[Elecraft] Heathkit Returns!

[Matthew Pitts]

Dave, 

You may not be able to buy much at the local Radio Shack, and there may not be any other local source for the components, but that doesn't mean that you and I cannot buy the parts needed to home-brew ham radio gear; even the PC Boards can be designed by a ham that's willing to take the time to learn how to design one, and have the boards made by a company that has the equipment to do it. 

Matthew Pitts
N8OHU
Sent from my Wireless Device

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave KK7SS <kk7ss at frontier.com>
Sender: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 16:15:41 
To: elecraft_mailman.qth.net<Elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Heathkit Returns!

Ed,

I beg to differ on one point

>> So SMT did not take it from hams - 
>> the hams took HB out of hamradio. 

In my opinion, what took the 'HB' out of Ham radio was the decline in descrete parts that you could see and handle.
I think that the electronics industries ubiquitous use of SMTs, LSI's, GPA's etc. caused the decline in demand in manufacturing of the more expensive and labor intensive items like tubes, variable caps, resistors. etc.

Add PCB's and flow soldering to the equation and it became no longer cost-effective to manufacture parts for a relatively small private(?) market.

73 de

--
Dave G  KK7SS
 Richland, WA

'59 Morris Minor 1000 - working on it..
'65 Sprite - running with a bad valve guide :(
'76 Midget - co-owned with #4 Son :)
'06 Honda Civic Hybrid
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