Thanks for the website. It's got some good reading. At this point I know that the Motorola tone is 114 Normal, but I am having trouble finding out what Alinco's version is of this same code.

I have and Alinco DR-610TQ with 3 digit DSQ (Digital Squelch). According to Ham Distribution Inc. it is the same as the Motorola DPL system (Digital PL Tone, also known as DTCS by Icom). The problem is that he also said the numbers are different than the Motorola. Example, the 114NORMAL Motorola DPL would be a different number on the Alinco.

He said he didn't have a cross over chart. It would be of great help if someone could shed a little light on this delima for me. It would be much easier than going through all 999 code combinations of the Alinco to find out what it's number is for a 114 NORMAL Motoral DPL:)

Thanks!
Nick

Yea, that sounds about right:)


73,
Nick

Probably just moves the interference to a different frequency as well. At least you can mix it up for the occasion:)

73,
Nick

If you are ever in desperate need of a CW straight keyer in an emergency situation, grab a 12VDC 30A standard SPDT (Single Pole Double Throw) automotive relay (also known as a Bosch relay). You can pop the cover off with a screwdriver or knife to expose the coil, spring, and contacts. You can actuate the spring and contacts with your finger. Just wire up terminals 87 and 30 to your rig. Not the best set-up in the world, but it would work in a pinch.

I haven't every popped the cover off of a SPST (Single Pole Single Throw) relay but I'd say it would work as well.


73s,
Nick Mullins

This is more so an answer than a question.

If for some reason you seem to get inteference from your computer monitor on a specific HF frequency (mine was 14.235 Mhz during Hurricane Isabelle's Hurricane Watch Net) try changing the refresh rate of the monitor in Display Settings of Windows. I changed mine from 60Hz to 85Hz and got rid of it.


Just some food for thought.

73s
Nick Mullins
AF4YA

Okay, I've been fooling around with APRS for a bit now although you might still call me a newbie. I have heard about using APRS for digipeating and "keyboard to keyboard" communications similar to standard packet nodes. Is there any truth to this? If so, is it frowned upon, and lastly, if it's true and not frowned upon, how do ya do it? I've tried and tried to get messages through, with only one successful sent message and the station couldn't get one back to me. It's really neat to see all the stations on a map, but how do you communicate!:)

Any help is greatly appreciated!

73s,
Nick
AF4YA

I've recently gotten my hands on a KPC-3 and Pacterm 98 so I can finally make contact with the ISS (since everytime I heard it in the past it was sending packet). Now, I don't hear it. Anyone know what's going on? Also, is the call to the PBBS RS0ISS? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Nick
AF4YA

I am a big fan of Ten-Tec. They are nearly at my back door (I am around 3 hours from Seveirville, TN). Unfortunately I just can't afford their equipment. They are great guys and I've seen their facilities.

One of the few manufacturers that actually put equipment on a burn in machine for 24 hours to make sure they find intermittent problems or that they have fixed the problem. Maybe one of these days I can afford it:)

73s,
Nick

WB2WIK:

Welcome to the new economy. I will say that 250% markups are not common, but at the same time they are not uncommon. More often you will find 75% to 100%. The days of 15% mark ups in the electronics business is gone. It's called inflation. The electronics business is notorious for high mark ups these days. I would show you proof, but I don’t' want to have a conflict of interest with my employer. The reason? Who knows? Maybe they hit a slow season and couldn't move a whole lot of product. Then they increased the profit margin of the equipment. Somewhere along the line it got out of hand and price gouging found it's way into the business.

Crutchfield has to have this higher markup to keep our customer service standards high. So, we are of a lesser evil than other companies who have the same markups, for PURE profit and greed. The same can be said of amateur radio retailers.

You say that you don't purchase anything that you haven't listened to or held in your hand. Well I'm glad you live in a very populated area outside of Los Angeles. I'm sure you have little trouble finding and looking at any radio you've thought about purchasing. Unfortunately most of the population in the US doesn't live in Los Angeles, where I'm sure the amateur radio activity is fairly high. The closest amateur radio store is 8 hours away from me. And, being that I live in a relatively economically depressed area, there aren't a whole lot of hams that can afford new equipment to show off to their friends. So that leaves me in a position of having to rely on the customer service of amateur radio equipment retailers and manufacturers, trust their advertisements, and what reviews I can find here on e-ham.

AF4YA

I am going to make the attempt to reply to the last three posts in one message:

KZ1X:
    Where SMT is concerned. I am glad to hear that you have a steadier hand than I, and can grasp complex microprocessor/logic circuitry concepts. Unfortunately I was never able to afford schooling on this subject and the Air Force didn't really teach that in electrical and environmental tech school for aircraft.
    If there is NO money in amateur radio sales, then how does AES afford a catalog that end product (including design, printing, and mailing thousands of them) costs them roughly $15,000+ a page (per side). I'm sure they don't make all their money by selling telescopes and short-wave radios.
    Perhaps my expectations of service are high. This might be due to the fact that I can't afford to buy but one rig a year that is $500 or less. Is it too much to ask for decent service, because what comes from companies like AES is far less than descent?  

WB2WIK
The company was Icom but I cannot remember the model, only that it was a 2-meter radio. Second, a 250% markup is not uncommon. I can vouch for that in the electronics business. I have a couple of questions for you. What was the name of your retail store, and how can a company get by on only 15% markup unless they move MASSIVE amounts of product.
On SMT, see the first paragraph of my reply to KZ1X.


AB0RE:
   I appreciate your comments; you are the first to see the angle I'm coming from. Thanks for your praise of Crutchfield as well and for coming back to us. That's what Bill Crutchfield bases the business on, customer service, and people like you who realize the quality of good customer service is the reason we are still in business and I have a job. Thanks:)!
   I guess that some people are very fortunate to receive products with no problems, getting exactly what they want. For the rest of us that isn't the case. There is a rule that from even the best manufacturer at LEAST 5% of the products will have an open box defect. A higher percent will have problems in the future. My luck just keeps those 5% coming to me;) I have yet to talk to a ham locally that hasn't had a problem radio, regardless of the research they do prior to purchase.

Thanks again:)

73s
Nick

Looks like someone is catching the drift. I may start shopping through the Delaware store. AES kills me. When I first got into amateur radio I called HRO in Woodbridge, VA and Atlanta, GA where both acted like I was bothering them, I was never treated so rude by a company when calling to ask about a product. Looks like the guys in Delaware are doing things right. They may have just earned themselves a customer.

Nick

WB2WIK,
    I hope that one day I am as fortunate as you are in purchasing equipment. I'm probably in a minority. It's not just radios I have a problem with, its vehicles to. You can ask anyone though. I take care of everything I buy. Sometimes I a little to careful.

I can't help but wonder if your in a minority to hihi:) You've never had a problem? As far as repairing yourself, I hate to say it but those days are about over since surface mount technology has come out.

I have a friend who was seriously contemplating starting a retail/mailorder store for amateur radios a few years ago. Upon calling one of the manufactures to see about becoming an authorized dealer he was first told it would cost him roughly $50,000 to get an authorization. He asked what the cost of the radios would be per unit. He was quoted a price of $79 for a radio that was being sold by other retailers at $200+.

This seems unbelievable doesn't it? Almost like I'm pulling your leg. The truth is, %100 to 150% markup is fairly common in the electronics business these days. Sometimes, though rare, it can reach upwards of 250%. These figures are not the total markup from manufacturing to customer. This is just the markup from retailer to customer.

Now, wouldn't you tend to believe that if a retailer is marking a product up 15% that they will now try their best to push product out the door, and to do so, have excellent customer service to get return customers and have those customer attract others by word of mouth.

Would it now also be true that if the retailer has 150% markup and have a poor return policy that their customer service would be lacking because they are making 100times the money off of just one customer and are not worried about keeping you as a customer?

I know what you may be thinking. I'm calling these guys up with a bad attitude, or asking all sorts of useless questions about the product that I could have found in the catalog. (Trust me, I know about annoying customers) I'm not.

I'm calling up and being nice, patient and understanding. I treat them the way I expect to be treated, but seldom get the same treatment. It still seems I just get grief from these people. No matter if I'm buying a radio or trying to get a problem resolved, I'm always getting the short end of the stick.

Let me throw this instance out to you.

Last year I purchased an Alinco DR-610TQ, one of the last in the nation to be sold new from an authorized dealer (so I could get the warranty). I had always noticed that you had to press the VHF volume dial unusally hard to get it to switch to the VHF VFO. I sent it in to ATOC Alinco for repair figuring it could pose a bigger problem in the futuer. I got it back in a couple of weeks and it was fixed.

A few weeks ago (7 months or so later) the UHF volume dial started having a problem that if you pressed in on it to switch to UHF VFO it would break the squelch on both bands and cut the volume off until you leaned it side to side. It was still just barely in warranty so I sent it off. I get a call from the head of repairs at ATOC Alinco telling me that the warranty was void.

He said that the circuit board in the face was broken in two and that it had been glued back together and that there was also a connector torn loose from it. He told me that since it had been opened and tampered with that it was void. I told him that I had never opened the face, and that only they had every done any work on the inside, which was the absolute truth so help me God. I hadn't loaned the radio to anyone else so I know no one else had opened it up. After telling him this I asked him if it would be covered. He told me probably.

I got a bill later that week, printed the day after the phone call charging me $100 for the part and saying the warranty was still void. I called and talked to him again, trying to be patient and being as nice as possible cause there is no reason to curse or yell. They finally decided to repair it and send it back to me, but they still said on the invoice that it had been tampered with.

Now that I look at it in hind sight I see what happened. The board was broken when I got it which explains why the problem with the VHF dial. I sent it in and they did a shoddy repair, just gluing the board back together. The glue comes undone and I start having more problems. I send it in and then they accuse me of tampering with it and basically call me a liar.

Experiences with retailers and other manufacturers have seem to have had the same level of customer service.

73s,
Nick

W5CPT,
The cost for shipping and insurance on the package is given directly to the customer. Let's take a radio I purchased with a shipping weight of 16lb. I paid $9.95 for shipping. I had to send the radio back which cost me $10.70 using the same method UPS Ground, with $500 insurance, to the same address it was sent from, and with no additional weight.

The added $1.75 could be considered the markup that the local business I used to ship the package charges. You can also figure in any discounts that are given to the retailer by UPS having a business account or "bulk" discount. Taking this into consideration, they are not loosing any money, and it is even possible that they are making a little from what you pay extra for shipping.

Another thing is that someone who charges cheaper shipping rates is typically adding some of that cost into the markup of the products that they sell. No matter what, they are not taking any hits on shipping, whether the package is stolen or damaged. UPS might, but not the retailer.

I agree with you that there are thieves out there. It's a horrible thing, but any business that ships packages has to deal with these problems. That's why UPS will not leave packages at the door in high-risk areas, and FedEx requires you to fill out a signature waiver to have them leave a package with out your signature.

Simple fact of the matter is that no matter how you slice the cake, they are making a killing and don't have enough conscious to realize that it's hurting the hobby, and a lot of the great people that make it so enjoyable.

You have to forgive me. Normally I'm a very meek person, it's just that I have had so many bad experiances in both purchasing and warranty repair of radios. Out of 10 purchases I've only had 2 to go smoothly without any problems dealing in customer service and equipment problems in the past 2 years.

73s,
AF4YA

Good point. It typically would create a lot of overhead. We do have people that do the "30 day free rental" as we call it. We get equipment back that is scratched and/or dented. The thing is, that overhead can be made minimal. Here's how:

Products that come back used, with no physical or operational defects are sold at a discount.

Products that come back used that have physical defects not operation are sold at a greater discount.

Products that come back with operational defects are repaired and sold at a greater discount with warranty in tact.

In all these instances there is still a little profit being made.

Products that are absolutely mutilated are either given a heavy restock fee if it is salvageable, or returned to the customer with no refund given if unsalvageable.

So, there is no actual loss, only in extreme cases, which are very rare.

Some of these companies already deal in used/demo equipment and know the ropes. If done properly, implementing a 30 day return period wouldn't create a loss, or create a decrease in profit. In fact, having the policy would likely draw more people to do business, increasing profit. Especially since no one else in the business has the 30-day return period.

Also, paying for return shipping isn't a problem. UPS makes this relatively easy, and with the prices that these companies are charging already for shipping, they wouldn't have to increase the amount.

You say:
"I, for one, would much rather shop at discount outlets who have an "ALL SALES ARE FINAL -- NO RETURNS ON ANYTHING" policy. I get the same stuff for half the price, and I don't buy anything I intend to return, so it works fine for me."

This is fine, and I wouldn't mind doing that either. The problem here is, that there are no good discount outlets in amateur radio. You’re always paying high markups.

73s,
Nick