[Amps] A Crying Shame

[dj2001 at mn.rr.com]

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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