Yaesu (and poss. others) supply and availability

[W3ESX]

Had a short chat with one of the sales reps at Ham Radio Outlet VA today about the Yaesu FT-991A. He said they are currently backordered ***60 UNITS***!!

Also said they are receiving a shipment soon but it will just barely be able to cover demand, I imagine they will sell out nearly instantly once the backorders are filled.

Apparently the bottleneck is the containers they ship them in, however that got me thinking and I asked him about the "chip shortage" that has been in the news lately and asked him if he thought that would continue to affect availability going forward. He said it might, but that he had heard that Yaesu and other mfr's were yanking (working) chips from older/defective units and putting them in new ones (again, only the working ones, I'm sure they're not recycling bad parts into new rigs).

Still, it makes one wonder if it will be hard to source transceivers for a while until the supply chain balances out. I was hoping to buy an HF rig new, however it looks like I may have to wait or hope to get lucky at a Hamfest. I don't wanna pay much over sticker for a 991-A because they're already not cheap.

Thoughts?

[AC3EO]

Berryville hamfest is this weekend.  They might just have what you are looking for.  

[K3MRI]

13 hours ago, W3ESX said:

Still, it makes one wonder if it will be hard to source transceivers for a while until the supply chain balances out. I was hoping to buy an HF rig new, however it looks like I may have to wait or hope to get lucky at a Hamfest. I don't wanna pay much over sticker for a 991-A because they're already not cheap.

Thoughts?

I agree. There is no way that Apple is forecasting an impact on their supply chain and others, much smaller, would not. Heck, GM is delivering trucks with the understanding that they will have to retrofit some chips. I heard a rumor, though they won't admit it, that Elecraft's K4 is delayed for that same reason. Again, unconfirmed but a rather reliable source.