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we be buying these Chinese radios? Should we actually be purchasing and using radios
made in China? I have some thoughts on this, and I'd like to
know what you think, so stick around. So great question, great topic,
great discussion that I've had with several people on discord on servers, on
forums. I've seen some topics discussed on qr Z. I've seen some topics
discussed on Reddit. I didn't really participate in those, but I read through
them and I wanted to give my opinion. This is an opinion piece,
so I'm going to give my opinion today about what I think about all these
Chinese radios that are flooding the United States, flooding North America, flooding Europe,
and I mean they're everywhere. They're absolutely everywhere. Is that good or
bad? That's kind of my question to you, But reserve reserve your answer
until I tell you my thoughts behind this. Okay, So in a perfect
world, we would have radios and stuff more made in the USA. There
is a specific part of the Gigabarts website that has items made in the USA.
There are specific parts I have talked about in my Friday Shopping videos about
stuff that's made in the USA. Ham radio equipment that's made in the USA.
If you want to talk about radios, radios that are made in the
USA are quite rare. There's basically three companies today that make radios in the
USA for amateur radio, and that is Llocraft, Flex Radio, and ten
Tech. Ten Tech's not really in the game right now. They've been having
some manufacturing issues. I talked to them at Hamvenson a couple of years ago.
I haven't really talked to them since then, but they were at hamventionon
in twenty twenty four. So I'm hoping to see some more stuff come from
ten Tech soon. But if you ever find a ten Tech radio at a
Hamfest or swapfest or something like that chances are that radio was made in the
USA. There are some amplifiers made in the USA. There's antennas that are
made in the USA. Buddy Pohl is old made in the USA. They
have manufacturing in Utah. They used to be in Portland. Now they're in
Utah outside of Salt Lake City. So there is stuff that is made in
the USA. There's not any HT radios, there's not any GMRS handhelds.
There's not any FRS or Marine band handhelds. Moltorola is not even made in
the USA anymore. Moltorola used to be made in the USA. Years ago.
Motorola was made in the USA, And now if you find a Molorolla
radio, it might be stamped, made in Mexico, made in Malaysia,
somewhere outside of the USA. Remember this that just because something's not made in
the USA does not mean that it is made in China. So China USA
two of the biggest countries on the planet. But realistically there's stuff that's made
in many, many other places besides just the United States of America or in
China. All of your big ham radio manufacturers, which you'd call the Big
three or the Big four which would be icon Kinwood, Yazu, and a
Linko if you want include in Linco. Those are mostly made in Japan.
A Linko has some stuff that's made in China right now, but icon Kinwood
and Yesu are all Japanese companies and they still do. Most if not all
of the are manufacturing in the country of Japan, So those are not made
in China or the USA. So that's an example of what I'm talking about.
I think two things are important when talking about stuff that's made in China
or stuff that's made in USA. Now, those of you who've been watching
my channel for a long time, you know how I feel about smartphones.
I use a Samsung smartphone. I use an Android platform. I had an
iPhone at one of the last IT jobs that I had. I did not
care for it other than the fact that the battery would last forever. But
I don't care for iPhones. Some of you like iPhones, and that's okay,
that's all right. The purpose of this video is not to bash on
iPhone, but I will say this, Okay. So I did just some
quick googling around and I said, where are Samsung phones made? Samsung is
a Korean company, so Samsung had a plant in China, but it has
all been moved elsewhere. This comes from Coorra dot Com. Samsung now has
plants in Vietnam, India, Indonesia, and North and South America. Most
of their A and S series phones are made in Vietnam. Variants of A
series and M and the F series are manufacturing and civil in other areas.
This is from February of this year. Why are Samsung Galaxy phones made in
China when they are Korean company? I have yet to see a Galaxy phone
that is made in China. This is a question on core and somebody's answering
it. Samsung had a plant in China and then' that's where it was.
Okay, so Samsung is a Korean company. If you have a Samsung TV,
I think I've seen some of their Samsung TVs that are actually stamp made
in China. But Samsung phones are absolutely made in other places. According to
this article. Anyway, they're made outside of Korea, but also outside of
China, not made in China. Now, if we do the same thing,
we're gonna go over here and we're gonna say, okay, where are
iPhones made? Is the iPhone made in the USA. No, Apple is
a USA company. It was founded by Steve Jobs and what's his name Wasniak?
And there's there's kind of a if you've ever read the book called Ready
Player one, or if you've ever seen the movie Ready Player one, it
is based loosely on the Apple platform, on the Apple, on the Apple
company, very loosely, very loosely on the Apple company. The nut job
that ran the virtual reality simulator in Ready Player one was somewhat based off of
Wosneiak from Apple. I'm told I don't really follow Apple that much, but
that's what I read because I read that book is a fantastic book. The
movie's good, but the book is much better. But Apple is an American
company. Microsoft is an American company, Okay. So if these guys are
an American company, why are there why don't they make their products in the
USA? Okay? And the answer is basically it's could be too expensive,
it could be for a number of other reasons of that kind of thing.
So I found this really good video right here that I want to share with
you guys, and we're going to we're going to listen to this real quick.
And I'm gonna do some play by play commentary on this, so check
this out. Most products in the US are manufactured in China, but expensive
products from luxury brands are typically made in their home countries. And Apple is
perhaps the most expensive technology brand on Earth. So why can't most expensive on
Earth Apple? I don't know if I agree with that, but okay,
all right, let's keep going. They make their products in the US.
Well, the answer Apple would give is that they do. The Mac Pro
was made in America unless you live in Europe, and the parts Apple use
for many products are sourced from US companies, like the Corning gorilla glass used
on iPhones display. But that answer doesn't make much sense if you're sorting the
gorilla glasses manufacturing America. I didn't I actually didn't know that. I watched
this video before I started recording this video you're watching of mine right now,
and the gorilla glass made and Usay's. I've seen some Android phones with gorilla
glass. I want to say that BlackBerry used to use gorilla glass back in
the day, some of the strongest glass you can get. I'm not surprised
and pleased to hear that that stuff is made in Usay Okay, good,
let's keep going forcing parts from the US. Wouldn't it be easier to assemble
them there too, Well, that's actually what Apple used to do with the
Mac. But when the yeah you see see this old Mac computer in that
guy's hairstyle. That was a while ago. That was not twenty twenty four.
The iPod was being developed. They knew their existing factories in California wouldn't
be able to handle the manufacturing, not only since it would become a much
higher selling product than the Math, but also because Apple wanted to update the
product annually. Factories in the US were slower and less nimble than those in
Asia, not to mention more expensive. So Tim Cook, who at the
time was the cost of labor in the United States is higher than definitely higher
than Asia, China, But it's higher than a lot of countries not I
don't know if we're the highest labor on the planet. I kind of think
that we're not. But cost of manufacturing here is higher because wages are higher
here, incomes are higher here. Cost of living I don't know if cost
of living is higher here or not. It kind of depends on where you
live. Now you go over to Europe and stuff, and they sell gas
gasoline over there by the leader, and it costs almost as much, a
little bit more per lead as we pay per gallon. So I've been to
Europe a couple of times, and the thing I've noticed about Europe is not
really that people talk about rich Americans all the time. Well, yeah,
and we have more stuff, We have more materialistic stuff. Sure, but
stuff over here doesn't cost as much as it does over there, gasoline being
one of those things. Okay, so it's going to cost more to get
stuff manufactured in the USA, I get it, okay, Yep. I've
always known that. This video kind of justifies that a position that I had
senior vice president for Worldwide Operations, set a plan in motion to shift manufacturing
from the US to Taiwan and China. This change quickly paid off, as
Apple was able to introduce not one, but two additional iPod models in the
following years, with all three receiving annual updates. So when the iPhone was
in development, Apple knew China would be the perfect place for assembly. In
fact, Steve Jobs decided to change the front panel of iPhone from plastic to
glass just a few weeks before launch. This last minute change forced eight thousand
factory employees in China to work round the clock in twelve hour shifts to change
every iPhone's front plate to glass. Oh the feat that would have taken an
American factory months to itch. So the advantages to cost, speed and scale
is why so many Apple prep I dare say it's because they're paying all those
Chinese factory workers much less per hour than American factory workers will get paid.
So they've just got more people because the cost per person is lower. Products
are made in China, but they have been expanding manufacturing in recent years to
India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. But there's still no plans to
make iPhones in the US anytime soon. Okay, so that is yeah,
that channel is called Apple Explained, and he doesn't seem to be an Apple
fanboy, so perhaps it's a channel I will start watching. Today's video is
sponsored by Ham Radio Prep. If you're looking at getting your Ham Radio license,
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Radio Prep for sponsoring this channel. So the end result is this we as
ham Radio operators. Now I'm talking about Hamm Radio. I think that well,
two things about my thoughts about should we be buying radios made in China?
Number one, if you have electronics in your house that are made in
China. If you have electronics in your car, patio furniture, A lot
of patio furnitures made in China. If you have items in your house that
are made in China, but you have some stigma against radios that are made
in China, Why why are radios different than all the other stuff you have
in your house or in your life, in your home, in your vehicle.
I recently bought a brand new set of Method racing wheels for my four
x four pickup, and I was disappointed when I got them in the mail
now Method racing wheels. They get excellent reviews, excellent, very big in
the overlanding community. So I bought five wheels so that I have a spare
tire because I changed the size of wheels that I have on my truck.
We'll see some videos about that on my other channel soon. When I got
those wheels in, I was inspecting to look at them. They arrived safely,
everything looked good. I turned them over and looked on the inside of
the rim that you're never gonna see because it's pointed towards the inside the vehicle,
and it's stamped very plain as day. Made in China. Method Racing
wheels made in China. They're not priced like they're made in China. They
were three point fifty to three seventy five per wheel and I bought five of
them, not really a Chinese price in my opinion, And if I had
known they were made in China, I might have done a little bit more
digging around. Now I'm not disappointed with my choice. I've only had them
on for a few weeks at the time of this recording, but so far
they seem right, So we'll see how they stand up. But if you
have anything else in your home made in China, why are you so worried
about your Ham radio. I don't get that. If you don't want to
have anything made in China, then hey, congrats, you seriously congratulations.
I'm not being sarcastic when I say that that's great, Okay. If you
want nothing made in China, then then do that. Okay. Have Japanese
radios, have Malaysian radios, Mexican radios, Israeli radios, motorolas, whatever,
excellent. But if you have stuff made in China and have some stipulation
about why you shouldn't have a fang, I don't get that. The second
point I'll make is this, we have to be we as a community,
as a Ham radio community, we need to stop being so cheap. When
I got an icon Icy seven oh five when it was brand new during the
height of COVID. If you guys remember that that radio was supposed to be
released somewhere around Daytonham mentioned of twenty twenty. Well, all the COVID shutdowns
started two or three months before that. You know that radio, along with
many many other things from many manufacturers, with the pushback, pushback, pushback
when they finally released the icom Ic seventy five. It people were chomping at
the bit to get it because everyone knew it was gonna be a great radio.
I still have mine. I use it from time to time, not
as often as I should, but I still do have it. When I
did my first video about that radio, it got two, three, maybe
four thousand views in the first forty eight hours. Now, at the time,
my channel was not nearly as big as it is in twenty twenty four,
my channel exploded during during COVID, So at the time my channel was
as big, I didn't get as many watch hours. Two to three thousand
views in the first forty eight hours. That's not bad, but it wasn't
great. About a week prior to that, I put up a new Bowfang
video and it got like ten thousand views in the first forty eight to seventy
two hours. Some of us, as YouTubers, you may ask, but
why do you guys make all these Bowfang videos because you guys watch it.
What kind of a world do we live in where you put up a brand
new video about a brand new icon radio and it gets three thousand views,
and you put up a video about a twenty five dollars fang and it gets
ten thousand views. I'm I'm guesstimated. I don't remember the exact numbers,
but it was about two to three times the views that my Bowfang video got
as compared to my IC seven five. And some people may say, well,
the ICY seven to five, it's in expensive radio. Well yeah,
but wouldn't you want to watch a video about an expensive about something you can't
get? How many of you watch videos about travel and places you will never
go, or expensive watches you're never gonna buy, or really fancy cards,
exotic cars that you're never gonna own. I watch those kinds of videos all
the time. Why wouldn't you watch videos about something you can't obtain just kind
of learn more information about it. But no, everybody's watching the bow Fang
videos. I put a video. I put a Bowfang video up a month
ago at the time of this recording. When I'm recording this video in May
of twenty twenty four, I put a Bowfang that UV twenty five video up.
I put it up three maybe four weeks ago, and it's got over
twenty thousand views today. So people are still watching Bowfang videos. So the
next time you want to ask why do you always make bowfang videos, Well,
it's because you guys want to watch bow fang videos. And I don't
have a problem with it. But we need to stop being so cheap.
Why are we watching bow fang videos and not icon videos? Okay, my
Kim Woo D seventy five video did okay, but I got a lot more
reviews in my bow fing UB twenty five video than I did my kid with
D seventy five video. If we're going to move manufacturing back to the USA,
and I'm speaking in an overall sense here, not just in Ham Radio,
I'm speaking nationwide. If we're going to move manufacturing back to the USA,
which I think we should, we need to stop being such so cheap
about things. We don't need to buy throw away things, Okay, stop
buying stuff that you're gonna save if it works, throw it in the trash,
invest the money, buy something once, and then let it be part
of your will because it's gonna last you for the rest of your life and
you're gonna will it to your family after that. So which one do you
want? Do you want to buy cheap stuff? And just keep throwing it
away, or do you want to buy something that's quality, something that's made
in the USA, something you could be proud of, something that has a
quality aspect to it. You're gonna come along and say, well, not
everything that's expensive is good quality, and that's true. But pretty much everything
that's inexpensive is not good quality. So look at it from both angles.
Those are my thoughts about whether we should or should not buy stuff from China.
I personally don't have an issue with stuff made in China, but if
I can find something, if I want to go buy new tires for my
truck or new wheels for my truck. And like I said, I didn't
know about those Method racing wheels that they were made in China. If I
would have known that, and I would looked some other brands of wheels and
found that some were made in Canada, North America, Australia. Australia's got
a really big manufacturing they're really big in manufacturing for the overland community, stuff
like that. South Africa, for some reason, there's some companies down in
South Africa. But if I would have found something other than made in China,
I probably would have chosen the other thing. If I would have found
something made in the USA, I definitely would have chosen that. I probably
should have done a little bit better research. I was doing research about quality
and review quality and testimonial quality of these wheels, but I didn't do any
research about where they're actually made. So if I have an opportunity to buy
something that's made in the USA, I will do it most of the time.
I think you should too, and I think we should stop being so
cheap about it. But if we don't want to buy stuff made in China,
then don't buy anything made in China, not just your ham radios.
Tell me what you think in the comments below. I'd love to hear your
thoughts. Seventy three