I wasn't active in ham radio at the time of Heathkit's demise, so I don't know what they were doing or not doing in the ham radio arena, but they certainly were't lacking for expertise in solid-state electronics. I built their AR-15 stereo radio kit while I was on a Navy ammunition ship in Vietnam, and later built their H-89 computer, which was "state of the art" at the time, albeit primitive by today's standards. These were very well-designed solid state products. Heathkit had many others, including an excellent color TV that had only one vacuum tube in it - the picture tube. I know they had solid state ham products, such as a two meter amplifier. I have no idea how they stacked up to the competition in terms of quality and value. However, since they were truly leading edge with solid state hi-fi and computer kits, among other things, I am puzzled by the assertion that Heathkit was not able to move from the vacuum tube era to solid state products.
Lew K6LMP On Jan 7, 2011, at 1:44 PM, k...@baymoon.com wrote: > I don't disagree with Brian's plaudits for Elecraft's focus on customer > service but that wasn't the primary reason that the companies he sited > went out of business. In a book entitled "The Innovator's Dilemma," the > author showed that large companies get caught when technologies change. > Heath, Drake, Collins and others were leaders before solid-state > technology advanced. They were simply not quick enough on their feet to > make the switch to solid state that allowed Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood to eat > their lunch. And, now, that software-defined radio has moved from > edge-of-the-art to state-of-the-art, those companies are being surpassed > as leaders by companies like Elecraft. Historically, leaders in one > technology are not able to make the leap as quickly as new innovators who > don't have the legacy baggage to drag behind them. IBM led in mainframes, > but DEC and HP led in minicomputers, and so on. Nokia led in cell phones, > but is having its lunch eaten by Apple, HTC, LG and Samsung in > smartphones. Customer service is just one part of the complex reasons why > new leaders emerge. > > Rob K6RB ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
