[Heathkit] CL-33M Manual

Thu Oct 30 13:28:27 EST 2008

To All Who Read My Message On The CL-33M:
     I wanted to answer Duane on his comments but I considered the source and didn't !! I always thought this net was to help hams out and not add insulting comments. Again, thanks to ALL who answered my request.

Paul, KA3JOI
pgondos at hotmail.com

From: wa9vrh at dishmail.netTo: dfischer at usol.com; heathkit at mailman.qth.net; tchesek at epix.netSubject: Re: [Heathkit] CL-33M ManualDate: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:02:29 -0500CC: 

HI Duane,

I guess we look at Paul's message in different ways. NO he didn't mention anything about payment but I would assume (yes I know what that means) that when someone replied to him that a copy of the manual was sent he would work out the needed $$.

So let's leave it at that as we probably will never hear from Paul again on the list and I can't say that I blame him.

73 Larry WA9VRH

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Duane Fischer, W8DBF 
To: Larry WA9VRH ; heathkit at mailman.qth.net ; Tom Chesek 
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Heathkit] CL-33M Manual

Hi Larry,    

There is one point that I do not agree with you on old friend.    

When the person asking does not make any offer to pay for printing costs, postage, packing materials etc. and assumes "you" will do this just because he has asked for a free whatever, this I do not support or consider to be acceptable ethics. Why should anyone assume that you should pay for their expenses? You already have what they need!     

When it comes to Hams and radio hobbyists being generous, I believe the group on the whole is the most helpful, most gifted, most generous and most tightly boned of any club, group, fraternity or other organization that I am aware of. Incredible!    

Because I have a high visibility from writing, managing lists, doing NCS duties etc., I see this generosity going on constantly. One Sunday during the 20M HHI Net an unknown to the collective Hams that frequent the Nets, asks for a twenty watt special wire wound resistor that he needs to fix his vintage rig in ill health. He is willing to pay for it, plus shipping, plus a few bucks for your time and even offers to divulge his blood type including the MN factors, most recent drug tests results and so forth. Before you can rediscover this previously rescued part from a nearly dead early sixties tabletop MW set and get it in an envelope for the Pigeon Express to rush to the Ham in need the next sunrise, an e-mail appears on a mailing list thanking Tom, Dick and Harry for the overnight delivery of the part he needed!        

While I am colorizing the facts here, I am not altering the truth. Week after week I hear about a Ham or radio hobbyist in Brazil or Florida or one of the Russian states or Spain or South Dakota or on some island so blasted tiny off the coast of Pango Pango that map makers are still debating its Long./Lat. and the part in need arives out of the clear blue! Some do not even have a call sign or return address! Money was never the object, just gett a Ham in need that radio part for a broken circuit to feed on those nutritious proper polarities!        

I hear about entire receivers and transmitters and pieces of test equipment and still functional antennas and on and on arriving to help a Ham somewhere on this third rock from the Sun weekly. Hams who just want to help some stranger in need, be in parts, diagnostic help, fixing the broken circuit or stopping by to say "Hey!" and "Where's the sick baby? I can heal anything that can be soldered!" And so it goes -         

Some of us are trying to help a hurting Ham or radio hobbyist who has no clue as to how to go about testing the RX to find the malfunctioning component, let alone heal the sick set! But it was not too many years, or decades, back that we were that guy who did not know the difference between smelt and melt! Or who thought a resistance check had something to do with the physical strength of the defensive line of the other teams football team or a blown Black Beauty was a Blackcat firecracker that blew up after the fuse fizzled out, you thought! But got a big bang of a surprise when you picked it up!    

There is absolutely nothing wrong in helping a fellow Ham or radio hobbyist in need! But when another Ham or radio hobbyist 'demands' it, or 'expects it as if we owe it to them' or expects that we should pay for the privilidge of helping them through their emotional moments of anguish as to whether a filament is going to flare or flame or flicker into darkness, now that is a color code of a different gauge!    

Just listen and think about this. Please. How many times do you hear "please" and "thank you" being used in daily verbal exchanges? How many times do you yourself fail to thank the guy who washes your car windshield for not missing several spots? How many times daily do you give orders, as opposed to making a polite request? It is very easy to find fault with everyone and everything, and all of us are guilty of doing it. Even if we do not want to admit to having done so.     

There is a huge cosmos of difference between asking for help, receiving it and showing your appreciation for it and simply telling the world that "you" want a manual, you want it right away and whomever has one should be thrilled that you gave them an opportunity to help a stranger in need! All out of the goodness of your heart and willingness to share some of the air in the room that both of you were currently cohabitating. Sharing was a concept that did not jump from one neuron synapse point to another naturally in your brains wiring! It had to be jump started, as in Electro Convulsive Shock theraphy! You could squeeze the molecules of paint right out of the ceramic soul of Tom Thrift the piggy bank you received for your eighth birthday from your great aunt Honey Graham. Who unbeknowns to you, spent the last dollar she had, which she  was going to purchase a cup of coffee and piece of homemade Pecan pie with for her afternoon pre-supper snack, from your schools annual bakesale. Which helped to fund each classrooms supply of snotty nose soakups, emergency rotten egg barf bags, "HELP! I'm Gonna Hurl my heels!", when the sewer choked on lunch and the rooms filled up with Hydrogen Sulfide gas fumes! The embarassment free salvation of all students who grabbed a brand new pencil with sharpened tip and toothmark free eraser after sitting on theirs and without ever being seen by the resident classroom blabbermouth,  from the modified wall mounted paper cup dispensor lurking partway behind the dry foam filled fire extinguisher somebody had scribbled "Fart Free Foam, so let it go, nothin's gonna blow!" Did you ever want to let the school nurse examine your bare buttocks with a Coal Miner's lamp on her forehead, Swiss Army multi-purpose knife in one hand and a pair of needle nosed pliars in the other to extract any fragment of pencil lead still buried in your buns? Don't know about yours, but all of my school nurses looked like rejects to play the Hunchback Of Notre Dame! Mine did not look like somebody had beaten them frequently with an ugly stick though, more like the entire neighborhood beat them daily with the whole darn tree! They had to sneak up on a babbling brook just to get a drink, otherwise it became a screaming stream!           

Have you checked the postal prices as of late? Now clerks at the counter tell me that some of these seeming new policies are actually eighteen months, or more, old, but the postal system is just now getting around to putting them into operation. Such as mailing anything "hard" in a regular letter size or business envelope. This now costs us $.75 more! I asked the clerk how they could tell if it was a plastic CD slimline case or just heavy cardboard? She said they could not.    

I asked her why I should pay them an additional $.75 to mail my CD in a protective plastic case when the parcels always arrive crushed or cracked anyhow? I asked her if they hand sorted this mail with the "hard" object contents to prevent such breakage? She said no, it was all done by machines.    

I thought I would toss that postal charge into your field of focus, just in case you, like I, had not heard of it before.    

So Larry, helping is fantastic! If we all got exactly what we deserved, I have a feeling there would be a lot of unhappy people in the midst of the mist.    

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Larry WA9VRH 
To: heathkit at mailman.qth.net ; Tom Chesek 
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 5:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Heathkit] CL-33M Manual

Hi Tom,

I agree with you. I have sent the pdf file of the TA33 that is on BAMA to Paul. I am the one that scanned it and can vouch for it's quality. 

I like you have scanned or copied many manuals and sent to people asking nothing in return. When someone insists on paying something I ask that they buy me a ticket to the next hamfest they are going to. (except Dayton because of the cost) :)

So far no prizes have show up but I have faith.  There also have been people that sent me some cash and I have used that to help send out more stuff. 

I have been asked why... Well because I want to!   I also consider it payback because of many requests that I have had for Collins manuals that I have made over the last 7-8 years.   Some were very old and fragile but people have entrusted them to me. Makes me happy to scan something and send to someone and also post on Bama if I can do that.

By the way my interest in the Collins manuals is that I am the Archive Manager for the CCA.   We are very proud that Rockwell Collins granted the CCA permission to scan, archive and disseminate these manuals and other documents.

73 Larry WA9VRH

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Tom Chesek 
To: heathkit at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Heathkit] CL-33M Manual

This is my "observation".

Many of us try to save a buck here and there. I've been on both the receiving and sending end where a transaction incurred expenses for the provider only. That is how many Hams help each other out. If some wish to make a small business for profit or labor of love that is their choice. I have also purchased manuals from a couple of the manual vendors when necessary. Just because they wish to have a business venture does not obligate me to get all of my manuals from their business. The request sent by Paul does not offend me in any way. Some may wish to ignore it, some may wish to copy and mail the manual, some may wish to offer a copy for copying and mailing costs. His note was sifficient with the terms to be left to anyone who wished to assist him.

Tom K3TVC

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Duane Fischer, W8DBF 
To: Paul Gondos ; heathkit at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 5:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Heathkit] CL-33M Manual

Paul (and all)    

This is an "observation" and not a criticism.    

What is wrong with we Hams? Not only are we asking for someone else that we do not even know to spend their time and their money to photocopy a manual for us, we are also asking them to purchase the envelope and pay the postage. Not a mention made of paying for the costs.        

In "dire" need? Then right on this list are at least two outstanding manual venders. WA2CWA, Pete:    
manualman at juno.com    

Both original copies and excellent reproductions too. Reasonable prices, prompt service and "excellent" quality work that tired old boat anchor guyes can read easily with their tri-focals!    

Then we have Al Bernard, NI4Q.    
ni4q at juno.com    

Al also sells the original manuals as well as produces outstanding reproductions.     

These guys, and unnamed others, have transformed their homes into manual inventory shelves and enough large cardboard boxes marked with colored felt markers for ten thousand children to construct playhouses from! They have gone to more Ham Fests and flea ridden Flee Marketss to last a thousand lifetimes in quest of the manuals that you and I need.    

They certainly did not do it to get rich! Heh Pete? Heh Al?    

I wonder what they must think when these "give me what I want for free and you pay all the costs" posts comes along, one or two a month? I would rather pay Pete or Al or whomever and get a "good quality" manual with diagrams one can read and photos not run together like they were done on one of those hand cranked printing machines we used to generate neighborhood newspapers with and the photo left the viewer with lots of room for imaginating what on earth it was!    

Not that some free services such as BAMA are not good, as for the most part, they are. However, the only way to be assured of legible copy and diagrams with crisp contrast is to purchase a manual. Especially if you are in "dire" need. I've been there, as have most of you at one time or another too.    

I will probably get flamed for "not expecting free manuals at the other persons expense", but so be it. Although it has nothing to do with vintage or modern radios, as one weekend auto racing fan said: If you can't afford the price of the gas, then why did you buy a fuel Hog that honks instead of oinks! 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Paul Gondos 
To: heathkit at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:44 PM
Subject: [Heathkit] CL-33M Manual
Hi:   This may be a little off base, but I am in dire need of a TA-33 or TA-33M Manual. Can someone Xerox a copy and send it to me? I am good in QRZ. Thanks very much. Paul, KA3JOIpgondos at hotmail.com

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