That’s a reasonable question. On the surface it might not make much sense, but there is a method to the madness.
My daily driver HF ham rig (JRC JST-135) was made by the Japan Radio Company (JRC). They were a company who (at the time) specialized in marine HF communications and produced a line of high-end Amateur radio gear as a sideline. They also contracted to produce designs and internals for other companies which were re-faced and re-branded. The RAY-152 is essentially a re-branded JRC JST-135 in all respects save color and face control unit. (Better JRC photos here — (where I bought mine many moons ago))
These radios are modular — featuring a motherboard/daughterboard design, –so as far as parts and functionally go, they are interchangeable.
So, the marine version (RAY-152) differs only in face controls and paint, but I still think it’s a helluva good rig, and they’d look nice side-by-side on the ham bench. The quality of both rigs can be surmised by the tenacity with which their owners prized them. There’s a lot of them out there, folks just won’t let go of them.
