[Hammarlund] HQ-110...rats...

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl" <km1h at jeremy.mv.com>
To: <kgordon2006 at frontier.com>; <Hammarlund at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2011 3:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Hammarlund] HQ-110...rats...


>I hate cheap manufacturers!
>
> The same problem occured when trying to replace the 0Z4 
> with a 6X5 in
> certain OEM brand auto radios.
>
> Carl
> KM1H
>
      The problem is that the designer had to meet the 
requirement for a competitive sales price. Since the cost of 
manufacture is usually a fraction of the final price what 
seem to be minor economies in design can make a significant 
difference in the sales price. Since you worked for a 
manufacturer I think you know this. The trouble is that for 
most consumer products serviceability may be limited to 
simple replacement of some parts. Changing the rectifier 
tube may seem to be a small item but is really sort of 
re-engineering and that was very likely never considered 
when deciding how to build the set. Of course, 
serviceability is given no thought in modern designs: they 
are intended to be expendable. When it stops working you are 
supposed to dispose of it and buy something new. A lot of 
modern things have an expected life of perhaps five to ten 
years, then the trash can. This is not, of course, true of 
everything, but I think its more often true than not.
     Making something cheaply and still have it functional 
may be a engineering triumph but may short the customer.
     Mostly older items, and I mean much more than radio 
equipment, was built to last because that's what the 
customers expected. What are now really old radios, stuff 
from, say, the mid-1950s and before, can usually be made to 
work as well as they did when new. That may not come up the 
performance of some modern rig, but, in fifty or sixty, or 
seventy years, those super-duper rice boxes will have long 
since been ground up into mandolin picks.
     Some time ago I bought a brand new pop-up toaster with 
a familiar brand name but made in China. It lasted about a 
year and failed in a way that could not be fixed. It went 
into the trash. I have now two or three toasters that are 
probably forty years old, all from the thrift shop. All work 
as they did when new and will probably continue to work for 
a long time.
     Of course, the company that produced the Chinese 
toaster will probably sell a lot of new toasters because 
many people won't buy anything really old, and, besides, its 
as cheap brand new as the forty year old toaster was in the 
thrift shop. The old toaster took the original buyer out of 
the market, the cheap, temporary, Chinese toaster does not. 
Its like buying a candy bar: you eat it and have to get 
another one.
     I guess it makes the stock holders happy. BTW, do the 
stock holders buy these toasters?
     All this has nothing to do with Hammarlund, just OT 
rant.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com