Elecraft s well known all around the world. Pity they focused on higher end K4 series with no entry-level desktop TRX: cheaper mass-market model would engage more hams to Elecraft owners club. I believe they could simplify & modernize discontinued K3 (to avoid long and pricey design from scratch) to be slightly cheaper than K3 was and same time to be more 'modern' looking entry-level model. Another thing is that Elecraft needs its branch in the EU - not just a dealer.
I assembled this radio from blank boards. And there you need to make a lot of improvements and solder it longer than a couple of days. And if you use high-quality components, then the price is more than expected. Therefore, Icom 705 is incredibly cheap for its quality and parameters.
I believe it could not be wrong to say they modified existing IC-7300. Sure it's very rough approach but anyway they shod be saving a lot on pricey schematics and firmware design that has not to be done from scratch. Anyway while it costs twice as much let's say Xiegu X6100 it still has better price to quality ratio than cheaper Xiegu. I'm neither Icom fan nor Xiegu hater, just my two cents.
I did business with China for 20 years. If you want them to make a cheap product, that's what they will do. If you want them to make a quality product, that's what they will do. Some of the electronic products coming out of China are as good as anything made in the U.S. or Europe. As for not buying Chinese products, someone is free to take that approach. Just remember that China is the 3rd-largest buyer of U.S. exports. A lot of American jobs are based on those export sales.
Yes, you are so right. To assembel a blank board, there is much more to do. I did everything with the MKARS80 kit. When you are a pro, the working hours for that are around thirty. After I got that kit, I had a working time for myself of about 70 to 90 hours. Its much work, but after that the next kit should be better. Equal what is described in the manual, its maybe the the double or triple of the time. And all is without are warranty that it will work fine in the end.
No point in buying? It depends on what this kit is for. And in my case, I used it for experiments. Therefore to see what QRP can do on the 80M band in phonic. And I found different things, where I can say that it will work. But will I be intrested in that for the future? I can tell you after my experience and experiments, that I am not longer intrested in the shortwave. That in cause of my QTH and the EIRP restrictions. I only will reach stations outside my country in a good way to the greyline times. And when I use the transceiver with a smaller antenna as a half-wave, I reach stations near to my QTH barely and in a bad quality. So my own experiments opened my eyes and saved me for to buy a bigger shortwave transceiver.
Sorry my friend, I did not express myself clearly. My words refer to the subject of discussion - Q900 and other "cheap C-radios"... You confuse short waves with a big transceiver. On the contrary, a small transceiver and a park/forest will give you an understanding of what short waves are and the joy of radio. You can see my experience when I decided to leave my noisy apartment https://www.us7ign.com/?cat=13
I would second that, I have a Nikon camera and love it, the camera does everything I know how to do. My nephew, who does professional photography also has a higher-end Nikon, along with several lenses (I can't justify owning more that one) and he's taken some great pictures. Of course, it may have to do with artistic skill, but they are still great pictures. As to the users beta testing comment, am I the recipient of all the work that led up to the FT-991A? I understand that the FT-991 had problems with its finals and some other issues, but the FT-991A seems to work very well for what I need. My only observation is that the USB port is very susceptible to common mode noise and stray RF but I fixed that with a good USB cable and a toroid ring. 73
At least in foreseen future. That was too 'Chinese' to sell incomplete product. Revised FT-991A seems to be great radio for its price. Same (almost) thing they did with FT1D->FT1XD and FTM400D->FTM400XD. I think it was somewhat inappropriate for reputable brand. But anyway that was better than typically Chinese radios where early alpha version hits the market, its endless bugs are never fixed, and new alpha release of completely different radio is being put on sales instead of improving existing ones. I clearly understand many of us want new toys to play but our new toy lust keeps them to produce more junk with no any necessity to create complete and competitive product. Let's imagine I want a quality HF desktop radio and a quality HF SS amp to be made by Chinese. Where are they? How much they cost? Isn't it cheaper overall to buy slightly more expensive equipment from reputable brands due documentation/parts/service availability? I heard many tales of high Chinese quality: while they mostly are pretty close to truth they 'forget' to note that really high quality products are only assembled (not designed/developed) in China under pretty strict supervise and quality control. All that makes really high quality products not exactly cheaper than if they would be made in let's say the US. Typical high quality Chinese product is iphone - it is assembled in China mostly from Chinese parts (except Korean displays) under strict quality control by foreign partner and it is not designed in China. Are there really high quality products that were designed in China and made in China? I believe yes they are. But I don't believe they are noticeable cheaper* than comparable products from whatever else part of the world. So let's go back to the radios. Are Chinese able to design and then to produce competitive radio? Theoretically no doubt they are. But practically we only see disposable junk not noticeable cheaper than brand-made goods. * don't forget intellectual property that is always a part of the cost the product consists of; if a manufacturer just stoles intellectual property (uses it with no appropriate patent/license/etc.) its similar product will no doubt be cheaper than comparable product that does not violate any patent/license/etc. Many good Chinese products are in fact clones of 'western' products. Sometimes they are good (read: exact) copies like HYS TC-9900 vs FT-8900, sometimes they are disgustingly ugly like TYT TH-9800 vs the same FT-8900. I want to be understood clearly: I have absolutely nothing against China itself and Chinese themselves. But by some strange chance all that low quality still not exactly inexpensive products like Q900 we're discussing are of Chinese origin and 'Chinese quality' is not only another fun meme but already is the set phrase of exact meaning.
I think it's a matter of different philosophies. The Japanese have always tried to do the best they can, and the Chinese as cheap as possible. The result is obvious. We have a saying - I'm not rich enough to buy cheap things. Many Japanese transceivers, cameras and cars have been working for decades. At least one of you owns a Chinese thing for more than 10 years?
Sure it is. Chinese are practical. If they can sell something to someone they will make and sell it. And we explain it with cost of ownership that consists not only of the item itself. European and American goods are mostly good as well. Especially F-150 are great. What, a Ming dynasty vase? Nope I don't have any as they're expensive collectibles.
I heard the story, but I don't know if it's true. In Western history, a copy has always been considered a fake and something akin to embarrassing theft and deceit. In China, the master who could make a copy indistinguishable from the original was praised and awarded.
I dunno as well. But nowadays a Chinese copy mostly means approximate copy of some aesthetic attributes and complete trash inside with no room for a real master to show one's real masterpiece to the world. Have we to blame Chinese? No I don't think so. We rather have to blame ourselves for buying cheap junk.
