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Author Topic: What would be the best selling radio of all time?  (Read 1414 times)

KE6SLS

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #15 on: October 19, 2022, 01:04:33 PM »

Will radio covers a lot of territory.  I'm going to talk about amateur radio.

Heathkits were the model "T" and enabled tons of hams to afford a REAL radio.

Another rig that stands out is the old Radio Shack HTX-202 HT's.  Radio Shack made the very first 2m HT that included a battery, antenna, dry cell battery case, charger, CTCSS (both encode/decode) & DTMF.  There were NO options for that radio since they were all included.  Not one of the other MFGs offered anything remotely like it since they loved selling the "options" for tons more money. 

Heathkit & Radio Shack both upended the amateur radio market.

Would LOVE to know the total numbers though.  I still work a ton of FT101(a,b,c,d,e,ee) ops :)

73
Jaye
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PY2JF

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #16 on: October 19, 2022, 01:06:21 PM »

Well that was very interesting and obviously there are a lot of best sellers throughout history. You just can't be sure which one it is because manufacturers don't disclose numbers. But it was all just curiosity. Thank you all!
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HAMHOCK75

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #17 on: October 19, 2022, 02:03:40 PM »

Dealers where I lived in 70's were saying Yaesu had sold more FT101's than there were hams due to sales to CBers. My FT101EE had 11 M on the band switch & would operate on 11 M out of the box. Even some 10 M crystals had been changed to cover foreign CB frequencies.
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KC8KTN

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #18 on: October 19, 2022, 06:04:45 PM »

ICOM 7300
NUFF SAID
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N8YX

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #19 on: October 20, 2022, 08:42:19 AM »

Dealers where I lived in 70's were saying Yaesu had sold more FT101's than there were hams due to sales to CBers. My FT101EE had 11 M on the band switch & would operate on 11 M out of the box. Even some 10 M crystals had been changed to cover foreign CB frequencies.
This would be correct.

I had a coworker (ham) who said the same thing and he was very familiar with the CB shop/truckstop scene. In my area, the FT-101 line and related rigs (FL/FR-101) were very popular on 11M. Discounting the teenager-with-a-mobile and Suzy Chatterbox crowds, probably 1 in 5 11M ops were using some sort of ham rig on the Class D allocation - and almost all of those were FT-101s.

There was one other ham rig on the band in my immediate vicinity. A buddy and his dad had a complete Drake 7-line setup. Even when run at max power, that rig splattered FAR less than the run-of-the-mill "type accepted" Class D rig. Lots of local people used to get NOVs for spectral purity violations. They never did, and IIRC none of the FT-101 crew did either.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2022, 08:45:08 AM by N8YX »
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KD7RDZI2

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #20 on: October 21, 2022, 11:37:16 PM »

And the winner is ... Baofeng  ;D
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K1FBI

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #21 on: October 25, 2022, 03:56:27 AM »

The IC-718 is still on it's very long run. I would think it is a Contender.
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KC8KTN

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #22 on: October 25, 2022, 05:08:36 PM »

Icom 7300
Awesome
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N8YX

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #23 on: October 26, 2022, 07:37:09 AM »

If we're talking "radios" (transceivers) in general, probably the Cobra 29/148 series and the RCI-2950. The Cobras earned their reputation for having very good receivers.

Even the most popular ham rig would be a distant second in sales to any of the above.
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N2SR

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #24 on: October 26, 2022, 08:45:43 AM »

Sony walkman
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Elect a clown.  Expect a circus.

SWMAN

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #25 on: October 26, 2022, 10:25:48 AM »

 I second the Sony Walkman. I remember when I first got mine. AWSOME.
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KC8KTN

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #26 on: October 26, 2022, 11:11:11 AM »

Icom 7300.
Great Radio
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N8YX

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #27 on: October 26, 2022, 11:54:26 AM »

Icom 7300.
Great Radio
Not. Even. Close.
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KC8KTN

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #28 on: October 26, 2022, 02:10:01 PM »

To be honest with the question of all time. Do not we have to wait till time stops to make a statement or comparision of all time...
Nuff Said...
Just Saying....
Keeping it Real...
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VE3WGO

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Re: What would be the best selling radio of all time?
« Reply #29 on: October 26, 2022, 08:44:47 PM »

The Heathkit 1983 Spring/Summer catalog still listed the HW-101, which was first introduced in 1970.  In the catalog, Heath says that over 30,000 were sold. 

That's a hard milestone to beat for ham radios.  Now if you are talking about broadcast radios, then maybe Sony's ICF-2010 was hard to beat for worldwide sales.

73, Ed
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