SStran, makers of the AMT3000 and AMT5000 AM transmitter kits, has announced they are not accepting new orders and are not able to fill their backlog of orders.
i was wondering about that for awile now i was looking at getting a SStran AMT3000 oh well
It comes as a shock and very saddening news to hear that the glorious days of the SSTran excellent AM transmitter kits has unceremoniously concluded.
Questions remain about the status of PhilB, inventor and proprietor of SSTran. No one so far has any information about his situation.
We will hope that PhilB came into billions of dollars and moved to an island kingdom where the FCC don't shine.
Our life in part 15 will never be the same.
This happened with North Country Radio a few years ago they had a nice AM transmitter with a digital fequency country fully built kit for a likr $200 to $250 and they all of a sudden removed it from their site. I was really close to getting one I read 2 reviews that said it was a decent trasnmitter.
The saying goes, nothing lasts forever.
The owner(s) retire, get older or become ill, or maybe business isn't good enough to continue. Whatever. Sad sometimes but thats the way it goes. The transmitter business isn't like a product that is continually needed and with a good quality product you buy one and that lasts indefinately so when everyone that wants one has one not to many are sold anymore.
This can happen with all the transmitter makers like Procaster, Rangmaster, Decade, Brodcastvision etc.
I ordered an AMT3000 two weeks ago and today I checked to see why it had not arrived. No more AMTs. Thinking a part went obsolete I checked at Digikey and all four ICs are active and in stock. If a part package type had gone obsolete a new PCB could be designed or a small adapter PCB made.
My plan was to use the AMT3000 for its frequency agility and SSM2166P audio compression. The RF output stage was to be replaced with something more efficient.
So, needing something to replace the temporary junk transmitter, I ordered a Talking House transmitter.
Does the Talking House have effective compression?
The Talking House has no on board compression like the Procaster and SStran does.
Sad news but I think most of us saw it coming. I've never really put my 5000 into production opting instead to use my Procaster, but this has rekindled my interest in it.
As is often said on American Pickers, "The time to buy something is when you see it."
Apparently SStran has been struggling for a year, according to a thread on an Antique Radios forum.
Not to mention the harrassment he received by so-called professional radio broadcast engineers. I hope they are happy.
Well, I beieve that those guys are legends only in their own minds.
Although I'm sure that it didn't help what was probably a marginal business at best anyway to have a few going around slagging that business at every chance they got, with little basis in fact.
There is a gentleman named Liam located in St. Louis that has re-sold SSTran transmitters since 1990.
I have e-mailed him to discover whether he has any remaining stock, which could prove our last chance to find one of these great transmitters.
His reply will be shared.
Carl,
Do you mean Patrick Ryan? His email is [email protected].
His website states he is not accepting new orders until all current orders are complete, but hopefully he does have ome inventory. I bought my 5000 from him beause he had stock and SSTRAN did not.