I think the influence may have been military. Pre-WWII radios are the
long shallow model, some early 1930s mil rigs were, but as WWII got
more serious, the rigs seemed to settle on the small panel-deep
chassis form factor. It makes sense when you're cramming a lot of
gear into an airplane, making a radio to fit in a backpack or Jeep,
in a tank, etc. Since a lot of ham gear was actually ex-military gear
following WWII, and since the US's warlike nature has supplied hams
with a constant supply of military surplus stuff since, (this has
only recently dried up, due to the classified/controlled nature of
the modern mil gear) we seem to have radios these days that are about
the same shape as military ones.
Frankly, if you're putting a radio in your car or RV or boat, taking
one along in a backpack, etc. the military type of shape makes sense.
I notice these days there are radios with the old prewar form factor,
such as the FT-1000 series and the new $5000-$100000 rigs the makers
have just come out with. Those are not meant to go into anyone's car
or boat... or tank. And they are relatively wide and shallow. The
megabuck rigs even allow for a computer screen to be added, making
the total thing even wider and shallower overall. Just some thoughts,
73 de Alex NS6Y.
On May 26, 2006, at 9:30 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Whether the rig was simple or complex, the small panel/deep
chassis idea became the most common, even for rigs that would
obviously never be
used mobile. It became electro-politically incorrect to build a ham
rig any
other way, even though the original reason for the form factor was
gone (2). That
influence continues to the present day.
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