Waters and Stanton

My friend Steve G1KQH has sent me this:

http://blog.hamradiostore.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/IHSG.pdf

Is this the end for W&S as we know it, or a new beginning? I hope a new beginning, as they have been fair to me in the past.

In my view many UK, mainland European and US amateur radio dealers will be looking for ways to streamline their businesses and reduce costs. The alternative is closing down. Dealers in the amateur market have seen better times.

We can expect many well known names to disappear in the years ahead as the amateur radio hobby evolves, active amateurs get older and maybe buy less. One thing is certain. That is we can expect the amateur radio hobby to be very different in the years ahead.

I have said this before, but expect fewer and smaller radio magazines, fewer adverts, fewer suppliers, fewer kits and fewer dealers.

Have you counted the number of radio magazines on the newsagents stands recently compared with mags on other subjects? 30 years ago there were several magazines about amateur radio, but these days they are rare.

More deals

This morning I got an email from Waters and Stanton offering 5% off in a "post Black Friday" deal. I expect MLS will be doing similar.

See http://hamradiostore.co.uk/ .

Waters and Stanton Newark Rally Offers

W&S are offering the Yaesu FT450D at a special Newark rally price of £469. This is quite a bargain. I wonder if this rig is not selling as well as it should? At this price it should certainly sell. They have other offers too, but this one caught my eye.

Waters and Stanton taking orders for IC-R8600 receiver

See http://hamradiostore.co.uk/ic-r8600-wideband-base-station-receiver.html

I see that Waters and Stanton is taking £25 deposits to secure this new wideband RX covering 10kHz to 3GHz. It is based on the IC-7300 transceiver but can receive a number of digital modes. I'd like to show a picture, but copyright prevents this. It looks a very interesting RX.

It would be good to know the cash price.

There is at least one YouTube video of this RX.

From the W&S site:

"The IC-R8600 replaces the IC-R8500 wideband receiver and will feature the technology incorporated into Icom’s best selling IC-7300. The IC-R8600 will be able to receive a wide frequency range from 0.01-3000MHz frequency in analogue and various digital modes (D-STAR, P25, NXDN and dPMR). The IC-R8600 will feature a larger 4.3 inch touch screen display which will feature fast moving spectrum scope and waterfall display"

W+S Open Day

I heard about this too late to notify people! Usually I get 1-2 days of notice of upcoming rallies and similar, but not on this occasion. Let's hope that those that went along had a good time.

Even lower price for the Yaesu FT991

Steve G1KQH has just informed me that the Yaesu FT991 is being sold at £991 by Moonraker until stocks are exhausted or Oct 4th. I am sure we will see lower prices still in the months ahead. I can see MLS, Waters and Stanton and others doing battle.

The question is what price will the IC7300 be?  Once this becomes available there will be a price war between the UK dealers to offer the best deals. I expect even now a better deal can be had for the FT991 if paying cash and not looking for terms.

A price war is brewing....

Waters and Stanton respond on the FT817ND price increase

Today I received an email from Mark Francis, the sales director at Waters & Stanton PLC regarding the price of the FT817ND. You may recall I was suspicious that the price had risen when the Yen was weakening.

Mark explained that they are working to the tightest of margins these days and the price is basically set by Yaesu. He also pointed out that compared with 25 years ago we are getting a lot more for our money reminding me that back then the same money would have bought just a 2m FT290, whereas now we get a multi-band HF/VHF/UHF, multi-mode transceiver.

So, I stand corrected and accept what Mark has said.

I'm still looking around for the best deal on a new FT817ND to compliment my 12 year old FT817 that has been used just about every day since I bought it, but may well buy from W&S if they can match the best UK price.

FT817ND prices at Waters and Stanton

Looking on the Waters and Stanton website I notice they have increased the price of the FT817ND by around £30 to £565.95, despite the Yen exchange rate improving (in W&S's favour) by around 10%. I was rather hoping that the revised price might be nearer £499 i.e. downwards.

Would W&S care to comment on why the price has gone up suddenly by so much?

Perhaps there is a very good reason. To help everyone understand what I mean, see the BBC currency graph for the Yen over the last 12 months.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/

Looks to me like the UK pound buys a LOT more yen than in the summer of last year. Come on W&S, tell us what's going on.

UPDATE: I am being told the price in the USA has risen by $50 recently so maybe the rise is being driven by Yaesu? If so then they could be in trouble: falling handheld sales as a result of Chinese competition may be forcing them to squeeze for profits elsewhere? The slippery slope to niche markets and ...?

VHF yagis - amazingly high prices

Just browsing the Waters and Stanton website and I noticed some nice yagis for 2m. Rather larger than I could ever consider as the one I was viewing would stretch over my garden and the next two, HI.

.......and then I saw the price.

The 22-element yagi from InnovAntennas (see 22-LFA2-144 22 element 144MHz LFA2 Yagi 3kW (17.001m long) 18.55dBi gain) is a whopping £605.95 !!!   Probably delivery is not included either. 

Of course, if you want a moonbounce station you may have to buy several of these big yagis, phasing harnesses and booms, plus a large AS-EL rotator, a big tower, low loss cable ....and an expensive rig. This soon looks like a hobby for the seriously rich only.

Now I've no doubt whatsoever this is an excellent antenna that is well designed and optimised, but it is just 20 odd pieces of aluminium, plus a few insulators, nuts and bolts in the last analysis.  OK design costs have to be recovered, but the mark-up is a conservative ten times, if not more, on the raw material prices. Is this justified?

We are all different and I am not judging what others should do with their hard earned cash, but it's just not amateur radio (in my view, others will disagree) when you have to pay silly money for rigs, antennas and accessories.

KX3 in stock at Waters and Stanton

I read that W&S now has the Elecraft KX3 in stock for immediate delivery. This is a far cry from the 8 month lead-time when deliveries first started.  The supplier is  taking a profit from selling the units, but at least you know the price. My experience when importing kits and parts from the USA into the UK is that the import duty and VAT and Parcel Force "handling charge" (a rip off!) can add a significant amount to the final price, and a degree of uncertainty.

I am still tempted by the KX3. It is many years since I last bought a commercial rig and this one, although expensive, does tick all the boxes: small, 10W, excellent SDR receiver, coverage to 6m (soon 2m), auto ATU, speech processor., etc.

Maybe?

Waters and Stanton - wake up guys!

Today, having still received no feedback from Waters and Stanton about my emailed question on the FT-450D TX hum (has Yaesu fixed it yet?), I decided to ring them up, check prices and ask the question directly. To my amazement the sales person said, "I have never heard of the TX hum problem". Well, he can't be too well in touch with the market and customers then.

I also asked what was the best price for the rig ("same as in the magazines, no deals") and then asked if they still had the 3 year warranty running. "What 3 year warranty? I've never heard of that." I pointed him in the direction of several recent RadCom and Practical Wireless adverts.

In summary, I was NOT impressed with the responses, or rather lack of them, from this well known UK supplier. At a time when business near Christmas is tight surely it is important that sales staff  know about the product and can answer questions as simple as "what is the length of the warranty?".

Unless this supplier wakes up a bit I think I will defer my decision about purchasing the FT-450D.

Incidentally, they did say that Yaesu would be at Hockley this weekend for the W&S open day. I expect people going will ask about the TX hum question directly. And I wonder if there will be any news about the FT817's replacement?