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Obscure Radios and why some did not succeed!

In recent days I have had several email exchanges with W4OP, Dale and W9RAN, Bob. In the course of those discussions SSB radio models came up that never really made it to market. Certainly, companies like Gonset, E F Johnson and Cosmophone were not obscure and had a track record, but they really never had the success with SSB products like Heathkit, Swan, Drake, Collins and of course Atlas. 

That is a key issue as none of these companies exist today building ham equipment. So, what caused some to not enter a market or others to withdraw. An over simplistic answer is foreign competition. You know FBC, Faster, Better and Cheaper. That in my opinion is only part of the answer. 

The other part may involve the people versus a team. Swan and Atlas are synonymous with Herb Johnson. E F Johnson and Gonset, were family-owned companies as was Drake and Collins. We shouldn't forget Hallicrafters (Bill Halligan) and of course WRL (Leo Myerson) and Ten Tec (Al Khan).

One must ponder if product decisions were made based on market research or the "gut" of a single individual who started the company. There is also a bit of we are going to give it to you, and you will like it. 

I recently saw some photos of a Gonset GC-102 SSB transceiver -- it looked Klunky to me!







Look at that dial readout. You would need a 10X magnifying glass sitting in front of that small window to even guess what band and what 10kHz segment. Yes, it did have a Collins filter, but why all of the IF transformer cans. The exposed variable multiple variable capacitors shouts -- alignment issues.

The front panel has no "sex appeal" and appears rather bland. I suspect the GC-102 cost over $600 in 1967. That is about $6000 today.

Supposedly, the GC-102 would do 150 watts which is less than a Swan 500 or a Drake TR-4. Hallicrafters built some great gear that is until the FPM-300 which was competing in a market with radios from Japan. Rubber Band driven band switches are a bad idea and proved to be so. However, if you remove the main board (all SS) and S Meter from the FPM 300 and build around it, the result is a quite good radio. 



Just take a hard look at who is building radios in the US today and you can count them on one hand.  (FLEX, Elecraft and a few small boutique CW rig manufacturers) True FLEX and Elecraft sell lots of radios but there is a step function in their pricing. I simply could not afford a FLEX 8000 nor a K4. For those who would shout what about Ten Tec. Vaporware is a great word. 

So do you think tariffs will drive US companies to start building ham radios. I doubt it as we have lost a generation of innovators that once existed here and that too is needed to be successful. I would not call the GC-102 an innovation. There are no more Herb Johnson's sitting behind door #3.

Them that know can make it go.

73's 
Pete N6QW

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