[quaddriver]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Comparing consumer electronics to Ham/communications gear (such as Hallicrafters) is like comparing a Chevy SUV and a military hummer. Sure they may both get you and your stuff around but the consumer use/demands and the way they are met are radically different. I almost included Ham/communications gear in with 'that companies not dedicated to HiFi' qualifier, but did not figure you owned any of that gear to compare.

Do you have evidence to back up your sweat shop claim? Because Zenith used to brag on their items that they were designed and built "by well paid American workers", and I doubt they could get away with saying that (or would even do so to begin with) if it were a lie.

Also unless an electronics company is a tiny fly-by-night garage operation the assembly line workers DO NOT design the layout of the chassis. The engineers or production plant managers/engineers do, then they show the line workers, and say "build it like this"....Though how good of a job those workers do at 'building it like this' is another matter.

He who forgets history is doomed to repeat it....

While it is true that men made many of the key inventions in electrical devices and electronics, women played a role that was equally important—it was women more than men who assembled these technologies in factories. The prominence of women in electrical and electronics manufacturing was because of reasons, which, from today’s perspective, appear to be unjust. Because of sex discrimination, women could be hired as factory workers for lower wages than men. Hiring women instead of men for assembly jobs meant more profits for the company. The irony, however, is that they were often as well-educated and as highly skilled as their male counterparts.

The electronics industry was the largest employer of women in the United States by 1960. In the United States, the assembly of consumer electronics devices declined after 1960, and many of these jobs were transferred to Latin America and Asia, where labor was even less expensive. Today, many women around the world are employed assembling televisions, cellular telephones, computers, and other electrical devices.

I actually had an nth cousin who worked in these factories from the 40's to the demise in the late 70's. She did radios, kitchen appliances, sweepers and lastly sweeper bags. All from New Kensington PA!

Anyways I obviously touched a zenith nerve but hey, Im equal opportunity, Im inside SS and tube stuff to the tune of a couple hundred of them a year - you see all types to the point where you can anticipate the task at hand before you get all the screws out.

The Japanese kicked our asses for a reason compadre.

Anyways the Halli was a 5R10 - hardly ham equipment. Just cuz It can receive many bands? so can a LOT of things - its pretty darn easy to tune into different bands once you have the 'radio' part figured out. In fact, Id bet that MOST of the big old top line floor standers from before the war (2) had more than one band - its how they communicated back in the day. This was of course before the FCC sold all the freqs to our corporate masters. Not much to listen to if you are not into digital carrier signals.

But any rate, lest we turn this into a debate of radio guts, I am done soldering in parts. All the wax is gone, all the power wires, some resistors, cleaned and lubed a bunch of stuff. It works. Does not smoke too much (im kidding) and Im now getting the smokers hack off the case.

everyone wants pick-sures