The apparent end of the AMT5000/3000 transmitters from SSTran has injured my hope for the future of this hobby.
Prior to that we lost the best FM kits when Ramsey closed their kit division, and another loss came with the discontinuance of the AM88.
There are some light-weight AM kits around, the over-priced certified AM choices, and the Decade and EDM for the ridiculously trivial FM power allowance, but even those are very likely day-to-day and could also vanish.
If the hobby has a future it is because we will design and publish our own transmitter circuits and force future participants to learn a little bit about electronics.
A committee of our members have designed a part 15 shortwave transmitter ("Big Talker") and got half-way through sketching a long wave ("Deep Voice").
Now we must get back to work and develop an AM transmitter circuit so we can build our own.
For my outdoor antenna site I'd intended to obtain another AMT5000 but that door is closed and the solution will be a homemade transmitter which probably slows the whole project by at least another year.
Another shadow casting itself over the hobby is the FCC's abandonment of its public trustee status having become a servant of corporate big money masters. Yet here we are pledging allegiance to part 15, the sloppiest regulations ever written.