What's with frequency stability?

As the Sun is well on its journey northwards again, the days are already over an hour longer in daylight than at midwinter.

I'm therefore getting the twitch for portable operating, despite the seemingly unending lockdowns currently in force across the UK.

Frequency drift with WSPR.  It's not acceptable, yet is inevitable with so many rigs.

For WSPR work, and some other digital modes (and CW), frequency stability is an important aspect of a transceiver.  

Yet, almost every transceiver I look at for the portable market has poor standard frequency stability.

Why?  I mean, I was very unimpressed indeed after buying my Kenwood TS480SAT many years ago, at something like £800 even then, only to find it drifted very badly during WSPR, making it essentially useless.

The price I paid for a generic TCXO replacement for the TS-480?  £15!  

Typical generic TCXO unit.

 

I'm not sure if Kenwood were hoping for an additional £100 from the unsuspecting purchasers of a 480, but that's the price they demanded for their own, branded version of what was probably the same unit as the one I paid six times less for.  

After several years, that £15 unit continues to work perfectly, yielding zero drift, no matter what I throw at it.  But the feeling of being shafted by Kenwood for this poor stability in an expensive rig dramatically reduced my inclination to buy their products, otherwise extremely good, again.

I also looked at the KX-3.  An expensive rig at £1300.  It, too, according to what I have read online, seems not to have adequate frequency stability for WSPR.  So that's off the list of potential purchases.

Next, the IC705, another £1300 rig.  It does seem to have excellent frequency stability, but is over-complex, not very rugged for field use, and is considerably more money than I think reasonable.

I looked at the FT857.  This seems to require the installation of an after-sales TCXO as well, although again, a generic, cheap unit is readily available.  The price, at least, is pretty reasonable with this radio.  It remains a contender for the moment.

Then I came to the mcHF, a very nice QRP rig with excellent features.  I asked the maker - as I couldn't find any definitive answer about frequency stability anywhere online - whether it does have good stability.

The final words from mcHF, though, suggest stability can't be expected out of the box: "In conclusion, [frequency stability] is not just one thing, but combination of them. And all those will require lots of modding."

Well, I don't want an electronics project, thanks very much!

It's the same story with the Chinese Xiegu products.  If I'm being unfair to them, then it's only because there is no real demonstration of stability to be found anywhere, and what I can find about their specification isn't reassuring.  For the moment, they are out of the running.

Next, the Lab599 TX-500.  I love this rig, even though you can't actually get it anywhere at the moment!  Sadly, according to OH8STN's words, the standard stability is only 2.5ppm - way off the 0.5ppm that is ideal for WSPR.  So that rig is out.

What on earth am I going to buy?  Why does just about every rig have such poor stability when the price of stability is essentially nothing at all, compared to the overall price of these rigs?   

Perhaps you, dear reader, can help?  If only all rigs were like my FT450, which never, ever drifts, then life would be so much easier.  If that rig wasn't 4kg - about twice what I need a rig to weigh - then I would just get another of those!