Gents,
Several weeks ago I replied to someone on the Reflector and suggested they
consider an I.C.E. low pass filter (don't remember the subject of the
message now). I got several negative comments from people who described
either having, or having heard about, I.C.E. filters that failed
prematurely. It doesn't appear that any of these experiences were
recent...most people were commenting on experiences from several years ago.
Marv Gonsior also spoke about the results of his own analytical testing of
the filters. Marv sited high insertion loss at 29 MHZ amongst other things.
I spoke to Mike at I.C.E. today to relay what I've 'heard' here on the
Reflector, and to hear their side of it. According to him, these problems
are complete news to him or anyone else at I.C.E. He said they do repair
customers filters, but the repairs are normally to fix damage due to
lightning, accidental full power operation into an open circuit, high power
into high SWR, etc. They are well aware of the high insertion loss at
29Mhz, but that isn't a mistake : they've designed the filter that way to
get the intended performance and feel that so few people operate above 29
Mhz anyway, that it wasn't worth compromising performance for a relatively
seldom-used portion of the band.
In any event, I.C.E. apparently has a no charge, no time limit warranty on
their filters. They say if you have a product that has failed - no matter
how old it is - you should return it for repair or replacement. I'm
paraphrasing here so you should talk to I.C.E. to get all the details. He
cited a recent example where someone called to order a replacement bandpass
filter. It was an older 100W unit that had been toasted by one of the newer
200W transcievers. While the failure isn't I.C.E.'s fault, they offered to
send one of the newer 200W units at no charge.
It didn't sound to me like they were trying to hide anything - there were
no excuses or "ifs, ands or buts", or carefully worded staements. Mike was
very open and straight forward. If anything, he was annoyed at the
possibilty that a customer might have had a bad experience and didn't call
them about it.
So there's the "other side" of the coin. Call I.C.E. (not me) if you have a
beef.
1-800-ICE COMM
Phil
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