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Why Are Radios Horizontal?
15 December 2009 | by 
This thought has been keeping me awake at night. Yes, I know I probably need psychiatric help… but that still doesn’t answer the question, now does it?
Radio manufacturers appear to be locked into a belief that radios must be horizontally oriented. I don’t get it — this takes up more desk space and offers no discernible advantage over a vertically-oriented rig. Why not flip radios on their side?
The closest thing we’ve got to vertical radios are some commercial rack-mounted systems, but even then, each of the individual components in the rack are horizontal. The cubish Flex-5000A comes close, it is almost as tall as it is wide, but is still technically a horizontal rig. (Actually, it has no knobs so it’s not a real radio anyway. Never mind.)
Desktop PCs used to come in horizontal cases; now they are all happily ensconced in tidy, attractive vertical towers. Has anyone complained? I don’t think so…
Tallness projects power and demands respect — you never hear people marveling over the world’s widest building, do you? I believe the first radio maker who ventures out into this brave, new design direction will come to rule the market.
You heard it here first, folks.
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