A Video History of Ham Radio HF Rig Visual Design—Military to Modern

Ham Radio Perspectives looks at how radio designers have tried to modernize the look of equipment from military rigs to the present. Quin (K8QS, aka "Dr. Q") and Tom (WA9TDD) show how manufacturers from Hallicrafters and National to Kenwood and Icom have sought to maintain the communications "function" through evolving visual "forms." Do all modern HF rigs look essentially the same now? What do amateur radio operators like and dislike about how rigs "look"? Join the conversation.

 

Oh, man, I came so close to closing the whole video after that opening.

 

Thanks for our note. We're looking for feedback. What about the rest of the video? Quin, K8QS

 

An interesting, thoughtful and well-presented review of rig design influences and evolution, but I agree with the previous comment that the opening isn't cool. Lose that part and it's a real winner.

 

Great. We'll remove that section. Thanks much. Q

 

Love the topic. I think a lot of engineering types would like to think they are all about function over form, but I will happily admit that I want both. And indeed, at some point form IS function.

 

Feedback?

I would suggest it is not necessary to watch you two guys talking to each other. Honest, YT has waaay too much face time for most vidss.

It would allow for more screen space thus, better res for pjotos etc.

Just my $0.02.

 

What'd I miss?

 

I wonder if the form shapes our perceptions of a radio -- looks matter -- even though we think about a rig in terms of its function (operation). At least this is true in consumer electronics. Q

 

You missed our first sponsor (fake): D-XXX factor, a pill to take for great DXing, etc. Just a spoof.

 

Good point about the length of the video. As we are working on others, we are going to try to move them along more quickly. Hard for me, as an academic (Piled Higher and Deeper). Q

 

Ah... Great comedy often challenges boundaries and is misunderstood. Back when I was doing broadcast radio on KBOI, I often had fake "sponsors" as part of the lighter content of the program. My show wasn't 'scripted' but I was acutely aware that my odd sense of humor could easily offend, so things like the phony ads and PSAs were prerecord, programmed into the bumps and -always- ran past my producer first.

 

Dave, I like your tower project on your QRZ page. Thanks for your note about comedy. Tom and I have produced a video of real ham radio pranks. Check it out on our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3MJT8o8-XMxF8XROf7Q5GA/videos

Q, K8QS

 

Nice but other thatn the "cover photo" they ignored the first 50 years of Ham radio- 1900 to 1950. Would have been nice to see the history of manufactured rigs from a hundred years ago.

 

Nice run thru on rig evolution's..

I think you should of included the KMW-380 in the mix.