Due to questions I’ve received during club talks to visualize all three dimensions of price, performance and satisfaction in HF rigs, I’ve assembled a 3D data cube (scatter plot) with these three measures together. This includes the composite Sherwood Receive Tests (SPI), price at market entry, and the eHam rating. The data cube points are color-shaded to reflect year-of-entry into the marketplace.

Paying homage to the cultural icon and frequent use of the phrase, my latest Social Circuits column is now available over at foxmikehotel.com. I’ve analyzed ARRL membership numbers and licensed hams over the past two decades. The results show some surprises, both in the growth segments of ham licenses and in League numbers. But the most demonstrable finding is captured in the phrase, Elvis Has Left the Building…but in 2015. Go here to find out what this means and perhaps why.

One of the most valuable tools for amateurs worldwide to use when evaluating HF rigs is the set of bench tests that Rob Sherwood NC0B has provided for quite a number of years now. He ranks the receive tests by his favorite metric: narrow dynamic range in dB. It’s a key for CW contest operators (pun intended) which he is in spades. But it is a frequent question from readers of Rob’s table: why can’t I sort it on another criterion? Especially if I’m not a CW contest operator?