A couple of days ago, a reader wrote:
I would like to know if it would be feasible to build a radio with the following features:
- SSB operation (only SSB is required, CW would be an additional benefit)
- 20 – 50W of power
- Portable-friendly (lightweight, capable of operating at lower voltages from small portable batteries)
- Low receiver current drain
- Coverage of 40m and 80m bands (very limited coverage is acceptable, even channelized coverage of a few select frequencies would be acceptable)
- S-meter
It strikes me that there is a large market for ham radio products for “preppers,” and there has been a lot of interest in the Baofeng line of radios from that market. I think there would be a LOT of interest in a radio that could go far beyond line-of-sight and contact friends or family hundreds of miles away. Preppers would have little interest in contacts more than a state or two away, and no interest at all in novel operating modes. I wonder if a radio that trims away excess features (all-mode operation, wide frequency coverage, high power output, sophisticated audio filtering) could be produced for a lot less cost than currently available HF rigs. If so, and it was paired with a decent NVIS dipole and some General-class study materials and sold as a package deal, it could be a huge hit – Something you could tuck in a bug-out-bag, set up in the field, and use to make contacts in a reasonably local area, or set up in your backyard at home and use minimal power to operate.
I work in manufacturing, but radio and electronics are relatively new to me. Is there a reason why I don’t see radios like this on the market, some kind of technological limitation that would make this sort of thing impractical? If something like this was built, what kind of cost and performance would you expect? I’m certainly not expecting any kind of detailed analysis, but even just a speculation about if such a project could be feasible would be appreciated.
I replied:
I think one of the reasons you don’t see radios such as the one you describe is that more full-featured radios are already pretty inexpensive. The Yaesu FT-450D, for example, costs less than $800 and offers 100W output. The FT-817ND, which is designed for portable operation, costs less than $700. Is that too much for preppers?
While it might seem like you could sell a radio with fewer features for less, I think that you hit the law of diminishing returns. At some point, removing features, doesn’t reduce the cost all that much. For example, removing the CW capabilities from a transceiver capable of SSB operation really doesn’t save that much because in a way CW operation is really just a subset of SSB operation. You’ll save the cost of a key jack, but how much is that? Maybe a buck or two.
Having said that, it could be that the big amateur radio manufacturers are overlooking an opportunity here. The problem that a small manufacturer would face is that they don’t have the manufacturing muscle to make a product like that at an affordable price point. If a smaller company tried to produce this product, they would have to charge more.
We swapped a couple more e-mails about this. He noted, “Most preppers would probably rather buy a high-end AR-15 or several months worth of storage food for $800 than a radio.” I suggested, “If there was a SHTF event, and you really needed to communicate, wouldn’t it seem silly to have not spent the extra $400 on a really decent radio?”
I’m wondering what you all think. Is my analysis a little too simplistic perhaps? Are amateur radio manufacturers ignoring a potential market?
Walter Underwood K6WRU says
The Alinco DX-SR8T is $490, pretty close to your price point. No ATU, so you’d need at least a manual tuner for portable/emergency use.
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamhf/5008.html
It weighs nine pounds. The current drain on receive is not too bad, 1 A. I’ve seen a lot worse.
Walter Underwood K6WRU says
Or you can get 10 W of SSB on 40 meters for $45 in the BITX40 transceiver.
http://www.hfsigs.com/
If everyone is running off batteries, maybe the QRN and QRM will be low enough that 10 Watts is enough.
Rob Cameron says
I think the radio market in general has hugely inflated profit margins. Everything is solid state and the components can be manufactured for pennies. You can buy a GPU graphics card for your PC that’s more powerful than a top-of-the-line super computer from 10 years ago for $200. If one big manufacturer came along and actually priced radios at a reasonable profit margin (50%?) the whole radio market would probably crash because the jig would be up! We should have SDR radios like the Icom 7300 for a few hundred bucks instead of $1500.
Dan KB6NU says
I’m not so sure about that. Amateur radio manufacturers don’t have the economy of scale that PC manufacturers do. There are only 2 million amateur radio operators worldwide, while there are literally billions of PC users around the world.
Yohei, N8YQX says
I agree, R&D is horrendously expensive. Also, there’s the cost of validation/reliability/certification testing. Based on my experience, I would not be surprised if each new HF radio platform Yaecomwood puts out costs them in the order of tens of millions of dollars in development cost.
I’m not saying they’re not making money off these radios, but the profit margin’s not there where they can offer these radios for $400 street price.
If the preppers need a $400 HF radio, they’re better off looking for a used rig on eBay.
Paul K9PLG says
Not all radios require an antenna tuner. If you use a resonant antenna – the radio is happy and outputs full power into the matched load and no tuner needed… I think if the BITX40 was properly marketed to preppers, they would sell… 10 w on 40m SSB can work pretty well if the propagation gods are smiling, I’ve heard some 10 w QRP SSB signals you’d swear were running 100 watts from hundreds of miles away. 10 w is More than enough for CW !
Walter Underwood K6WRU says
Note that I said “emergency/portable use” and was talking about the Alinco multi-band radio. An LNR trail-friendly end fed would be fine for the Bitx40.
http://www.lnrprecision.com/endfedz/trail-friendly/
Saulo - PY7EG says
Qrp homebrew is the solution. A monoband radio and antenna is great and funny. :)
73´s
Saulo
PY7EG
Dave New, N8SBE says
The 20-50W range struck me, since that is the power range that most PSK31 pundits recommend, mainly to avoid overdriving the typical 100W rig into ALC, which adds distortion to the output waveform.
An SSB-only radio can then be used for any popular digital mode, including CW (by sending a pure sinewave tone via the mic jack).
Justin says
As both a prepper and a amateur radio operator I have to say no there is not a market. Look at the prepper forums and you will see people asking about communications but wanting a sub $200 radio that can talk for hundreds of miles that doesn’t need a license and can be plug and play. The majority on the time it’s buy a baofeng program it and then put it away until needed. they might test it on FRS/GMRS frequencies but that is about it.
Talking about getting licensed almost always gets the standard response “I don’t want to be on a government list” or “why should I, when I’m only going to transmit in an emergency”.
If you want to take a look at some of the questions and responses here is a forum I frequent
http://www.survivalistboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55
Respectfully Submitted
KJ4LAS
Todd KD0TLS says
I’ve come across two “solutions” being used (and heard anecdotes), and neither involve amateur radio or are legal. We have some preppers in central MN.
The first was a fairly old marine SSB rig. It ran on two car batteries. The owner had little idea of how to operate it. He had about 13 feet of wire, and one end was jammed into the SO-239. Good luck with that, right?
The second, and much more popular, “solution” was SSB CB radio. You can buy a second-hand rig at a pawnshop for around $80, add a $75 Chinese linear and a few deep-cycle marine batteries, and you’re (putatively) ready. I suggested using a horizontal dipole, instead of the verticals which were uniformly employed. They seemed to believe that this setup could reach across the country, and I didn’t disabuse of them of that notion.
I’m unsure of who these two “solutions” could reach, but that didn’t seem to matter. They had a radio, which meant guaranteed comms in their minds. Few of these people were particularly stupid, but none of them had any knowledge of radio beyond child-like magical thinking.
James KC9KTV says
I am not a prepper but I would not buy a radio limited in any way because it you need to communicate in an emergency you need all the frequencies. Because some are better during the day and you don’t want to be limited to only being able to contact someone at night.
Have a great day
James KC9KTV
Matt Towe, KF4ZGZ says
Radio manufacturers addressed this years ago.
It’s called CB radio.
Since very little traffic will be on the air, little power will be needed, but the imports do offer that.
8.5 ft vertical or a 16.5 ft. dipole …. no tuner needed.
Most are very rugged.
Why SSB? Why 40m & 80m? Why a signal meter?
Matt Towe, KF4ZGZ says
And as far as legality goes …. per FCC regulation, all fair in emergency situations …. SHTF would be just that.
Robert Vulliet KG7MNK says
I know i’m bringing this thread to a zombie like status, but there is now the uBitx (micro bitx) that is $109 SSB and CW but is only 10 Watts and all band with a little experimenting could probably get more power out of it