List, When Bob VE3TOU announced he was closing down the TreeTop business he offered it for sale on the list. I have several of his modules and worked with him on making a version for the SP 600. I didn't want to see what seems to be the only commercially manufactured SSB product detector product die. So in agreement with another list member I bought the whole business lock, stock and barrel as an investor and had the parts sent to my manufacturing partner. I paid a little over $2,000. At my age at the time (83) I wanted to have my partner make and the adapters eventually buy me out as it wasn't practical for me to just take over the production process. Then things went south. My partner ended up with a number of major medical issues over a long period of time and was not able to manufacture the modules. So I had the parts, test modules, PC boards and software sent to me. I then connected with another list member who was interested in buying the business. But that fell through do to the prospective buyer having debilitating medical issues so that prospect fell through. I'm now 85 and have had for many months a "creeping crud" lung issue that was not bad enough to be in bed but wasn't well enough to not sit in a recliner all day. There are some on the list who talked about making copies of the TreeTop modules for themselves and others. I can't stop anyone from doing this, but it is basically wrong as the business is in hiatus, not closed down. There is a proprietary tuning process for all the modules which I will not reveal. In the transition process, the plan was to have the PC boards and the SMD parts done in China as personal soldering of SMD parts besides being a giant PITA, having them done in China was very cost effective. So where does this leave us? I have the entire business boxed up at my house and all the software on my computer. I haven't been well enough to pursue an active sale. If some one is interested in buying the whole business, I'd be willing to sell at a substantial discount. The great benefit of the TreeTop modules is that they are almost "plug and play" and is a decent product for its price point. The Dallas Langford improvement is a better SSB circuit but one has to do "surgery" It's the same problem that one faces in the R390A with mixer tube mods. Unless one buys a Hammarlund HC-10 SSB unit on Ebay for big bucks or the very rare Sherwood for more that twice what you paid for your R390/R390A/SP600, the TreeTop is your best bang for the buck. Comments appreciated. 73, Perrier WM6FQV
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