Don KA9QJG wrote: > > __,_. > > Speaking of the Alnico DR-235 , I had A Ham Friend Who was told by a > Ham Radio Dealer with four State stores the Radio has been > discontinued , They had one left , and the Reason was the New Model > would come out made with Lead free Solder > > > > I have No idea if this is true or not, but maybe with the Lead Toy > problem that was in the News Who knows .
It probably is true, but not because of the lead toys. There's a requirement to sell reduced-lead or lead-free electronics into the European Union and other areas of the world, which has been ramping up for years now. Google search for "RoHS". You'll find lots of hits on the topic. It took effect in July of 2006 in the UK, the EU, and elsewhere, as specific country's rules have been rolled out. Manufacturers have been redesigning various products for a number of years now, as the deadlines came due. Many of the "redesigned" radios that you saw from Kenwood, Icom, Yaesu, and everyone else at Dayton (Alinco is BEHIND) weren't JUST to have new features/functionality for hams. Most of them carry an RoHS sticker, and were redesigned boards and components that don't use lead in the soldering process. No they weren't JUST happy to bring us new products, they weren't going to be able to sell ANY products into Europe without RoHS compliance... thus the "whirlwind" of redesigned and newly-designed radios at Dayton, and the cancellation of some older products forever, like Yaesu dropping the FT-847 which actually filled a market niche pretty nicely still, but probably couldn't be made RoHS compliant. You'll start to see "RoHS" stickers on just about every electronic device made now, indicating that the product passes the lead-free standards being required by many countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Substances_Directive We'll see if the "tin whisker" problem that many of us are familiar with in older GE MASTR II receiver castings -- starts to become wide-spread in more typical electronic devices, with the removal of lead from the soldering process. (There's some references to the tin-whisker problem and a photo on that Wikipedia entry above.) Time will tell. Nate WY0X
