should the term "ricebox" be discarded? I think so.

[N3DRB The Derb]

A mini rant:

I'm getting to where I hate hearing the pejorative term 'ricebox' used to describe any rig other than old buzzard american gear. I think it represent a bias towards what a given station is using to get on AM, rather than simply being welcoming and helpful that a given station is on am.

These days I'm less interested in gear and more interested in people. I have to say I really don't give a damn anymore what someone uses to get on AM. If they just restored a old rig, sweet. If they "operate appliances", so what? What I care about is that they're trying out AM.  What does it concern me if they use a modern radio and a lin-yar? 

I wuz listening a few weeks ago and heard a 4 area man dismiss a station who answered his CQ by saying the dude's radio " sounds ok for a ricebox, I guess" after he was told what the other guy was running.

If they on AM and sound good like a good radio should, mellow in my earhole, why do I need to call their gear names?

ok, mini rant off.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

A mini rant:

I'm getting to where I hate hearing the pejorative term 'ricebox' used to describe any rig other than old buzzard american gear. I think it represent a bias towards what a given station is using to get on AM, rather than simply being welcoming and helpful that a given station is on am.

In my opinion, the term actually could also be construed to target a particular group of people which is also shameful. Ignorant people sometimes say stupid things for a perceived "ha-ha" to degrade.

[K1JJ]

I run two of them, but call them my "FT-102" or "FT-1000D."   It's funny how they got a bad rap, but some of these riceboxes sound MUCH better than some of the transformer-laden, phase shifted, plate modulated rigs.

In this day and age, there's many ways to generate near-perfect AM.


Yes, I've heard newcomers become demoralized when someone calls their AM rig a ricebox.

Tell Chuck/K1KW he's running a ricebox next time he's pinning your meter and sounding like VOA....


T 

[WQ9E]

Derb,

I agree completely with your view.  I remember a number of years ago we lost at least one member who made a number of very good technical contributions to a mailing list because of several list members using this term.  He is a Japanese national and felt that his input probably was no longer welcome on the list. 

I have a lot of classic US gear but I also have a lot of fun operating vintage Yaesu Musen and Trio/Kenwood gear and I have run my FT-897 portable on AM with decent results.  Many non-ham visitors to my station seem to be drawn to my FRDX-400/FLDX-400/FLDX-2000 station with its shiny chrome.

Being intelligent and polite goes a long way towards improving any environment.

Thanks for bringing out this point Derb.

Rodger WQ9E

[kc2ifr]

Derb,
I think the term "rice box" is not necessary a bad thing. The term has been used so long that its part of our radio vocabulary like Junkston Ranger......the crappy brown stuff.......old buzzard........etc.
Sometimes the term is used to describe a bad operator.......like the folks on 3892.
Its all in the ear of the beholder.
And JJ......as far as the station u mentioned....last time I heard him he was at least 40 kc wide......ricebox or no ricebox.

Bill

[WBear2GCR]

Well it's a term that has been around for a while, actually a very long time.

As most of us know, it came from the time when the Japanese first began to produce higher quality electronic products and they began to be imported into the USA. Look at ur old QSTs and CQ, 73 mags to see what they looked like in the beginning.

By around 1970 or so, some of them were pretty darn good. I recall my neighbor and ham radio mentor, Bob W2UO got rid of his classic Harvey-Wells transmitter and plopped a Yaseu FTdx-400 in its place, complete with phenolic pcboards and a quad of sweep tubes in the output.

But if you think back to how people looked at and talked about the "tin can" Japanese import cars (ha ha ha?) and how they compared to a 3 ton lumbering beast of an Olds 88, that is the mindset that generated the term "ricebox".

Back then a Collins S Line was the top of the food chain. Like the Olds in many respects (although lighter and more like an American late 60s "compact car" than a 50s "full size car"). The Heath SB series was a wanna be S Line, right? So who were these Japanese upstarts? and what the heck do they think they are doing anyway?? A lot of nerve, muscling in on AMERICAN turf!!

So, it's a shorthand for imported Japanese (and asian now) ham radio gear. Not a nice one, but one of long standing presence. The reality that they eclipsed US manufacturers of radios isn't in dispute. The term is jingoistic, and is a reverse attempt at pride in what these now old "boatanchor" radios once represented, and to some extent in what America once represented in terms of manufacturing and technology.

Should we stop using it? Yeah, probably.

But if you think that the Japanese or other asians don't have disparaging terms for things Western or American, ha ha. The Japanese fellow who left the listerve, I dunno if he was really offended or if he was unaware of the common usage of the term for decades or if he thought it was aimed at him personally. He shouldn't have thought that way, imho. Someone ought to have emailed him and explained all this.

Of course it is a good excuse to have a hissy fit!  

And then there is Mighty Fine Junk... MFJ? So I think we bash equally...

How about Heathcr**p??

BAH!!!

           _-_-bear

[kc2ifr]

Bear,
Whatever u said.......I agree

[WBear2GCR]

Crud!

I changed my mind now!

   

              _-_-bear

[WB2YGF]

How about Heathcr**p??

I prefer Grief-Kit  

I have to admit, as someone operating a Pro II, I was insulted at first, like I was not welcome into this AM fellowship because my equipment didn't have sufficient pedigree, audio characteristics, and power.

That said, I got over it and it really doesn't bother me anymore.  Like I was told when I first joined this forum.  You need to grow a thicker skin.

You think ricebox is bad?  Try impressing a bunch of US muscle-car guys (Mopar, etc.) with your Honda ricegrinder.

[ab3al]

my cobra 148 gtl is a rice box

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Back then a Collins S Line was the top of the food chain. Like the Olds in many respects (although lighter and more like an American late 60s "compact car" than a 50s "full size car"). The Heath SB series was a wanna be S Line, right? So who were these Japanese upstarts? and what the heck do they think they are doing anyway?? A lot of nerve, muscling in on AMERICAN turf!!

           _-_-bear

"upstarts"??
Trio-Kenwood was formed in 1946, Yaesu in 1959, Icom in 1954.

Most big box American rigs were dying off by the late 60's as American manufacturers were favoring the lighter rectangular transceiver-type rigs. National had their NCX-3 already in 1963 followed by other NCX rigs. Hallicrafters had their SR series, Heath had their SB series, Swan had their ### series, Collins had their S line, Drake with their TR series, Atlas had theirs. Along came the imports with their external and internal creative rig designs and much better price points and blew all the amateur manufacturers out of the water. The American Hi-Fi consumer line suffered a simple fate. Maybe we should refer to the last of the Amateur amateur designs as the "wet dogs" of amateur manufacturing history.

[K5UJ]

The term has a lot of baggage as has been mentioned -- currently it is popular amongst the buy American crowd, many of whom are found on a reflector for a certain American ham manufacturer located in Eastern Tennessee.   It seems to have some regional resonance -- 4 land for one, but any seemingly American product is loaded with components made elsewhere.  By the way, I am not against creating jobs in the U.S., but I prefer the term "JA rig" if one has to be given.  One of the reasons I'm back into AM is the challenge and learning curve.  I was always mildly dissatisfied with sideband in one sense because these days one needed only to buy a rig, put up an antenna, hook everything up and operate.   So now on AM I have more things to learn.  Rig is a direct bal. mod. fed 1000MP Mk V driving a Centurion which I've done a few things to, so it will handle a 200 w. carrier for a while before it melts down.  Audio chain is preamp, eq, Orban 422A and Inovonics 222.  Scope is Tek 475A.  Antennas Inv. L and horiz. loop.

73

[K5UJ]

The term has a lot of baggage as has been mentioned -- currently it is popular amongst the buy American crowd, many of whom are found on a reflector for a certain American ham manufacturer located in Eastern Tennessee.   It seems to have some regional resonance -- 4 land for one, but any seemingly American product is loaded with components made elsewhere.
73

>I don't know if that’s actually true. I originally heard the term ricebox from Amer’s up in the northern Midwest when I was >growing up in state of Indiana.

Okay that may be true so I stand corrected but I was merely giving my impression which is always subject to correction.

>I mainly use the term ricebox as a generic term for any modern solid-state transceiver.

Yes I realize many hams do that.

It is probably true that it was originally associated with the majority of the Asian companies which flooded the U.S. market years ago, but to me the term ricebox just means any non vacuum tube sorry-state piece of equipment. A ricebox is a ricebox whether it’s made in the U.S. or Asia. Stereotyping a term to a specific region in the U.S. is actually more offensive than any term that could be used  

Well that's because in this case, many of hams posting to the aforementioned reflector are 4s.

73

[WA1GFZ]

Who cares how you generate a signal. I'm more interested in what a person has to say.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Right on!

Who cares how you generate a signal. I'm more interested in what a person has to say.

[K1JJ]

Who cares how you generate a signal. I'm more interested in what a person has to say.

Yep. I've heard both boring bastards running full-blown broadcash transmitters - and some very interesting people running riceboxes. 

As Confucius once said, "A rig not maketh the ham, caw mawn."

[Opcom]

What does JA rig mean? new one on me but I don't get out much.

[WB2YGF]

What does JA rig mean? new one on me but I don't get out much.

JA = callsign prefix for Japan. 

[WBear2GCR]

Who cares how you generate a signal. I'm more interested in what a person has to say.

Humph! I have nothing to say!

Ask anyone?

And btw, your avatar photo is fuzzy and blurry... so there! Take that!

                        _-_-bear

[K1JJ]

And JJ......as far as the station u mentioned....last time I heard him he was at least 40 kc wide......ricebox or no ricebox.
Bill

But IFR...he sounded great ON frequency... screw the poor bastards down the band!   

[WB2YGF]

The point is "ricebox" is just a term created years ago when the flood of Japanese transceivers started coming into the U.S. and it was used nation-wide not just in 4 land. It doesn’t even necessarily mean the same thing anymore. It’s just a humorous term many of us still use today and is a carryover from the old days.

It's funny, I don't EVER recall hearing the term ricebox until I joined AMfone.net and started listening on 75 AM.  If it's a "carryover", apparently only AM'ers and Ten-Tec'ers are carrying it over.  It may be humorous to most, but I hear some AM QSO's where the term is used with obvious disdain.

When I got my license in the mid 70's, the norm was to run modern equipment, JA or US made, it didn't matter.  You only ran a boatanchor if you were too poor to afford anything better or too old to want to change.  The reason I ended up on AM was that I was too poor to upgrade my DX 60 when I got my General.   I remember a friends dad had the S line but his FT 101 is what he actually used.  I think the S line eventually ended up in the garage.

[w1vtp]

What the heck -- say ricebox when it fits -- just smile when you say it.  Some riceboxes sound GREAT -- some do not.  The same can be said about boatanchors.

[Tom WA3KLR]

Seems like it was about 10 years ago or so I was at the AM forum at Dayton and Timtron was giving a presentation and used the term ricebox.  I think this was one of the first times I heard it.  There were a few Japanese YaeComWood employees in the audience and I'm trying to remember if one was a little disturbed and maybe even got up and walked out after that.

[NE4AM]

There is a similar term used by owners of Harleys to describe the asian-import V-Twin cruiser bikes.  Yes, they are cheaper, faster, better riding machines.  But, like Collins gear, the old Harleys retain their value extremely well.  Will I ever be able to afford either a Collins or Harley?  Not likely!

(So does that make Hallicrafters the 'Indian' of ham radio?)

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

What about boatanchor? I find that term offensive.