Fight to the death?

My spy Steve G1KQH tells me 3 dealers are merging. These are Nevada, Moonraker and Waters and Stanton. I expect this is an attempt to compete with MLS. 

One consequence will be fewer dealers advertising in magazines. Expect fierce battles to win trade. Either Nevada runs pages of adverts or it will be curtains for Practical Wireless (PW).

The next few years are critical for the Amateur Radio Service. How many amateur radio magazines will there be in future? I am not sure of the situation in other countries, but here in the UK, there is just one independent amateur radio monthly magazine. I think this is struggling.

Nevada deal on new Lincoln 10m rig

From Steve G1KQH:

Tempting Black Friday:

http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/amateur-radio/transceivers/mobile-transceivers/president-lincoln-ii

 

73 Steve

http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/

Good deal on 10m multi-mode rig

From Steve G1KQH (font or fount of all knowledge) comes news of a very good deal from Nevada:

http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/amateur-radio/transceivers/mobile-transceivers/president-lincoln-ii

 

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/

A bad NEVADA warranty day

Sometimes major dealers do themselves no good at all. I feel compelled to blog this as this dealer should know better.  I have been very patient but after waiting so long my patience is running thin.

Today I had to chase NEVADA as they had neither answered my email or first class mail.  All I was doing was following instructions in the box that said I needed the dealer to add his stamp for the warranty to be valid. No email reply yet received. I am patiently waiting after about 6 weeks.

"Lincoln President Mk 2 - Warranty
(bought from Nevada on Feb 25th 2015 on invoice 275xxx)
Since posting this (copied my original email here) in early March by email and first class post I have heard ABSOLUTELY NOTHING at all. I need confirmation this rig is covered by warranty. Frankly I am appalled - you could forgive me for thinking Nevada is only interested in the initial sale and not the warranty.

Please do me a favour and contact me!  No excuses please - just action. All I am asking for is decent customer support. This is not too much to ask of a major UK dealer, is it?"

I hope they will reply tomorrow.

I have also had very poor customer service from a local carpets supplier, Glasswells, having been waiting about 6 months to have a stained carpet replaced free under warranty. It took a month (last October) to wake them up from their slumber (2 emails before any action) and here I am in April 2015 still waiting! Apparently the carpet is now to be replaced on Friday this week.

This is not my day!

10m SSB with the Lincoln Mk2

This afternoon, I have been trying out the President Lincoln Mk2 (V3) which arrived early today. I have only tried on SSB but it seems to work, with the first SSB QSO being with N8II in West Virginia at about 1430z. He was using 800W and a 5 element beam! It was hearing plenty from Asia, Europe and North/South America. Maximum claimed power from the Lincoln, controlled by a rotary control on the front panel, is 31W  PEP on SSB.

Lincoln Mk2 with the other rigs

I have still to fully get to grips with the menu but it seems pretty intuitive.  There is a choice of display backlight colours, but I find green easiest on the eyes. The other choices are blue and orange. You can alter display brightness and lots of other features - I shall have plenty of time to play.  Blue is not good for my eyes on either the Lincoln Mk2  or the FT817. To my eyes, blue is hard to see, whereas the green is very clear.

My biggest issue was getting the power leads attached to the PSU.  Before my stroke this would have been trivial.  Now it tires me out! I wanted several rigs attached to the PSU at the same time so soldering the plugs on was non-trivial. As you know, speaking too long exhausts me,so I am taking a break.

I am waiting for my 12V battery to charge to test the 40m Pixie. Visually the Pixie build looks fine.

At the moment I am not on WSPR on any band.

President Lincoln Mk 2 (V3)?

As the price has dropped to £199 (a drop of £50) from Nevada I am now very tempted to buy one of these as 10m is my favourite band of all.  It is just coming up to the Es season too. Power output is ideal (for me) and it does all modes. I owned the original Lincoln President transceiver and it served me well for many years.  It worked all over the place on SSB and even on 10m AM.

This is basically a CB radio with bells and whistles, although as delivered it is 10m amateur band only. It covers CB bands with a simple, illegal in UK, mod.

Anyone any views?

Lincoln President (MK11 v3) down in price

Steve G1KQH has seen thst Nevada has reduced its price for the latest Lincoln President rig for 10m (and CB illegally). It was £249 but now £199, a saving of £50.

See http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/amateur-radio/transceivers/mobile-transceivers/president-lincoln-ii .

Nevada bargain on 10m Multi-mode radios

See http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/amateur-radio/transceivers/mobile-transceivers/alinco-dr-135dx-uk .

Nevada is selling Alinco multi-mode 28-29.7MHz radios on special deal at £99.95. For "export only" they can be expanded to also cover CB frequencies. Such expansion is not legal in the UK. At less than £100, this is a very good price for a 10m multi-mode rig.

I admit I "lifted" the original image from the Nevada website. As it was Javascript, I was unable to link, as I had wished, to the original images. If using this image on this blog is a problem, it will be immediately removed, although I hope Nevada see this as free publicity.

Nevada deal on Alinco DR-135UK 28MHz transceiver

Steve G1KQH has found a good deal!

This 28MHz transceiver is available for £159.95 from Nevada. It looks like a useful rig at a good price. No doubt a few wire cuts will allow full CB coverage (illegally) for those who desire this.

http://images.nevadaradio.co.uk/large/alinco2/DR135UK-Banner3.jpg

President Lincoln 2 - Nevada prices

Today I received a disappointing reply from Nevada:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email. We can confirm that we currently have this radio available for immediate despatch with a total cost (including UK Mainland delivery of 265.90.

The warranty period is 12 months from the date of purchase.

If we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards

Helen Wells

Nevada

Unit 1 & 12 Fitzherbert Spur

Farlington

Portsmouth PO6 1TT

This is a far worse deal than available from others. I have expressed, to Nevada, my disappointment. At the very least I was expecting a better discount for cash and a much better warranty. I have suggested they reconsider if they want my business. I can wait or go elsewhere.

President Lincoln II prices

Today I emailed Nevada to see what their best cash price is for a delivered President Lincoln II 10m transceiver. I have seen it for £234.95 on eBay, but this is with just  a 12 month warranty. I did not ring Nevada because of my breathlessness due to the stroke after-effects. As yet, they have not responded. Other people have recommended the (less expensive) Anytone series which are available under a range of brand names for around £149.

IC7100 for 1 penny??

Amused to see the Nevada advert for the Icom IC7100 on their website. At this price I would expect this high end mobile/home station multimode to be sold out!

Nice price for the IC7100 !