Lately, there’s been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over the demise of Radio Shack and the recent announcement of the closing of International Crystal Manufacturing. Radio Shack’s troubles have been well-documented, but ICM’s closing might be worth taking a look at.
On our amateur radio club’s mailing list, one guy wrote:
Sorry to say that ICM, the best manufacturer of crystals, is going out of business. Read the notice here: https://www.icmfg.com/
If you have any crystal rigs that you really want to keep, now would be the time to add new frequencies. I imagine that the price of such rigs will plummet by Dayton.
Sigh. This is bad for all the great older repeater systems out there.
While it may be true that ICM made the best crystals, I’m not so sure how bad it is for all the great older repeater systems out there. First of all, I don’t think that repeaters change frequencies all that often, and it’s not like crystals won’t be available from other suppliers.
There are fewer and fewer of those “great, older repeaters out there,” and that’s probably how it should be. Rather than clinging to those old repeaters, we should be thinking about how to improve our repeater technology and the communications that they provide.
Second, this is a result of the way things are going in electronics. The U.S. accounts for an ever-shrinking percentage of electronics manufacturing, and presumably non-U.S. crystal manufacturers can supply the needs of those manufacturers better than ICM. American consumers want cheap, and in general, U.S. suppliers aren’t good at being cheap.
If the business is a good investment, then someone will purchase the ICM assets and continue to produce crystals. My guess, however, is that the business has shrunk, however, as digital techniques reduced the need for crystals in both transmitting and receiving applications.
It’s OK to feel sad for the company and its employees, but let’s not dwell on that. Presumably, Royden Freeland will now be able to enjoy his retirement. Let’s thank him and the Freeland family for 65 years of service to amateur radio and then move on.
Dave New, N8SBE says
Strange as it may seem, even modern direct digital synthesis circuits still rely on crystals for their stable frequency base.
I don’t see a rush of repeater design from simple crystal oscillator circuits to a more complex frequency synthesis design. After all, as you said, repeaters don’t change frequencies all that often, so why increase the cost for no real gain?
Sure, repeaters can be made from a couple of re-purposed mobile radios, but that is only cost-effective if you have a couple of surplus radios laying around.
It also seems that it will be a while before a crystal roofing filter receiver front end can be beat by a totally digital front end for dynamic range.
it seems like crystals will be around for quite some time. But , I agree, they have become a cheap commodity these days, and that means the manufacturing costs are in a ‘race to the bottom’, leading to overseas manufacturing.
Maggie Williams says
Dave New or any blog member,can you contact me about the ICM T039Type/12MHZ. Do you have specs or know of an equivalent.
E-Mail me [email protected]