Yes, it was truly an exercise in "How much money can we really spend and still be practical?"

It was all federal government funded, so nice to know where your tax dollars are going, eh?

When it is for pay, I don't mind seeing how big, how powerful, or how automated I can get a system.

When it is out of my pocket, I try to find what is the minimum that will reliably work. That's why I like those low power HF CW rigs and a spool of 22 gauge wire. You can string up an antenna if you know a little about what you are doing, and away you go.

As I said before, one big problem I have with the new superradios is you can't hardly even service them. To me, Ham radio is supposed to be all about getting your hands dirty. Even in the best shops you will ever see, if the controller or VCO circuit gives out, the tech will just pull the board, send it back to the factory to be fixed, and get a new one in to be recalibrated using a PC and some proprietary software. Not much of a technician anymore. About the only place where technician still means much is in the antenna side of things. Even that is relegated more to the mechanics of the thing, such as putting ends on coax, bolting the antenna clamp to the structure, wire-tying off the cables, etc. Except for the low power HF stuff, no one really "builds" anything anymore.

How many people know how to build a tube amp circuit for something above 2 Mhz?