Issue #35: An Editorial on Copycat Ham Radio Products

When it comes to Comet, Diamond, and Nagoya, there are copycats galore. Some of them are great and perform almost identically while others are blatant knockoffs which provide mediocre performance at best. One of the Gabil antennas I purchased a while back (the GRA-HA750B) fit in the latter category as it was apparently a knockoff of a failed design by Comet. Basically the antenna was supposed to be designed for use on 40-10m but only effectively worked on 40m regardless of what kind of tuner I used. Other products from Gabil are actually somewhat decent, like GRA-7350T. Apparently Gabil has gotten better over the years, but they are still mainly copycats of more expensive antennas. Then there are the Gabil knockoffs of the MFJ Toybox antenna as well as the brandless knockoffs of the MFJ-1979 (which actually perform almost identically to the brand name antennas).

 

Thanks Sebastian. The antenna world probably has more proliferation of copycats than any other aspect of ham radio, I agree. I've got several Chinese knock-offs of US products such as Buddipole. I don't like it, but sometimes that's what you end up with. It's harder for an antenna to have it's own look. Basically you're dealing with solid construction. To me, the "style" of an antenna relates to build quality, the strength of the materials, the feeling you get as you unpack and assemble -- "this thing is built to last." Dave, W7DGJ

 

I have a very well developed distaste for copycat products. This comes from a lifetime of electrical engineering work, my livelihood, how I feed my family and prepare for whatever the future may bring.

Here is a picture of a COPY of an iconic american product that was introduced in 1962. The McIntosh MC 275.

Here is a picture of the original, still in production today:



The big problem with this is that a company with no standing, no history, no engineering, and zero creativity is trading on the good name and solid reputation of one of the leading hifi manufacturers in the world. They even copied the 40th anniversary badging. You can even get clones with full McIntosh logos, etc. For much cheaper than you can get a new MC 275VI.

Some people will say, well, that design is 50 years old and any claims and patents have long since run out. That's true, but the company is still making them, and making improvements to them, and keeping skilled workers employed in Binghamton, NY, with profits landing back in the US instead of communist China.

Working in electronics I have some interesting counterfeiting stories, most involve pouring gallons of kerosene on scores of pallets of counterfeit goods along with the the equipment used to produce them, and lighting the whole mess on fire and watching it burn through the asphalt parking lot. Names changed by a letter, inserting a period or a space in the logo, etc.

Even when I was in Broadcasting Equipment design, a competitor stole the core electronic design of one of our leading FM exciters, right down to making a helical coil out of a piece of rigid coax the we used as a lumped capacitive element in the VCO. Didn't need to be wound as a coil, could have been any shape, It was just convenient. They even copied the diameter nad number of turns. Oh, and scaling resistor and capacitor values so it didn't look like the complete copy it was.

Copying other people's work is intellectual property theft, pure and simple.

Obviously this doesn't hold true for collaborative efforts with licenses in the public domain, or design elements purchased from 3rd parties.

Don't get me started on user interfaces......

 

My current station is a Flex 6300 and Mercury III amp.
No meters, no knobs, no toggle switches - just black boxes.
They could easily be mounted in a nearby closet, or in the basement ceiling directly below the ham shack. All I really need is a power meter to know everything is working and the amp hasn't gone into a fault condition.
The look and feel of the two black boxes means nothing. It is a different world now. The radio is on the pc monitor.

 

Hi Dave,

Stirring up the pot, eh? I do agree with you for the most part. Copying radio, or actually any design is nothing new. It has been around as long as radio. You look at old tube radios, sure, the appearance may be a bit different but underneath, pretty much clones of each other in many cases with some differences. Or perhaps let's mention CRT tellys in their last years. They were pretty much all the same design, just with a different name, they were not even trying to disguise the fact they were the same for the most part in terms of appearance, controls or layout. Ham radio in some regards is no different lately, though I do not think it was nearly as prevalent in the past as it is now with the advent of Chinese products coming online. Ham radio manufacturers were fairly proud of their designs and innovations, and I believe the major manufacturers still are.

I do believe innovation is still out there and given the spirit of invention within our amateur pursuits it always will be. Unfortunately, I believe many times the design will get copied into a substandard product by China. Which, in some cases, may give the original designer a bad name until that aspect is revealed.

Anyway, just some ideas rolling about in my head. 73

Tony
AA7FR

 

Great story Tom. I'm a hi-fi buff, formerly in that business for many years. The guys from Binghamton are famous, not only for the sweet sound of their gear, for their industrial design and quality of build. You pay for it, but what you get becomes something that you put in your will and hand down to the kids. What makes me sick is that the copycat even went so far as to use the same font for their name and model. What a joke. Thank you for your contribution. Dave, W7DGJ

 

Hey Rick, I guess you are right. I could hide much of my station as well. But, there's a certain beauty in simplicity as well. It's a "style" all of its own, isnt' it? Dave, W7DGJ

 

Hi Tony,
Yes, I guess I am stirring the pot. I was angry, and wrote a piece while in that mood. Probably shouldn't do that. I agree with what you say -- that innovation is still alive and well. Thats what Chip and I and our panel will talk about at Hamvention.

You bring up consumer electronics, and if there's any area at all that has zero style it is on televisions nowadays. Flat panel displays are so, blah! Why doesn't someone come up with a different type of TV -- who knows it could be a huge seller. I've got a Sony Bravia from about a decade ago and it has this beautiful plexi or glass enclosure around it, just gorgeous. The picture is still great. I'm going to hang onto it until the picture goes kaput. Dave, W7DGJ

 

Yeah, I'd assumed that VK-Amps was a predecessor product in the "family tree" of LDMOS amplifiers.

 

Next time you are in an appliance store take a look at gas ranges. I don't know if the parts are interchangeable or not but they all look like they came off the same production line.

 

They may be short lived anyway if the Government gets what they're looking for. Gas has turned into persona-non-grata in new builds. Terrible, as I love a gas stove and gas heat. I agree with you on the appearance. We bought a big Viking, built like a tank, with its own unique style. I don't think any Asian manufacturers have jumped into the copycat business on Viking stoves yet because the cost of shipping those incredibly heavy steel units from Asia would be a deal killer. Dave, W7DGJ

 

Dave,
I've got a lot of McIntosh stereo gear. I try to buy wisely, used, and it has appreciated over time. You can't get better than negative cost of ownership!

Not good for the environment, but this is what happens when you get local authorities to confiscate counterfeit goods in China.
I couldn't find any pics I took of our burning goods, but i found this on the internet and its representative of what happens.

 

Apart from zero style (The Frame from Samsung is an arguable exception) Smart Televisions are so cheap now because the manufacturers have you sign up on their websites to use the smart features, hell even to set up the TV. Then they sell your viewing data to third parties. Its all in the EULA. Last Smart TV I bought was never connected to the internet. It can be done but it was a PITA.

 

I didn't realize they were "Zuckerberging" as much as they are. Wow. I assume you can buy a smart TV and not use the "smart" features, but simply hook it up to an Apple TV and use that. However, Apple is probably in the same game.

 

In many cases, they did - come off the same line. Same for US made fridges.
GE Appliances - Wikipedia
Note that GE is owned by a Chinese company.

Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) is a company that sells products under a wide variety of brands such as Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, and Consul. see Whirlpool Corporation - Wikipedia. They make Kenmore products for what's left of Sears.