Another one bites the dust...AES closing...

[902]

That leaves only one big box store, HRO. Can you pronounce monopoly? Let's see what happens with HRO's prices now.

I dunno. From what Bob said, HRO knows there's competition coming out of the woodwork, sometimes literally, with all the web retailers and small dealers. I also check DX Engineering. I've bought a couple of Kenwood mobiles from them, but not as much as their custom antenna products. They seem to be very good. There are a few more, like Gigaparts (bought from them, too). But none of them are local, and I'm not sure they're intended to be more than a warehouse or resource aggregator.

I don't think they will adopt that monopoly mindset. There are a lot of very hungry dealers playing to a niche market.

I guess since I'm not going to be getting my AES book of dreams anymore, I'd better re-up my League membership and make sure I get QST (for the ads?).

 

[gonefishn1]

Perhaps HRO is buying the AES inventory?

 

[BBB007]

I've bought a bunch of $tuff from the HRO brick and mortar store in Delaware (about 40 miles away) Home of Tax Free Shopping!

Never used AES so no loss to me personally. Seems sad, but I got over loosing Lafayette, Allied, Heath Kit and Radio Shack. Someone will fill the void.

 

[lindsay34654]

Go on their web site it says they are closing.

 

[AK9R]

That leaves only one big box store, HRO. Can you pronounce monopoly? Let's see what happens with HRO's prices now.

With R&L Electronics, GigaParts, Universal Radio, Main Trading Company, DX Engineering, and a few others competing for your on-line purchasing dollars, I suspect that HRO will remain competitive.

 

[WILSON43]

We can mourn the loss of AES and place blame on Chinese radios, etc., but the truth is that Ham Radio is a niche hobby that is dying. Has been for quite some time. I know many will chime in with figures about new licensees, but they are in no way compensating for the older hams that are either dying off or leaving the hobby.

I am in the NY Metro area in the midst of hundreds of repeaters that are mostly quiet, all the time. I have a better chance at a QSO, and more fun actually hooking up with another station on simplex.

When you hear an active QSO on a repeater, and at the appropriate time jump in with your call to join in, you are ignored. If you are polite and wait for a QSO to end, then put out your call, knowing there are hams on the repeater, you get crickets.

I may take some heat here, but I think it needs to be said. Hams are their own worst enemies. Many pleaded for years to dump the silly code requirements to no avail. HF work requires a ton of expensive equipment and HUGE antennas most folks are not able or have no interest to install them.

Young people are not interested. When they post on social media they connect with thousands instantly. They can live stream hi def video and audio on their phone. No expensive equipment, no license, no Morse code.

In the interim, due to the cheap Chinese radios many folks are jumping on GMRS, FRS, and amateur repeaters unlicensed, with impunity.

I like the hobby, but I am a realist. The spectrum of frequencies assigned to ham is very valuable, and I believe that they will either be reduced or the entire spectrum re-assigned in the future.

 

[beischel]

I'm curious how much of an influence the cheap Chinese radios were to this vendor's demise?

Not much. Their service in my opinion was not good. I stopped buying from them years ago and started buying mostly from HRO, R&L and sometimes Gigaparts.

In the 40+ years I have been going to Dayton, they showed up for a few years, then disappeared again. If you are not at Dayton, to many hams,you are not thought of as a serious vendor.

Their demise is no surprise at all. Actually, what I am surprised about is that it did not happen years ago.

 

[AA6IO]

Unfortunately, I agree with dconti in post #46. I have been a ham since 1962 (extra since early 1980s). I am a W5YI and ARRL VE (volunteer examiner), and in the last year, have probably sat in and graded about 45 exams for tech, general, and one for extra class (majority W5YI) here in the local area.
It seems like half these folks are just in for the so-called prepper thing and are content with a Baofeng (or two). I can only think of maybe 5 who have actually gone on to buy radios at HRO Anaheim (only 6 miles from Cerritos). There are others who have a Tytera MD-380 and getting into DMR. Even the extra class guy I mentioned is satisfied with his Baofeng and a mag mount antenna.
The days when hams get their license and buy thousands of dollars of equipment with a Stepper IR and 70 foot tower are coming to an end. Sure there are folks still doing this, but not nearly the same number as in past years. The advent of cheap Chinese radios has changed a lot of things. Also, the young folks look in amazement and say, why do you need all that stuff and metal in the back yard? They they pull their I-phone, or if they are ham-tech savy, their Fusion or Tytera DMR radio.
I don't blame Chinese radios alone. Several people who have taken their exams under our VE group have told me that they decided to get their technician license because they could get a radio for about 40 or 50 dollars, maybe less. I'm convinced after talking to many of these folks that if the only choice were a minimum of several hundred to the sky's the limit dollars, they would not have even bothered getting a license.
Is ham radio on its last leg? Certainly not. But few new hams will be going the route of KW amplifiers and 70 foot towers with giant yagis or 4-el quads. It's a different era and it's going to continue.
The folks at HRO Anaheim tell me sometimes things are busy, other days, very slow and they are standing around. They also tell me that more than 50% of their business is now on-line.
Ham radio has been a great hobby for me most all my life and will continue to be (now age 67). But the writing is on the wall. Grove Enterprises, AES, Radio Shack, and others don't just close because their founders are retired or passed on. If there was a lot of money to be made, someone would continue the business.

 

[N8IAA]

Excellent post, sshermanmd. When I lived in Ohio, and used to go out to the AES store in Wickliffe, it was a gathering spot for hams in NE OH. HF was still the king back then. Not now. One can talk around the world on ECHOLINK, DStar, and DMR. What need is there for towers, hf antennas, and overpriced hf rigs?
Larry

 

[N4GIX]

One can talk around the world on ECHOLINK, DStar, and DMR. What need is there for towers, hf antennas, and overpriced hf rigs?
Larry

If the goal is simply "communicating," then what is the need for radios at all? One can use a simple smart phone with Zello and play "radio" for free.

If the goal is "to experiment and have fun," then nothing can beat using whatever one can afford and/or cobble together to accomplish that goal. :lol:

 

[902]

We can mourn the loss of AES and place blame on Chinese radios, etc., but the truth is that Ham Radio is a niche hobby that is dying. Has been for quite some time. I know many will chime in with figures about new licensees, but they are in no way compensating for the older hams that are either dying off or leaving the hobby.

I am in the NY Metro area in the midst of hundreds of repeaters that are mostly quiet, all the time. I have a better chance at a QSO, and more fun actually hooking up with another station on simplex.

When you hear an active QSO on a repeater, and at the appropriate time jump in with your call to join in, you are ignored. If you are polite and wait for a QSO to end, then put out your call, knowing there are hams on the repeater, you get crickets.

I may take some heat here, but I think it needs to be said. Hams are their own worst enemies. Many pleaded for years to dump the silly code requirements to no avail. HF work requires a ton of expensive equipment and HUGE antennas most folks are not able or have no interest to install them.

Young people are not interested. When they post on social media they connect with thousands instantly. They can live stream hi def video and audio on their phone. No expensive equipment, no license, no Morse code.

In the interim, due to the cheap Chinese radios many folks are jumping on GMRS, FRS, and amateur repeaters unlicensed, with impunity.

I like the hobby, but I am a realist. The spectrum of frequencies assigned to ham is very valuable, and I believe that they will either be reduced or the entire spectrum re-assigned in the future.

You're not wrong, Danny. Our spectrum is very valuable, and the only thing that's stopped most forays into it are the relatively large antennas needed to make broadband work. 420-440 would be the biggest antennas of the bunch if MIMO schemes were implemented, and most of those radios would need an external antenna(s) to work effectively. And, the other thing that saves us is that these frequencies are usually secondary to, or co-primary with government radiolocation. If we had to stand up for ourselves, we would have lost them already, particularly since a frequency audit would only reveal pockets of activity, rather than continued use. I've said it before, I'll say it again: amateur radio spectrum should be taken away from the FCC and given to the Department of the Interior to steward as a "Spectrum National Park." Giving DoI the unusual is not unprecedented.

As for Chinese radios, those would be the kind that younger people could afford. They wouldn't be able to afford the top of the line Flex or Yaesu radios, or giant towers. Yet, the fact that they're not really buying them in greater quantities reflects their desire for non-voice communication with much, much greater bandwidth. The other thing is the age disparity. My kids don't necessarily want to chat with someone my age (heck, they usually don't want to talk to me...). My kids don't necessarily want to chat with anyone by voice. Contrast that to many decades ago when you couldn't get a teenager off a phone. So, times have changed. I'm waiting for the text-over-amateur-radio device that doesn't look like an improvised whatever with wires sticking out of it built into a toolbox or run at a ponderous 1.2 kbps. Make a smartphone that has off-network features for amateur radio in voice and data, with an acceptable price break that younger people will go for, and there might be an uptick. But few of us will recognize it as "our grandfather's ham radio."

Now, don't get my post as being all doom-and-gloom. There's a bigger picture here that goes beyond ham radio. We need to get kids involved in STEM programs. Ham radio offers the brownspace - both in spectrum and modes - for our future generation of engineers. After all, we do want some of our own children being engineers in the future, not just people from far away lands.

Where I see activity in amateur radio -- and the retailers can capture this if they were smart -- are the building blocks projects that integrate canned hardware to custom-written code. Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and other prototyping platforms seem to be very popular and are this generation's equivalent to building stuff out of tubes and components fished out from TVs that were put out in the trash (anybody else do that besides me?). In my view, that's where the promise is, and that's why we need to hold fast on the spectrum. If we've sold it all out, our technology becomes completely pay-to-play. THEN we're in trouble.

 

[hamstang]

HRO sort of taking over AES

Press Release, News, and Information by Ham Radio Outlet

 

[prcguy]

The President of HRO said "It is with great pleasure that we are able to continue Terry Sterman and Phil Majerus' legacy of providing a fantastic Amateur Radio store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is our immediate goal to have the largest, most well stocked Amateur Radio retail store in North America and perhaps even the world."

But what he was actually thinking is.....Hot damn, look at all these new customers and $$ we will get! Hey honey, look up the nearest Maserati dealer!
prcguy

 

[Voyager]

But what he was actually thinking is.....Hot damn, look at all these new customers and $$ we will get! Hey honey, look up the nearest Maserati dealer!

Likely closer to the truth than many would admit (minus the Maserati).

I wonder why he would not want any of the other stores, and only Milwaukee.

 

[AA6IO]

Still a win-win situation. If Milwaukee gets a big HRO, and the hams in area get what they need at a reasonable price, then let him have the Maserati.

Steve AA6IO

 

[n9lob]

Shipping time

I wonder why he would not want any of the other stores, and only Milwaukee.

From the HRO announcement:

'Steve Gilmore, National Sales Manager for HRO states, "We are extremely excited to have a store in the Central Northern part of the United States. It will minimize shipping times for our products to be able to be delivered in 2 days or less in most of the lower 48 United States.'

This is a very smart business move for HRO. Their current locations leave a big hole in the interior USA which will be filled quite nicely by the Milwaukee location.

Orlando - Atlanta is next door shipping wise.
Las Vegas - CA stores and Denver nearby shipping wise.
Cleveland - Still within two days UPS ground from Milwaukee.

As has been stated in this thread, brick and mortar has given way to online ordering. Shipping depots in key locations for fast order fulfillment are a smart business plan. HRO has filled a key weakness in their delivery system with this move.

 

[k6cpo]

Perhaps HRO is buying the AES inventory?

They are taking over the Milwaukee store. I don't know about the others.

 

[jaspence]

And while HRO may make some good money with this deal, they also give some good employees an opportunity to continue with jobs.

 

[kc9gld]

Press Release

Sorry, didnt see the duplicate above...

 

[SCPD]

goodbye AES!

Damn. Got my first rig from them...

CQ Newsroom: Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) Going Out of Business

Thats what you get for keeping my Kenwood TS2000 for half a year,losing it,and then sending it somewhere else after I send it to you and giving it back to me unfixed while trying to charge me money for shipping it back to me!Oh yeah and the prices were too high..........
Good Riddance! Bye bye!

HRO all the way,baby!,they deliver what they say they are going to!