[Elecraft] Yaesu versus Elecraft Service

[Jim Garland]

(Copy of a posting I sent today to the Yaesu FT-2000 reflector, contrasting
Yaesu and Elecraft technical support. I believe it speaks for itself.)

 

  _____  

From: Jim Garland [mailto:4cx250b at muohio.edu] 
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2009 11:22 AM
To: 'ft-2000 at yahoogroups.com'
Subject: Update: Yaesu Service

 

Two weeks ago I posted a note here about Yaesu's policy of not allowing
customers to speak to service technicians, instead referring inquiries to
customer support personnel who were unfamiliar with the inner workings of
Yaesu products. This is the same policy used by auto dealers, who insert a
"customer service manager" between a customer and mechanic, or computer
manufacturers whose support personnel answer technical questions by reading
from a prepared script.

 

In my case, I had questions about the first mixer stage in my FT-2000D,
which I suspected had failed. I had traced the signal path to the mixer with
an oscilloscope, but wasn't sure how to interpret the output signal. I
couldn't tell from the circuit diagram how much bias current the mixer FETs
were supposed to draw, what the conversion loss from the mixer was (after
taking into account losses and turns ratios of the coupling transformers),
whether this was a common failure mode in the radio and what the likely
cause was, and whether there were any useful pointers in replacing the tiny
surface mount mixer IC. 

 

Unable to get anwers, I didn't want to take a chance plunging ahead with the
repair myself, so I ended up sending the radio back to Yaesu. The repair
bill came to $187 plus another $90 round trip shipping. Incidentally, the
first mixer is nothing special; it is a garden variety IC that costs about
$4.

 

By coincidence, I also had a failure in my Elecraft K3, which had suddenly
stopped transmitting during a recent 6m contest. I called Elecraft and was
immediately put through to a service technician. I explained my problem and
he asked me a few questions about my electronics background and what sort of
test equipment I had on my workbench. He decided that I had enough enough
experience to fix the problem myself, and we agreed that I would call him
back after putting my K3 on my test bench and removing the covers.

 

Later that day, I called him back and, together, we traced the signal path
through the transmitter. I had the phone in one hand and a scope probe in
the other. In a matter of 20 minutes, we determined that the push-pull FETs
in the driver stage had shorted. He mailed me replacement FETs which came in
three days. Ten minutes after opening the package, my K3 was back on the
air.

 

I have had similar experiences repairing a Ten-Tec Orion transceiver and
SteppIR 4 el yagi. In each case, the service technicians were happy to talk
to me and, with their guidance, repairs were quick and straightforward.

 

Here's my point. Ham radio is a technical hobby. It begin a century ago,
when all stations were homebrewed by their owners. Today, of course, there
are hundreds of thousands of hams, and their technical expertise runs the
gamut from inexperienced beginners to Ph.D. engineers. But all hams, I would
hope, have a least a passing interest in electronics. Surely, anybody who
buys a sophisticated transceiver like an FT-2000, has to know _something_
about DSP, roofing filters, preamps and RF attenuators, 3rd order intercept
points, antenna tuners, and so forth. And I would hope that all hams,
whatever their level of technical knowledge and experience, have a desire to
learn more about their radios.

 

Thus I believe Yaesu's service policy disrespects the traditions of amateur
radio. It is policy that treats all hams as if they had no interest in their
radios other than to gain a cursory understanding of the front panel knobs
and buttons. For some hams, this kind of policy is fine, because it suits
their interests, experience, and skill level. But for thousands of others in
the hobby, like myself, it is inappropriate. I don't like taking my car to
my Toyota dealer and dealing with an uninformed service representative who
knows less about cars than I do (which isn't much.) But I really hate it
when I run into the same kind of corporate mentality with amateur radio
manufacturers.

 

73,

Jim Garland W8ZR