[Elecraft] Yaesu versus Elecraft Service

[Dick Williams]

Jim,

All the more reason to buy American products!   I owned a couple of Yaseu HF 
rigs in the past and I was more than dis-pleased with their service dept. 
In one instance, the SWR protection circuit went out in my 1000D; sent it 
back telling them what the problem was (or what caused the final transistors 
to burn out).   I even called and was told that, "O yes" the purported tech 
I talked to said that the radio was fixed right.  Well, when I got it back, 
all they did was replace the finals.

As far as I am concerned, any ham who buys a Yaesu or Icom HF radio is a 
fool and uninformed.  Both the K3 and O2 will run circles around any of the 
other rigs (maybe with the exception of the SDR radios).

And when you talk about service, both Ten Tec and Elecraft are top notch. 
You are so right when you say you get to talk to a tech, not some idiot that 
is a "go between" and not familiar with the radio.

That is my "2 cents" worth".

Dick K8ZTT

PS  Unfotunately we don't have a lot of choices with the VHF/UHF equipment, 
but at least it is not a big investment if it goes up in smoke.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Garland" <4cx250b at muohio.edu>
To: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2009 11:36 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] Yaesu versus Elecraft Service


> (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
>
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