Sorry to hear about the trouble shipping that amp. Peanuts and
bubble wrap do not make good packing material for heavy amps. The
only way I would ship a heavy amp is to foam in place and UPS has
that capability. You also must use a very sturdy box. I don't trust
packaging stores to pack special items like amplifiers. So next time
do a foam in place and do it yourself or supervise it being done.
It's worth the extra time and money.
73
Dale, K9VUJ
Yes, that's right. Shame. Shame on us. We Americans have come up
with so many fine ideas and products, such as televisions, FM
commercial radio and unionism, only to have them taken from us
because it's not economically feasible to manufacture, and the cost
of labor is too prohibitive, it seems, for anyone to do anything.
Within one month another one-of-a-kind amplifier has been trashed in
shipping. This time it was UPS. What makes it unforgiveable is that
the shipper and receiver both contacted UPS on advice as to how to
ensure safety. We were told to go to an official UPS Store, Inc.,
and let them box everything up.
The shipper photographed the heck out of the unit before it went.
A-1 condition throughout. The shipper photographed the packing
process: Bubble wrap, cardboard box, peanuts after that, and another
cardboard box. The finished product had six inches of dense packing
around all six sides, and the box was stapled then taped on all
edges. Twelve "Fragile" stickers. Arrows. Big letters: "Do Not Drop:
Glass."
UPS bounced the transformer crate so bad it bent the mounting irons
so the tranny looks like the leaning tower of Pisa.
UPS bounced the amp chassis box so bad it ripped the blower motor
start cap right out of its can on the rear RF deck wall, and
dislodged the 500pF ceramic vacuum variable from its clamped
mountings.
Worst, the bounce was on the rear lower right corner. How do I know?
The extruded aluminum lower right rail has a nice bend where it took
the fall.
It seems now that it would have been worth it to take 3 days off the
busiest cell project on the face of the earth, where 40 or 50
contractors are charging $2K a night, per site, each, and just thumb
my nose and drive off to Georgia. But no. My manager asked me to
stay on duty these nights because we're starting to install the
first of nine thousand, 180Watt power amplifiers and there's no
other English-speaking RF engineer who can supervise construction at
night.
So Terry Jones and I mull it over and over. He knows what happened
to my beautiful one-week-old EMTRON DX-3. Rudi calls me from
Australia just to yell at me every now and then: "You should have
never shipped it anywhere!" Isn't he right?
It cost hundreds of dollars to send it UPS 2-day from GA to NJ,
including the expert packing.
I wonder how many times the bozos in UPS tried dropping it to hear
the tinkle inside?
Sonsabitches!
Well. That feels better.
Hope you all have a real nice day.
Fraternally,
Hal
KA1XO
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