Comparing historic radio prices against general
consumer goods prices does indeed provide an
interesting perspective of what today's radios really
cost relative our other daily purchases. And no doubt
we get much more for our dollar today that we did 30
years ago.
A more interesting comparison however would be to look
at somewhat more comparable products such as TV's and
stereos etc. That kind of comparison is really more
meaningful than comparing against other, non
electronic products. In that case ham gear's relative
bang for the buck isn't nearly so good anymore. An
even more illuminating analysis is to compare the cost
of a 1975 vintage radio against todays in the context
of the personal computer, also consider the their
comparative performance/price gains over the same
period. In that particular case our beloved radios
don't look very good at all, in fact down right poor.
With the increasing use of DSP in our gear we should
theoretically be able to ride the wave of Moore's law
to some degree.
Duane
N9DG
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