MFJ Shutting Down!

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KD1SH:
  Heard this rumor—or at least I thought it was only a rumor—at Nearfest yesterday, but it's true!
https://www.arrl.org/news/mfj-ceasing-on-site-production
  I know Amateur Radio is small-potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but MFJ, especially with their acquisition of Ameritron, Cushcraft, and Hy-Gain and the like, just seemed "too big to fail."
  I would have thought that even with Mr. Jue deciding to retire, MFJ and all its holdings would be saleable. The article mentions Covid, and of course that took a fearful toll on many business, but it still seems incredible seeing this happen.
  The ripple effects must be significant—imagine the advertising revenue that QST and CQ magazines will lose, not to mention the sales revenue lost by HRO and DX Engineering.
  I know it sounds outlandish, and probably is, but could it be that the Amateur Radio market might one day become incapable of supporting large businesses, and Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood might one day follow MFJ down the drain?

Pete, WA2CWA:
Quote from: KD1SH on April 27, 2024, 10:13:20 AM

 The ripple effects must be significant—imagine the advertising revenue that QST and CQ magazines will lose, not to mention the sales revenue lost by HRO and DX Engineering.

  I know it sounds outlandish, and probably is, but could it be that the Amateur Radio market might one day become incapable of supporting large businesses, and Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood might one day follow MFJ down the drain?


CQ Magazine probably doesn't care; they're gone from the scene.

 Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood have far more profitable (I'm sure) arenas that they are involved with. The amateur radio business doesn't keep them afloat.

KD1SH:
  I didn't know about the demise of CQ magazine; I subscribed for one year but quickly lost interest, with their focus on DX and contesting.
  Of the "big three," Yaesu appears to be the least diversified—their main focus seems to be Amateur Radio—with Kenwood maintaining a large presence in the consumer electronics world and Icom keeping their hands in commercial communications.
  I guess the question would be whether or not the more diverse product line of Kenwood and Icom should be comforting to us hams, or disturbing. The ups and downs of the Amateur Radio market may have comparatively little impact on them, but that very fact might make them more inclined to wash their hands of the whole thing. Kenwood, in fact, seems to have been retreating from the market over the last few years. They currently offer only three HF transceivers—two of which are absurdly expensive and probably see little sales volume—and three HT's (or maybe two HT's—I think they dropped the K20 from the lineup). Two FM mobile rigs complete the product line. It's been decades since they've made an all-mode mobile, and the TS-2000 shack-in-a-box is long gone, with a replacement improbable.

Quote from: Pete, WA2CWA on April 27, 2024, 02:05:59 PM

Quote from: KD1SH on April 27, 2024, 10:13:20 AM

The ripple effects must be significant—imagine the advertising revenue that QST and CQ magazines will lose, not to mention the sales revenue lost by HRO and DX Engineering.

  I know it sounds outlandish, and probably is, but could it be that the Amateur Radio market might one day become incapable of supporting large businesses, and Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood might one day follow MFJ down the drain?


CQ Magazine probably doesn't care; they're gone from the scene.

 Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood have far more profitable (I'm sure) arenas that they are involved with. The amateur radio business doesn't keep them afloat.

Pete, WA2CWA:
Quote from: KD1SH on April 27, 2024, 03:11:18 PM

 I didn't know about the demise of CQ magazine; I subscribed for one year but quickly lost interest, with their focus on DX and contesting.

The owner of CQ Communications, the publishing side of CQ Magazine, is in his mid 80's and, I guess, decided to hang it up. Evidently operating costs were rising at a exponential rate and couldn't be covered every month. At this time, I haven't seen any noise about liquidation or bankruptcy proceedings.

Quote

Of the "big three," Yaesu appears to be the least diversified—their main focus seems to be Amateur Radio—with Kenwood maintaining a large presence in the consumer electronics world and Icom keeping their hands in commercial communications.
  I guess the question would be whether or not the more diverse product line of Kenwood and Icom should be comforting to us hams, or disturbing. The ups and downs of the Amateur Radio market may have comparatively little impact on them, but that very fact might make them more inclined to wash their hands of the whole thing. Kenwood, in fact, seems to have been retreating from the market over the last few years. They currently offer only three HF transceivers—two of which are absurdly expensive and probably see little sales volume—and three HT's (or maybe two HT's—I think they dropped the K20 from the lineup). Two FM mobile rigs complete the product line. It's been decades since they've made an all-mode mobile, and the TS-2000 shack-in-a-box is long gone, with a replacement improbable.


Kenwood in all its incarnations, has been around for roughly 78 years. Their product lines include, land mobile, business radio, systems, amateur, car entertainment, headsets, and telematics services. Their top-of-the-line HF transceiver, TS-990S,  was dropped several years ago due to a "parts procurement" problem but I'm told, it's coming back for a "sale price" of around $8900 some time in the "future".
Their last HF mobile rig, I believe, was the TS-480 back about 20 years ago.
I don't see today's amateur radio mobile market as being a money maker. Kenwood, at least over the last 20 plus years, has been known to squeeze out the last dollar from their models.

Icom has been around for about 60 years. The product divisions include aviation, amateur, land mobile, marine, and network systems. They have lots of products to cover the pricing scale from end to end. I don't see them leaving the amateur radio market anytime soon.

Yaesu has been around for about 65 years. Yaesu and their subsidiary, Standard Horizon, are into marine products, airband, and amateur radio products. They also have lots of products to cover the pricing scale from end to end.

What is changing is that I'm seeing more "good and feature rich" Chinese amateur radio products getting a grip on a piece of the amateur radio market.

And, we have Flex Radio and Apache Labs doing their SDR grip as best they can on a piece of the amateur radio market and there's Elecraft also hanging in there.

Then there's the potpourri of amateur radio accessory manufacturers that have been around for years but the churn of change even within this group is common.

Will amateur radio survive; hey, it's a hobby; if interest wanes; people stop buying; manufacturers will dump what they have left and move on.

Life goes on - nobody and nothing lives forever - there are other hobbies  :D

W1RKW:
MFJ has been up for sale for nearly a year with no takers. Owner is in his 80s and wants to retire.

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