[Boatanchors] PARTS, a word to the wise!

[N4ue@aol.com]

I just wanted to make a comment about the various suppliers of parts. People 
are free to shop for the best price, heck, that's the American way. Nothing 
wrong with making a profit, either....
I have been buying from "the Arizona" company for years. As a ham of 41 years 
experience, I have bough a LOT of parts. The Az. company is a class act. 
Sure, you can save a few cent by buying parts elsewhere. (free choice). However, 
they usually have great prices on the particular items I buy all the time. I 
usually place an order for a dozen tubes, and bunches of Orange Drop caps. 
Having to get tubes from one place, caps from another eventually saves no money (at 
least in the quantities I buy) due to separate postage.
However, besides their almost instant delivery, they stand behind their 
products. A while back I bought a nice Drake 2-NT transmitter for one of my CW 
operating positions. The radio had a tag on it that said "final no good", this was 
OK 'cause the radio was almost free. I ordered 2 finals from Az. One was 100% 
output the other had a problem. I cannot honestly remember if it had a short 
or had an open filament. In any case, I called them and thought I'd be in for 
an ordeal. They were very apologetic and sent me a new tube, free. They didn't 
even want the old one back, which I offered to send them. Didn't cost me 
$.01. THAT'S Customer Service!!!
I have had similar satisfaction dealing with RF Parts in Calif. Extremely 
quick delivery, polite, what more could you want?

regards, Ron
Proud American, Patriot, and Viet Nam Vet
N4UE