[Premium-Rx] WJ8711A-3 special government edition to sale

[watkins-johnson at terryo.org]

The RX-340 and WJ-8711/HF-1000 were competing designs submitted in
response to a government proposal.  Watkins-Johnson won the contract and
Ten-Tec grumbled loud and long afterward.  The constraints of the RFP are
why the front panels look similar.

To my knowledge, which is based on interviews with more than twenty WJ
engineers, Ten-Tec and Watkins-Johnson have never worked together.  In
fact sometimes the East Coast and West Coast division of Watkins-Johnson
had difficulty working together.  And for a short while there were two
divisions within Gaitherburg competing with each other for the same
contracts.

Terry O'
Watkins-Johnson at terryo.org
http://Watkins-Johnson.terryo.org
http://BlackRadios.terryo.org
Facebook:  BlackRadios and BlackRadioSwap





> My understanding is that WJ and Ten Tec were working jointly on a new
> receiver for the government, but the jointness ended when WJ suddenly put
> out a consumer version of the receiver, i.e., the HF 1000.
>
> Given the similarities, I do wonder why the 8711 is 20 inches deep while
> the RX-340 is only 12 inches deep.  It makes one easy to fit into the
> shack and the other difficult.
>
> -- Art Delibert