K9STH
01-29-2002, 06:05 AM
Well, two out of the three reasons you give are pretty accurate: Costly and bulky. The "hard" part is not really true. Look at rigs like the Uniden HR-2510 that have AM, FM, SSB, and CW.
Back in 1969, Motorola came out with a portable unit (it was only a 2 frequency radio at the time) that was smaller than a pack of regular "smokes"! However, they didn't sell very well because everyone thought that they were way too small to work! They were about the size of the smallest cellular telephones, and even a little bit thinner. It was quite a number of years before anyone tried to make a VHF or UHF FM portable that small again.
The biggest problem with miniaturization of equipment is not technology, it is the human interface! You can only make knobs so small before they get to the point that you can't readily turn them! Or, the dial gets so small that you can't read it without a magnifying glass! The technology to make things extremely small has been around for years, we, as humans, just can't interface with it!
Glen, K9STH
Contact: gzook@attbi.com
Back in 1969, Motorola came out with a portable unit (it was only a 2 frequency radio at the time) that was smaller than a pack of regular "smokes"! However, they didn't sell very well because everyone thought that they were way too small to work! They were about the size of the smallest cellular telephones, and even a little bit thinner. It was quite a number of years before anyone tried to make a VHF or UHF FM portable that small again.
The biggest problem with miniaturization of equipment is not technology, it is the human interface! You can only make knobs so small before they get to the point that you can't readily turn them! Or, the dial gets so small that you can't read it without a magnifying glass! The technology to make things extremely small has been around for years, we, as humans, just can't interface with it!
Glen, K9STH
Contact: gzook@attbi.com