[Elecraft] More Legendary Elecraft Service or "The Turning of the Screw"

[Edward R Cole]

Well I would guess that the Elecraft folks have had a lot of 
experience working on their equipment so the more "common problems 
and questions" are known.

I worked in a 2-way radio shop 1991-93 and handled all the MT600 
repairs (including the P200 and MT1000 which were very close to the 
same radio design).  After you work on several hundred of them in one 
year you get to know them very well.  Especially the common failures 
and all the weak points in the system.  Most times I could tear one 
down in 2-minutes or less and fix the problem in 15-30 minutes if I 
had the parts.  I can still probably "field strip" one of those 
radios in the dark by feel.

In our shop we did not have a parts man to place orders; each tech 
maintained parts for the equipment he repaired.  That worked very 
well as the guy doing the fixing best knows what parts he most needs.

Later in charge of communications for a company with 180 MT-1000 VHF 
HT's, I ordered a set of parts for those radios based on my 
experience of the most probable failures.

Also, building a good data base with the combined experiences of all 
the techs. is a great aid for customer assistance.  Having good 
repair flow diagrams can result.  All things I have done in my past 
professional life.

This is one of the things companies that get rid of the "old guys" 
often fail to realize.  They are loosing long years of 
experience.  During Y2K Cobol programmers retired 10-20 years were 
called to fix the sw; none of the young "punks" knew Cobol.
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Makes you wonder how they know such seeming impossible-to-know things.
Are there also magic potions and incantations available?
73 de Brian/K3KO


73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
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