The wilderness radio sierra does 160 to 10, has a better receiver, 5 watts out, variable bandwidth, a vfo, a case, and costs about $200.00 I think.
So I think a 10 meter AM rig could be built without a lot more expense. I find there are plenty of nice interesting people to talk to on AM, but not during prime time. 80 and 40 meters weekend mornings are best for me. Brett N2DTS ----- Original Message ----- From: "LEE BAHR" <pulsa...@embarqmail.com> To: "Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service" <amradio@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 2:56 PM Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Retro 75 >I have a Retro 75 and it is great. I also don't represent Dave Benson the > designer. That said I think Dave decided to design a simple fun radio to > build which is very usable at a very attractive price. As I see it, > putting > a rig like this on 10 meters will require more parts, more stability, and > much more expensive crystals, plus a more costly output transistor. The > aligning would be more involved too. This design was for a nostalgic > return > to the past with an inexpensive price. I doubt you will see a ten meter > version ever produced. Maybe if the 80 meter kit took off, you might see > one for 160 meters or even 40 meters but that would be it. You can't take > months designing something, kitting it and then only sell 50 kits at > $65.00. > Understand too, there is a great financial stress on anyone coming up with > the needed operating crystals at an affordable price. You can't supply a > $30.00 crystal in a $65.00 kit. It's got to be in the $3.00 range. How > many > guys want to have 2000 made for $2.00 each and sell them for $3.00? It > would take a club with a great designer with everyone doing all the work > for > free and then charging a near cost price for the kit to sell an AM rig for > 10 meters at around $80 with no cabinet included. (I used a very nice Ten > Tec cabinet for around $6.00 for this project). > > I also, just built, a Ft Tuthill 80 CW transceiver offered by the > Scorpians > QRP group. They kitted the transceiver for $50.00 and it is VFO > controlled > with around a plus 50 khz tuning range. This too is a really nice nice > kit. > It works very nicely and is very stable. (I made a great looking home > made > case for this radio out of PC board material so the radio fits into the > box > like a glove) I think a VFO approach to 10 meters would be better then > using a costly crystal on ten meters. Of course, at this frequency, it > would take some effort producing a stable oscillator. > > "Through hole" parts are also becoming obsolete. Spending time designing > a > transceiver only to find out parts in your design are now no longer > available is not too exciting for a designer. How many guys out there per > centage wise, want to build something with 150 surface mount parts? Then > too, how many designers want to "help" guys who have built this surface > mount wonder when after it is turned on for the first time and it doesn't > work. > > The other problem I see is as the price increases, the demand falls off. > I > think many of todays hams would prefer a SSB radio over an AM or FM radio. > You start getting into $150.00 for radio and cabinet and many are going to > start questioning, "Do I want to spend $150 for a one band radio? The > more > you add to the project the more considerations need to be addressed. The > considerations are not all electrical but the social ones become more > important. > > I have been licensed since 1953. I love to build and restore radios. I > love boat anchors and also QRP as I can restore stuff and build stuff. I > rarely operate because I have very little in common with most hams today > and > don't belong to any "group" operating on one frequency. When I do operate > it is usually on CW or talking to a close friend. I own a KW broadcast > transmitter, KW-1 all the way down to an Ameco AC-1 clone and many QRP > rigs. > Just my thoughts. > > Lee, w0vt > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/amradio@mailman.qth.net/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: AMRadio@mailman.qth.net To unsubscribe, send an email to amradio-requ...@mailman.qth.net with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
