[aprssig] Yet another th-d7 thread

[Stephen H. Smith]

Corey Shields wrote:
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> My HT died over the weekend..  Terrible timing since I blew my ham 
> budget back at Dayton..
>
> So I'm looking around at all of the radios out today and notice that 
> Universal Radio's page for the TH-D7AG was updated today:
>
> Note:
> Kenwood USA had indicated that the TH-D7AG is discontinued. We only have 
> 2 units left and they are factory sealed. Please call for pricing. 
> [07/07/08].
>
> Anyone hear of a new model?  I think its a bit odd to discontinue a 
> model without even mentioning a replacement, but maybe they've had 
> delays..  


The scuttlebut at Dayton was that the D7 was forcibly discontinued 
because certain key parts were no longer available to Kenwood.    

[Increasingly, commercial ham radio designs are based on semiconductors 
(especially application-specific ICs a.k.a. "ASICs") and other 
components initially developed for consumer products such as cell 
phones, TVs, computer WiFi devices, FRS radios, automotive electronics, 
etc.  Because these subsystems are produced in huge quantities, they 
tend to be relatively cheap, but they also have a short commercial lifespan.

Amateur radio products, which traditionally had a relatively long model 
life,  are now hostage to the very short model life span of most 
consumer electronics.   With the frantic rate of new model 
introductions, the incessant drive to cost-reduce these devices, and 
model lifespans measured in months rather than years, many low-cost 
seemingly commodity-type parts disappear abruptly.   This is especially 
true for RF subsystem building blocks such as synthesizers, IF amplifier 
blocks, front-end RF stage/mixers, divide-by counters capable of 
operating in the GHz range, etc initially developed for the cell phone 
market. ]


--

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
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