Well, it's 50 years for me now - mostly on CW. I had the pleasure of being DX (HS1ADX 1971-2), of being on the Iditarod trail in Alaska with a rig, a generator and ten gallons of gas, of erecting a balloon-held vertical as advisor to the USAF Academy's first Field day, etc. And I built Heathkits when I was 17, and made DXCC. And I could wallow for hours about my first rig (an oil-cooled metal 6L6 with a BC-312 surplus receiver from the WW II RFC). I was earning about 2 bucks an hour with my First Phone at WOLF in Syracuse, etc., ad nauseum.
Hey, guys, let's step into TODAY. We have three big foreign manufacturers who have the market cold! TenTec nibbles at the kit market, as do a few, brave ham-operated businesses. But they're not reaching our neighbors' kids.
Now, I get a flyer from Radio Shack about once a week (no stock or vested interest, honestly). Wouldn't it be great if they sold a line of simple, affordable ham gear? Say a 100w all-band cw rig with a vfo. for $129.95. A useable hf receiver with digital tuning for $249.99. A transceiver for $349.95. Etc. Verification of a valid license would not encumber the sale. A formal registration for purchase of transmitters is feasible with all the computers we now have.
Let's get the ARRL lab, others, busy with design parameters, etc., for this venture. I can walk to the nearest Radio Shack in 9 minutes. How accessable is YOUR RS? Close, I'll bet. For that neighbor kid, too.
I propose that inexpensive equipment, made available at the neighborhood level, with verification of licenses, would be affordable for parents and kids so they could share the joy of a first QSO on 80 or 40cw.
Remember, I hold no vested interest in RS (though I do buy a lot of bits and pieces from them).
73s, Herbert M. Rosenthal WV5Q
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