[Arran]

Quote "What made sense to a lot of UK folk was that these radios were quite a bit cheaper than the imported Yaesu/Icom/Kenwood fare of the time, yet offered performance on a par or better."

 I can certainly understand that, there was some sort of cult following with Yaesu and Kenwood stuff back then that never made much sense to me. I still see both brands of rigs for sale on C.L from time to time, but many don't seem to get it that the sun has largely set on HAM radio as a growth hobby. Never heard of Icom until recently, and quite frankly the name does not grab me, makes it sound like BPC China junk. In term of British stuff I'm, always open to acquiring an Eddystone, I have a rebadged one downstairs that was dropped at some point, so one of the chrome rails was removed from the front panel.
Regards
Arran