Anybody been to any hamfests lately?
There's a thread going around on public media like YouTube that paints a dim picture of the market for used gear, saying that prices have fallen off dramatically for popular classic radios from the last century. We haven't been to a hamfest in a couple of years, and our local fest is coming up in a couple of months, so I'm thinking about trying to find new homes for some of my old books or gear.
That video, by Australian ham VK3USA, starts out with lots of video clips of old Collins Radios and talks about the situation from the creator's viewpoint. He points out that he's of a much younger age than us old guys who were enchanted by those radios - he says he just turned 40. His conclusion is that ham radio is going through a phase where the older guys who idolized that gear are aging out of the hobby and the younger guys aren't as dedicated to these older radios.
That certainly seems like it could be a driving force. There is a tendency for older folks to move to smaller or assisted-living places that might be especially bad for hams. Places where they aren't able to put a station on the air, or they can use small receiver but couldn't put up an outdoor antenna.
Another video by The History Archive, doesn't look at things the same way as that previous one. He talks about the economic pressures brought on by things like the Chinese Baofeng UV-5R radios that slashed prices incredibly, the advent of software defined radios and software defined modes like the WSJT modes I've talked about often. Those impact prices, too, by shifting the demands from buyers. Then there were new aspects to the ham hobby itself, with the introduction of Parks On The Air and Summits On The Air (SOTA & POTA) and more. The summary was that the world shifted in many ways all in the same few years.
Has anybody seen this happening or not in their local American hamfests?
A big concern of mine is books, and Virtual Mirage's post on the End of Books brought this topic higher in priority. In front of me are two 7’ tall by 3’ wide bookcases - the one on my left is mostly full of technical books on radio circuit and systems design as well as programming in various languages like Delphi, MathCAD, HTML, and MATLAB. The bookcase on my right has a whole shelf or two on woodworking, another one or two shelves on boating and fishing. Another two shelves contain Bibles and study books about those Bibles. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve looked at any one of those hundreds of books. And this is just one room. In the next room over it's the same story of two practically ceiling to floor bookcases – just different subjects. And there are more bookshelves in other rooms. I think books actually outnumber insects in the house, and maybe even bacteria.
It's possible hams or other engineers would want some of the books on my left-hand bookshelf but if I had to ship them cross country, postage would be a concern.
So what say you all? Any experience with this? Opinions? Stale jokes? I'm not particularly ready to empty out the station and put it all for sale at the hamfest, but part of the effort of keeping the house cleaned and easier to deal with is to get rid of things that we just don't use much anymore. Besides, we all check out sooner or later and less crap makes it easier and better on whoever cleans up after we're gone.
The Collins KWM-2, an early version of their very succssful HF SSB transceiver. Image credit: Rigpix
No, it's not mine, but I can't find a nice pic of mine. If I do, I'll replace
this.
At my QTH, a dozen or so years ago, there were 6 hamfests a year, within reasonable driving distance, all of them packed. But attendance started declining, even before Covid. I figure it's just part of the overall changes in the hobby, and society in general. More and more stuff is happening online. I'm guessing that there's less interest in vintage radios, probably in part due to there being less tech knowledge needed to be part of the hobby. I think old tech is cool, but I'd still rather run a new rig. Yeah, if I were a EE, and had the means, I'd enjoy restoring old tube gear, and I'd probably use it a little, just to say I did. But modern stuff, with really good noise reductions, and waterfall displays - well, they're just better.
ReplyDeleteGotta run - I'm still working for a living.
- jed
The advantage of the old tube gear is that it's incredibly easy to work on - compared to the modern rigs with surface mount parts. While a lot of rigs from the mid-'60s till around Y2K had everything except the PA finals on circuit boards, those are still easier to work on than something from the last 20 years or so. The receiver parts are still have leads.
DeleteThe second video does a pretty good job on explaining those "contributing factors" to the used market shutting down but doesn't mention the tech in particular. Today, though, if you're not looking for the receiver that leads in something like "spurious free dynamic range," you can get a very adequate HF receiver for not much more than a 40 or $50 Raspberry Pi.
I never played with those Baofeng UV-5Rs, but I know they're almost ridiculously low prices. Amazon has them at TWO for $33. I'm mentally stuck thinking a 2m/440 HT is around $200, not 16.
Ooop.... "The receiver parts are still have leads." should not have had the word "are" in there. "The receiver parts still have leads." (More coffee!!)
DeleteThe last hamfest I went to consisted of a bunch of old guys all downsizing and selling their stuff. Nobody was buying. I made pity buy of a 2m antenna (paying more than asking because the price was sadly low) from a rare young guy who was getting married in a month. I hope he finds a hobby with a future to enoy with his new XYL.
ReplyDeleteYour story is pretty much the first guy's (VK3USA's) story - and guys not being able to downsize and get what they think the radio is worth relates to the second story. Comparing older ones to modern rigs that cost less for the same features is messing up minds.
DeleteI have one HT - it does more than the Baofeng $16.50 HTs and I don't even remember what it cost. To compare, though, if I was looking for an HT and the choice was the two most popular bands for $16.50 versus one with two other bands - that I don't even know are used where I live - for 12 times the price? I'd probably just get the $16.50 one.
I worked for Rockwell-Collins in their SATCOM department. At the home office they had working transceivers of all previous models. It was impressive.
ReplyDeleteRockwell Collins went DEI and it only took 4 years for them to go under.