[BC] Larcan Shutdown update

[James Potter]

All:  Agreed: don't underestimate the Chinese. They're very clever and inscrutable.

My experience with manufacturing communications gear in both Taiwan and Mainland China is very good so long as American engineers design the product and American managers manage the parts procurement process and supervise the final inspection and testing. This means the key Americans living near those factories. When things are right, they do nice work. They are meticulous craftspersons and as we all know, they work cheap. They are miserably poorly paid. But if you don't carefully and rigidly monitor and control the manufacturing process, they will ship crap because in many cases, their managers and assembly workers get piecework pay and bonuses for exceeding production quotas. They'll put anything in a box and ship it to the Port of LA whether it works or not if you don't keep a close eye on them.

China is a modern, technologically advanced country. It's no longer coolies stooping in rice paddies. Consider their corporate and military espionage. If they wish, they can make anything better and cheaper than anyone else on the earth. They have sharp engineers and manufacturing people.  If they're smart, they will make the best and least expensive transmitters in the world, and own the market in 5 years. But tech support will be tricky. Imagine the manuals written the way the pamphlets you get with cheap radios and coffee makers. Bad enough talking to phone banks in India.  Try China. Maybe worse than Energy-Onyx.  (RIP, Bernie.)
Regards/J