The Icom IC718 is just a bit over $500. Take a look at one and the price on,
for example the gigaparts website:
http://www.gigaparts.com/store.php?action=profile&sku=zic-718
this is a 100 w. rig with built in keyer, IF shift, mic compressor,
auto notch, and
a bunch of other features, many unavailable or extras at one time.
I think it's pretty good that these days a brand new rig with a fairly
substantial
set of features and new rig warranty is selling for that much. Such a
rig would
have cost much more in yesterday's dollars.
Let's not forget the $200 to $280 MFJ single band transceivers. My
AES catalog has them
for 15, 20, 30 and 40 m. cw (and I"m making the assumption that new
hams are interested
in cw, which frankly I think is a stretch) and for SSB, you can get a
single band trans-
ceiver for 2, 6, 10, 20, 40 and 75 meters for under $280 each. These
put out up to 20
watts, have VFOs (when I was a novice I dreamed of being able to use a
VFO) have speech
processors, 2.3 khz xtal filters, low pass filters, electro-mechanical
S meter.....you
could have a lot of fun with one of these.
there is also have the backpack QRP FT817 rig for $599. This is a
pretty nice transceiver too.
I think the inexpensive new rig situation isn't quite as bad as we
think it is HOWEVER, I
belive most new hams, especially younger hams, would be most
interested in a used or new
software defined rig such as the flex radio SDR1000 because they are
comfortable with
computer technology and programming and the open source SDR1000 gives
them GUI controlled
rig with programming opportunities.
Let's not forget the Oak Hills kits such as the 5 band cw transceiver
kit for $379.
http://www.mtechnologies.com/ohr/
If you dig around you can probably find other small manufacturers
making interesting ham
rigs these days. Ham radio's biggest attraction is probably in
tinkering and technical
experimenting. I reject the idea that people today are too lazy to be
interested in this.
The real problem is probably that the opportunity has not been made
available to them.
73,
rob / k5uj
<<<Yes It would be nice if an entry level radio was available for say something
under $500. Oh it wouldn't have all the whistles and bells, certainly not
160M - 6M coverage and maybe not all the modes, maybe just LSB, USB & CW.
And maybe available in a "semi-kit" form.>>>
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