With two (radios) you get eggroll...
- Thread starter millrad
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Almost 3 years after the radios hit the market, they decide to do an article about them. Must have been a really slow news day.
Every ham operator knows the rules. Unfortunately now with this article what is it going to do? Every unlicensed person and their brother is gonna buy one and ruin the hobby. It is a well known fact that if you buy a product from outside of the US you can get frequencies that are not utilized or are blocked in the US. That has been going on since the days and even before when they blocked part of the 800 MHz spectrum for cell phones from scanners.
The majority of the radios are good quality, others not so much. Half of them are all built by the same manufacture and just have different sellers' names on them.
Oh well.
Every ham operator knows the rules. Unfortunately now with this article what is it going to do? Every unlicensed person and their brother is gonna buy one and ruin the hobby. It is a well known fact that if you buy a product from outside of the US you can get frequencies that are not utilized or are blocked in the US. That has been going on since the days and even before when they blocked part of the 800 MHz spectrum for cell phones from scanners.
The majority of the radios are good quality, others not so much. Half of them are all built by the same manufacture and just have different sellers' names on them.
Oh well.
I agree with Izzy!
Great, now that this article is out, anybody and everybody licensed or not wil be out there buying these radios. Since software is included in the price of most of these, it will just be easier for people to start using them for their own pleasure, interfering with legit communucations! It must be a real dull news day at the examiner!
Manny
Great, now that this article is out, anybody and everybody licensed or not wil be out there buying these radios. Since software is included in the price of most of these, it will just be easier for people to start using them for their own pleasure, interfering with legit communucations! It must be a real dull news day at the examiner!
Manny
IMHO...this is just the opening salvo. They'll flood products into this market like they have most others in order to dominate them.
It is unfortunate that someone would glorify this info.
During my work I see more and more Public Safety departments using the cheep VHF/UHF
Dual band $100 radios for everyday use. They can buy 40 of those for the price of 1 multi band portable and if one breaks its only $100 to replace.
Some of the radios also can act as a pager decoding QCII and costing $300 less than a real pager.
I would not trust my life to one of those radios but you can’t argue with price when departments don’t have the money to buy real public safety grade radios.
During my work I see more and more Public Safety departments using the cheep VHF/UHF
Dual band $100 radios for everyday use. They can buy 40 of those for the price of 1 multi band portable and if one breaks its only $100 to replace.
Some of the radios also can act as a pager decoding QCII and costing $300 less than a real pager.
I would not trust my life to one of those radios but you can’t argue with price when departments don’t have the money to buy real public safety grade radios.
The only thing I see any good out of these radios from a Ham stand point is that they will drive the prices down from the other manufacturers. Or they will dominate the market liek everyone says.
In general we need to to to the Chinese companies like we did tot he Japanese way back when, tariff the hell out of their products to create a fair market!
In general we need to to to the Chinese companies like we did tot he Japanese way back when, tariff the hell out of their products to create a fair market!
jhooten
Member
Let me guess, Economics major? I think not.
No, historian and political science. I just tell em like I see em. I may not be right but it does make people think.
If you want to go to WalMart and buy your cheep Chinese stuff there fine, try and find how many "Made in the USA" products are there. Heck even the flags they sell are Made in China!
I rather have a quality product than a cheep knockoff, granted the Woxoun and TYTs are really constructed well. The Boafeng and others are cheep.
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jhooten
Member
The US in not the only market for these goods. Tariffs only work all countries have equal tariffs. If the US places a tariff on the goods and other nations do not the producers will shift their markets.
So I ask you who do tariffs harm ultimately?
Do you know who Woxoun and TYT are? I'll let you in on the secret, they produce military grade communications equipment for the Chinese government amongst other things.
Name for me a consumer electronics product made 100% in the US of 100% US made components, by US labor.
I've had this "discussion" many times with my union local president.
So I ask you who do tariffs harm ultimately?
Do you know who Woxoun and TYT are? I'll let you in on the secret, they produce military grade communications equipment for the Chinese government amongst other things.
Name for me a consumer electronics product made 100% in the US of 100% US made components, by US labor.
I've had this "discussion" many times with my union local president.
It's never been a secret that Chinese radios are not restricted to ham bands.
Besides, firefighters and EMTs have been buying Yaesu VX-5s and other radios for years, desoldering a connection, and using them out of band. Plus, there's a newfangled information super highway called "the Internet," with lots of radio mod sites readily available, and even vendors willing to make the mod for you, under the table.
The news angle is that the Chinese radios are now greatly outselling the Japanese models, and this wasn't the case three years ago when Woxoun first showed up on the American market.
For hams, this all are all good news. You can buy five or six Baofengs for the price of an ICOM, and it's no big deal if you lose or destroy a $40 radio.
I can't wait until the Chinese dual band mobile radios become available.
Besides, firefighters and EMTs have been buying Yaesu VX-5s and other radios for years, desoldering a connection, and using them out of band. Plus, there's a newfangled information super highway called "the Internet," with lots of radio mod sites readily available, and even vendors willing to make the mod for you, under the table.
The news angle is that the Chinese radios are now greatly outselling the Japanese models, and this wasn't the case three years ago when Woxoun first showed up on the American market.
For hams, this all are all good news. You can buy five or six Baofengs for the price of an ICOM, and it's no big deal if you lose or destroy a $40 radio.
I can't wait until the Chinese dual band mobile radios become available.
He may not be, but I am, and currently employed in doing research for products and their respective markets.
The high level view of the influx of Chinese radios to the market is going to cause some damage to the big 3, especially in the HT market, but I do not think that it will have a lasting impact for the sole reason that HAMs are typically very demanding in their technical requirements and also rather well researched. Of course, this will not stop someone from buying a few chinese radios just to "check them out" while they have a nice Kenwood or ICOM transceiver at home in the shack.
There will undoubtedly be an influx of novice and illegal operators as well, but I do not think that they will last long simply out of sheer necessity. The unliscenced people that buy these radios are going to be the folks getting a clue after watching the survivalist / prepper TV shows, and then go out and buy a few radios, make a few half-hearted attempts to make it work, never hit a repeater, and then throw them in their bag next to their MREs and pistol. :wink: Once these guys get sorted out, I don't think it will be much of an issue. The next set of abusers, will be a folks who just don't care about band plan or liscensure and want to give these to the kids to play around with or tell them when to come home for dinner. Not to worry, they will consistently continue to purchase even cheaper GMRS type radios instead.
So in conclusion, the knuckleheads will sort themselves out over time. The HT market will likely take some hits. Luckily, Kenwood and Yaesu are far too well funded to need to worry about those markets too much. I'd have too look up more about ICOM's size and sales though, but I don't think any of the big 3 are likely at any risk. They will just continue to innovate and move to the high end of the market that they already do well in.
As for me, I hate Chinese junk. But these cheap radios may be a way for me to jump from just being a scanner enthusiast to taking my FCC test.:wink:
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