Looking in eBay recently I see that a 40m Chinese Pixie can be obtained for just £2.27 including free postage from China. Last year I bought one from a different supplier and it worked first time. I have no idea how they do these and make a profit at this price.
At these prices you cannot go wrong. If it goes wrong you've only wasted the cost of a coffee in a cafe. The amateur kit market is a tough one. If the Chinese can do kits at low, low prices what hope do the likes of the revamped Heathkit have? No, being in the amateur radio kit market is not for the faint-hearted.
20 Mar 2016
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4 comments:
They are unbelievably good value for money even if used simply as a source of components. The ones with the BNC socket virtually pay for themselves on the price of that part alone.
I've built several of them and have given some away to my club to use as raffle prizes. Great things.
I think there's plenty of space in the kit market even with our Chinese competitors in the scene. The key is to find niches in which the sales aren't enough to enable their key advantage - the ability to make large numbers of kits very cheaply. That and to be agile enough not to bet the farm on a kit they can compete with.
I'd love Heathkit to succeed, I really would. But at $150 each for a nice-but-overpriced AM radio and a very average J-pole I don't think it'll be the Chinese kitmakers who will send them to the wall.
G7CKF
Dear Jenny and Roger of course, the best anecdote I've read about the Heathkit "plumbers delight" fugly Pipetenna was: "...Very Cool! And it even has a safety valve for over heating or excessive power. What will they think of next?..."
73 Takis
sv3auw/m0lpt
Lovely about the kit prices. I will buy one. Why don’t the Chinese do mortgages? Watch this space.
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