of course your mileage may vary. I'd be  
> 
> interested in opinions of others.
>  
> Doug Moore kb9tmy (Formerly k6hwy, originally licensed in 1954)