Comment by Joel_Mckay

Indeed, the dark arts of RF engineered components persist long after other technologies change.

Mostly, expensive tools became more accessible like TinySA, LiteVNA64 and NanoVNA.

For the amateur Ham hobby, it has been a bit of a golden age with <$50 rtl-sdr SDR kits. =3

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/