WEBVTT

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Thank you for choosing to download the
ham Radio two point zero audio podcast rip.

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This is the audio taken out of
a video or a livestream I did

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recently. You can catch all my
videos on YouTube Ham Radio two point zero

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and catch us live every Sunday night
at seven pm Central Standard Time for a

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different topic each week. Thank you
for the support and thank you for being

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a member of the community. Radio
Shack is coming back. It may or

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may not look like we used to
know it, but they have been purchased

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by a new vendor and they are
gonna make their way back onto the scene

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with brick and mortar stores in the
USA. Check this out. So this

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is another story article that I found
about hobby radio. Radio shap is coming

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back, but in what form?
I actually found the article on three different

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websites, and I think this was
written up in the best way, or

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at least it's most to my liking. This comes from the street dot com

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and I'll share a link in the
description below, Okay, And they talk

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about how Coke and PEPSI have done
some relaunches of old brands in the past.

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So then they get down. Radio
Shack went through multiple bankruptcies while the

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brand shuttered thousands of locations. It
actually had about seven thousand locations across the

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USA at its peak, and it
never really fully shut down. There's still

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radio Shacks around the country in various
places. You might have one near you.

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Let me know if you have a
radio Shack that's near you, and

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if you go in there and talk
to them, they're probably gonna tell you

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it's a franchise store, not a
corporate store. But this article says it

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never fully went away in the US. A few hundred franchise franchises continued on,

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as did franchise owners around the world. Why does Radio Shack ask for

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your phone number when you buy batteries? I don't know. The biggest franchise

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operator of the brand was an El
Salvador based Unicommer Group. That's the name

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of the company, Unicommer, and
is now required the company. It has

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big plans to not only revamp its
website, but also build back its brick

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and mortar presence in the USA.
Good Deal Okay Radio shacks new owner plans

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to add more merchandise for its current
franchisees to be able to stock, and

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it plans an Amazon storefront as well
as well as new physical locations for the

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once ubiquitous chain at its peak,
because pretty much everywhere seven thousand stores globally,

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Okay, I said across the USA, it's seven thousand stores globally.

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The new owners plan to lean into
offerings that differentiate the brand best Buy and

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chains like Target and Walmart to sell
that sell of a lot of lictronics.

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Best Buy, I guess sort of
makes sense, although they're you know,

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they're not. You go into best
Buy and you see a bunch of TVs

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and washing machines. I mean that
I haven't been into a best Buy in

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a while, but that's pretty much
what I even see. Target and Walmart

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is just kind of like a conglomerate
store. They sell pretty much everything.

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Of course, Walmart has a really
big online presence. Quote. Private label

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offerings including drones, have phones,
radios, and adapters were strongly emphasized pre

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bankruptcy to offset the margin pressure,
a push expected to be continued under the

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new owners. A retail wire were
reported, which is another article right here.

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So there's a good storefront shot of
radio shack retail wire. I'll go

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ahead and I read through this article, and I like this one from the

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street better but I'll link both of
these into the description below. Does the

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market need radio Shack back? So
one of the things. So I want

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to touch on this on this radios
thing real quick. It might be talking

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about an AMFM radio or like an
alarm clock rated. They used to sell

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alarm clock radios. A couple of
their brands that you might recognize as Realistic

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Realistic. They used to make car
stereo stuff under Realistic. There were some

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of the HTx two O two that
were stamped Radio Shack at the top and

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some that were stamped Realistic at the
top. In fact, this is stamped

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Realistic at the top right here.
This is a radio Shack brand. This

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is not my original HTx two two, although I do own it, but

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this was the first, not this
specific one, but this was the first

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model of ham radio that I ever
bought, right after getting my license.

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So Realistic is one of their brands. They've got some pro scanner stuff.

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You used to be able to buy
scanners at Radio Shack for NASCAR races.

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You could buy like pre programmed scanners
to listen to the pit crew. They

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were just scanners that didn't transmit,
but you could listen to the pit crew

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you could listen to, you could
listen to AM receive for air traffic frequencies

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and air traffic traffic of radio transmissions
over the air. So maybe they'll have

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some of that back and maybe not. So what do they mean by radios

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in this article right here? Not
necessarily two way radios. It doesn't say

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two way radios. It says radios, and I certainly hope that it's two

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way radios. I would love to
see the HTx series of radios come back.

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You know, we used to have
the HGX two O two and the

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HGX four O four, the two
meter single band, and the four to

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forty single band. There was an
HTx ten which was a really nice mobile

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ten meter only radio. There were
a few others in there, but the

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closest one, the first duel band
they ever did, I think, was

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an HTx four twenty or four oh
two? Was it four twenty? I

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wonder what the guy who named that
model was thinking. But you know,

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I bought one of those used on
eBay several years ago, and I used

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it for about a year and I
sold it. I didn't like it.

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I didn't like it. It wasn't
it was a lot smaller. It wasn't

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nearly as robust as this as there
its predecessors, the two two and the

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four O four. So I do
have a couple of the HTx two twelve

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mono band forty five WAT mobile two
meter only radios. That was the first

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mobile radio that I ever bought.
So unknown if they're actually gonna have two

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way radios or some sort of HAM
radio or even CB radio. They were

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really big in the CBS back in
the day. The article continues, Radio

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Shack went out of business because Amazon
and to a lesser extent, Best Buy

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made its selection less unique. So
used to be able to buy trinkets and

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parts and processors and resistors, transistors, fuses, all kinds of good stuff

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at Radio Shack. As smartphones became
common, chargers, necessories basically basically became

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commodities, which squeezed margins and forced
Radio Shack into bankruptcy. And again the

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article says they went through bankruptcy twice, two different times. They went through

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bankruptcy. Now you have to wonder
is And the article goes on to talk

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about this here in a minute.
So I'm gonna read you the bottom part

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of the article, and I'm really
curious to see what you guys think about

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that. But before that, I
mean, how many of you actually still

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buy parts and processors and not process
but like resistors, transistors, fuses,

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microfareads and all that kind of good
stuff. What fair eyed beads and fair

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eye beads and toroids and all that
kind of good stuff. There's a company

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called Mouser that is pretty good.
They have They're down here in Texas and

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I know they ship nationwide, But
where would you go. One of the

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places you can go you can always
go to get all kinds of custom made

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parts and boards and CNC machining and
other stuff is pcbway dot com. Pcbway

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dot com is sponsoring this video.
They are supporter of this channel and I

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thank them for that. You can
always get three D printed materials and get

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C and C printed materials. All
you got to do is bring your ideas

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to life. You send them files
and they kind of work on it for

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you, and then you can get
them to actually physically make you a professional

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grade part for whatever project you're working
on. They do printed circuit boards,

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flexible circuit boards, three or four
five different kinds of circuit boards. So

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if you want to build your own
kit. You can do that as well.

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Check the link in the description blow
for pcbway dot com and if you

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go there and place an order,
be sure to tell them that ham Radio

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two point zero cent you thank you
for supporting this channel. The article goes

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on to say that the competition has
only gotten more intense and does the least

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questions as to whether there's a need
for the chain to grow its brick and

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mortar presence. I'll be honest with
you. I order a lot of stuff

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on Amazon. And it's not just
because Amazon is so great. I mean,

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Amazon is great, and I have
Amazon links that I share with you

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guys all the time. But it's
easy. You know, most days I

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don't need something like right now,
if I ordered it on Amazon, I

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can get it sometimes same day,
sometimes next day, two days at the

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longest usually and unless there's an emergency
or something, then I can drive up

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the street and get something maybe,
But one to two days shipping on Amazon

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is pretty easy to get. So
I just order all my stuff on Amazon.

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So I hope now RadioShack they're going
to do on Amazon said they're going

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to do an Amazon store. Great, so maybe we can order some Radio

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Shack stuff on Amazon. I certainly
hope that they will get back into the

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two way radio business, whether it
be CB GMRS is pretty hot right now.

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Be really fun to see some Radio
Shack GMRS radios. Have they ever

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made gmrs? I know they made
like Businessman and FRS stuff at one point

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in time. Does anyone ever know? Does anyone know if they ever made

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merhs or GMRS radios. GMRS wasn't
nearly as big back when Radio Shack was

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big as GMRS to is today.
But we see we'll see a major comeback

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in the US. Will be extremely
challenging. The electronics market has thin margins,

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loads of competition, and because the
products are very similar from retailer retil

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it can be hard to differentiate.
I always hear from my Ham Radio retail

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partners that there are thin margins and
electronics. Yes, that is very true.

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This was Global Data Retail Division Manning
Director Managing Director Neil Saunders that told

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Retail Wire or that other website I
shared a minute ago. As such,

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I struggled to see a new pathway
to success, especially in the current market

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where electronics sales remain firmly in the
doldrums okay. And then another person who

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is quoted, Gary Sankar, who
has fifty years in the retail business,

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has had less kind comments. I
can't see any scenario where this works in

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the United States. The market for
private label with electronics is small. Ham

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Radio Okay, yeah it is.
You're right, But they could do it

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right if stores like Better Safe Radio
and two or three of the other ones

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out there by two way radios.
You know, they could do it right

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if they really wanted to, especially
if they made their own product. I

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think the market for electronics components,
which I do miss, he says,

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is even smaller these days. No
one fixes anything anymore. That's true.

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Yeah, that's true. No one
fixes anything anymore. So what do you

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think? What do you think?
Do you think that do you think there's

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a need for Radio Shack to come
back? If they did come back,

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would you shop there? Do you
think they should make two way radios?

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And I'm not just talking about him. I would love to see a new

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version of this guy with some bells
and whistles. Here's an idea. Here's

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something I'm gonna say to Radio Shack
out loud that we have not seen from

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any other radio manufacturer, not even
the Chinese markets are doing this right now.

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Create a mobile radio that's dual band, all mode. Create a mobile

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radio that's two meters and four forty
similar to your HTx four twenty I hope

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that's the right number, similar to
yours, but that's in. It doesn't

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even have to be full power twenty
five thirty watts. It would be fine.

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That's dual band, single sideband,
CWFMAM digital modes. Create an all

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mode, dual band HAM radio because
nobody else is doing it right now.

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Ten meters is hot right now,
we're coming to the top of the solar

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cycle. Another ten meter radio would
be fun to see. Of course,

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it's gonna take several years in development
to get all this done. I don't

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know. It may be too late
for that. But what would you like

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to see from radio shack? Do
you think it's a good idea? Do

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you think you would shop there if
they open one down the street? For

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me, I would definitely go there
and check it out. In fact,

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I do a video tour of it. There's a huge market right now for

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gmrs, MERZ radios, CB radios. Even I think they could do it.

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It's just a matter of how willing
they are,