Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6   Go Down

Author Topic: Kenwood still in the ham business?  (Read 3825 times)

VE3WGO

  • Member
  • Posts: 666
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #45 on: March 29, 2022, 06:04:37 AM »

So now the TS-990S is discontinued.  https://www-hamlife-jp.translate.goog/2022/03/21/ts990-vr160-discontinued/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The number of Kenwoods in production just keeps dropping.

I guess between semiconductor shortages and the fact that hams are infatuated with the cheaper Chinese brands like Baofeng and Xiegu, it's hard for Kenwood to remain interested in this market.

73, Ed
Logged

KA4DPO

  • Member
  • Posts: 1591
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #46 on: March 29, 2022, 09:57:28 AM »

So now the TS-990S is discontinued.  https://www-hamlife-jp.translate.goog/2022/03/21/ts990-vr160-discontinued/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The number of Kenwoods in production just keeps dropping.

I guess between semiconductor shortages and the fact that hams are infatuated with the cheaper Chinese brands like Baofeng and Xiegu, it's hard for Kenwood to remain interested in this market.

73, Ed

I wish I could agree with you, but I think the TS-990S is just too expensive and sales are too few to justify production.  I also think that even if there were not cheap Chinese radios things would be the same.  The bean counters at JVC Kenwood have peered into the crystal ball of market share and they know that profits from amateur radio will continue to dwindle.  The sad fact is that amateur radio is a diminishing hobby.  It has no attraction to younger people and attrition is creating an ever shrinking market.

 It's just economics, no profits, no radios.   I think they are investing their R&D budget into other technologies, technologies that just don't translate to amateur radio products.
Logged

K1FBI

  • Member
  • Posts: 1475
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #47 on: March 30, 2022, 06:39:35 AM »

So now the TS-990S is discontinued.  https://www-hamlife-jp.translate.goog/2022/03/21/ts990-vr160-discontinued/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The number of Kenwoods in production just keeps dropping.

I guess between semiconductor shortages and the fact that hams are infatuated with the cheaper Chinese brands like Baofeng and Xiegu, it's hard for Kenwood to remain interested in this market.

73, Ed
What does a Boefeng have to do with a Flagship HF Transceiver?
Logged

WO7R

  • Member
  • Posts: 6042
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #48 on: March 30, 2022, 02:59:30 PM »

Quote
The sad fact is that amateur radio is a diminishing hobby.  It has no attraction to younger people and attrition is creating an ever shrinking market.

We keep repeating this to ourselves as if it were true.  It is not.

It is true that we do not seem to attract very many 15 year olds these days.

However, we seem instead to get them when they are between 25 and 45 and even older.

License numbers over the last 30 years in the US have been stable at about 650,000 or more.  We are not really growing, but we are not going away, either.

We need to stop wringing our hands about the dearth of 15 year olds.  If that was going to kill us off, it would have already happened.
Logged

K1FBI

  • Member
  • Posts: 1475
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #49 on: March 30, 2022, 03:54:53 PM »

Quote
The sad fact is that amateur radio is a diminishing hobby.  It has no attraction to younger people and attrition is creating an ever shrinking market.

We keep repeating this to ourselves as if it were true.  It is not.

It is true that we do not seem to attract very many 15 year olds these days.

However, we seem instead to get them when they are between 25 and 45 and even older.

License numbers over the last 30 years in the US have been stable at about 650,000 or more.  We are not really growing, but we are not going away, either.

We need to stop wringing our hands about the dearth of 15 year olds.  If that was going to kill us off, it would have already happened.

I was 37 when I was licensed in 1998. So this newcomer fits your 25-45 year old demographic.

Logged

K3XR

  • Posts: 245
    • HomeURL
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #50 on: March 30, 2022, 04:36:36 PM »

Like trees ham radio operators are a renewable resource. Both will be around for a long time.
Logged

G8FXC

  • Member
  • Posts: 533
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #51 on: March 31, 2022, 01:04:53 AM »

Quote
The sad fact is that amateur radio is a diminishing hobby.  It has no attraction to younger people and attrition is creating an ever shrinking market.

We keep repeating this to ourselves as if it were true.  It is not.

...

The USA is a big market, but don't forget that none of the big 3 are US companies... In other countries, the numbers are not looking so stable. Also, from their point of view, you need to consider the profile of the market. The Baofeng jokes are only partly jokes - there are quite a lot of newly licenced hams who really do just buy a cheap Chinese HT for a chat through local repeaters or through a hotspot. You could have a million of them in the US and it would mean nothing to Kenwood!

Martin (G8FXC)
Logged

K7JQ

  • Member
  • Posts: 2602
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #52 on: March 31, 2022, 06:52:46 AM »

I don’t think Kenwood is getting out of the ham radio business. They’re just evaluating and reacting to the current market, based on ham’s wants and needs with evolving technology and operating preferences. They probably just determined that having the long time TS-590sg and newer TS-890s HF radios are enough at their respective price points.

I understand their discontinuing the TS-990. Have you seen the current price “on sale” at HRO?…$7,700! The competition has their SDR two-receiver radios at less than half that price. And the more sophisticated Elecraft K4D is $2K less. A no brainer to knock it out of their lineup.

Also, even though Cycle 25 is showing promise for better propagation, and folks somewhat returning to the legacy CW and SSB modes, digital modes like FT8 are still humming along and jamming their band segments at increasing numbers. No indication of slowing down, so maybe the manufacturers are realizing that one doesn’t need expensive radios with all the bells a whistles to operated those modes.

Bob K7JQ
Logged

N4NYY

  • Member
  • Posts: 5482
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #53 on: April 02, 2022, 06:23:31 PM »

I posted this in Nov 2021. It's April 2022. HRO does not have any 890s or 590s in stock. Forget the chip shortage and supply chain issues (that does not seem to affect the other big 2). Kenwood is done in ham radio. The only thing left is to make it official.
Logged

KS2G

  • Member
  • Posts: 1171
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #54 on: April 02, 2022, 09:16:33 PM »

I posted this in Nov 2021. It's April 2022. HRO does not have any 890s or 590s in stock.

Both radios are In Stock at Main Trading:
https://mtcradio.com/

The '890 is In Stock at GigaParts:
https://www.gigaparts.com/

DX Engineering shows April delivery dates for both -- indicating they are expecting stock within the next couple of weeks.

Kenwood has been advertising both radios with full-page and back-cover ads for months -- same amount of ad space as Yaesu and twice as much as Icom.

They wouldn't waste their money promoting radios that they don't plan to deliver.

Kenwood has been in ham radio since the '60s.

They're not going anywhere.

 ;)




Logged

N4NYY

  • Member
  • Posts: 5482
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #55 on: April 02, 2022, 09:33:03 PM »

Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Logged

K1FBI

  • Member
  • Posts: 1475
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #56 on: April 03, 2022, 04:13:28 AM »

Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Just looked up the TS-890S on their website.
Try Reading, HRO states: Out of Stock Delivery Will Be Delayed.

It doesn’t mention Discontinued or Kenwood going out of business.

The sky is falling?
Logged

K7JQ

  • Member
  • Posts: 2602
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #57 on: April 03, 2022, 06:51:25 AM »

Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?

You know little of retail operations. You’re basing your statement on one retailer at one point in time. The global supply chain and chip shortage has thrown everything off kilter. A manufacturer has different stock delivery allocation times for each of their vendors, based on when a vendor orders inventory in relation to another. No correlation between them.

A few days ago, DXE had “more than 10” Icom IC-7610’s in stock (today only one), while HRO had zero in any of their locations. Does that mean Icom is going out of the HR business? DXE hasn’t had Acom amplifiers in stock since the beginning of the year, while vendors overseas has had them. Acom is not going anywhere. The demand is high, but the supply is short. The lack of components has severely curtailed the manufacturing process, so inventory allocations are sparse.
Logged

KA4DPO

  • Member
  • Posts: 1591
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #58 on: April 09, 2022, 10:08:46 AM »

Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Just looked up the TS-890S on their website.
Try Reading, HRO states: Out of Stock Delivery Will Be Delayed.

It doesn’t mention Discontinued or Kenwood going out of business.

The sky is falling?

That is true however, if you look at the HRO ads in QST, they stopped advertising Kenwood some time ago, all you see is Yaesu and Icom.  Makes me wonder if they didn't have some kind of tiff with JVC-Kenwood over sales.  They do still carry the full line of Kenwood products.
Logged

K1FBI

  • Member
  • Posts: 1475
Re: Kenwood still in the ham business?
« Reply #59 on: April 09, 2022, 11:21:00 AM »

Then why does the biggest ham radio retailer not have any of their radios?
Just looked up the TS-890S on their website.
Try Reading, HRO states: Out of Stock Delivery Will Be Delayed.

It doesn’t mention Discontinued or Kenwood going out of business.

The sky is falling?

That is true however, if you look at the HRO ads in QST, they stopped advertising Kenwood some time ago, all you see is Yaesu and Icom.  Makes me wonder if they didn't have some kind of tiff with JVC-Kenwood over sales.  They do still carry the full line of Kenwood products.
Anything is possible. It could be something as simple as profit margins.
Logged
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6   Go Up