To the Board:

I refer you to

https://www.amazon.com/WEmake-Soldering-Cutters-Glasses-Project/dp/B01JA8B4U2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=cnetdeals_nl-20&linkId=a1d3eb66bafe4538dff5e7390d1c9cc2&language=en_US&ascsubtag=ag%3A-%7Cvg%3A___VIEW_GUID___%7Cst%3Adtp

This is an FM radio kit, with soldering iron, solder, safety glasses, and side cutters, all for just $22.99.

It is my impression that kit building at regional conventions has been an enormous success. W1UE (our CAC Chairman) told me just this past week that he built a kit at the desk at the Orlando Hamfest, and he loved it!

I wonder if the Board of Directors should be encouraging a series of ARRL kits, similarly simple, similarly low-priced – for example:

· 2 m FM receiver,

· Short-wave receiver,

· UHF Transmitter with camera for balloon experiments,

· 40 m or 30 m CW receiver,

· 40 m or 30 m QRP transmitter,

· T/R switch for the above to make them into a transceiver,

· End-fed-half-wave antenna tuner,

(with instructions on how to make a SOTA station out of the latter four kits),

· A Blue Tooth adapter for transceivers and HT’s to use with headsets,

· A USB-stick SDR receiver controllable with ARRL software for an iPad, netbook, Raspberry Pi, cell-phone, etc., for listening to ham bands,

· A USB-stick SDR receiver for listening to digital TV in the car (plugging into the AUX jack)

Maybe we are doing some of  this already (but http://www.arrl.org/shop/Kits/ displays a fairly meager offering – and the CW Cub Transceiver kit is $105.95), but we are not packaging a major line of really low-priced kits with an ARRL Diamond brand. My idea is a branded series of kits, that are compatible with one another, all low-priced.

If it is outside of ARRL’s ability to develop such a series in the lab, could we solicit designs in our annual design contest? Or coordinate with a kit manufacturer (MFJ? An existing kit company such Elenco, Digi-key, Giga-Parts, QRP Labs, Pacific Antenna, QRPGuys, Bliss Radio, uBITX, 4sqrp, etc.?) for an ARRL-branded product line (and benefitting ARRL with commissions)?

I note that Ramsey Electronics has disappeared after 40 years, having sold a zillion kits, see https://qrznow.com/ramsey-electronics-shuts-down-its-hobby-kits-division/. But the death of Ramsey may be sui generis, and related to the fact that they were previously raided by the feds, see https://yro.slashdot.org/story/00/01/04/2316228/the-feds-ramsey-electronics-raid-blow-by-blow.

The concept of a branded product was proven with the Eton/Grundig Hand Turbine AM/FM/Weather Radio, https://www.ebay.com/c/1633862185, which sells for <$20 and contributes $1 for each radio sold directly to the American Red Cross, if I recall correctly (I may not).  

We have scads of retired engineers who might love to get involved in creating low-priced kits. I suggest that we could rally a battalion, or put the idea out to bid with the hobby-kit companies mentioned above.

I suggest consideration of such a program by our Programs & Services Committee. ARRL publishes books in competition with other publishers. How can we NOT be a leader in the “introduction to ham radio devices” kit world?

Fred Hopengarten, Esq.   K1VR

Six Willarch Road

Lincoln, MA 01773

781.259.0088, k1vr@arrl.org

New England Director

Serving ME, NH, VT, MA, RI and CT