[Amps] Shipping Security

[Harold B. Mandel]

Gentlemen,

As most of you remember, in 2004 UPS destroyed a mint Alpha 77Sx
and FedEx destroyed a brand-new Emtron DX-3 all within one month
of one another. The settlement, including the letters to and from hired
legal counsel, took sixteen weeks and thousands of dollars in expense.

The Alpha was packed by the UPS Store, Inc., and they had no clue 
as how to properly package an amplifier. It was the first piece of
electronic gear this particular store in Georgia had ever handled, and
if it wasn't for the shipper, W4TL, taking digital pictures of the mint
'77 going into 4 different boxes, we would never have won the case
because
UPS contended that the merchandise was damaged before being shipped!

In the case of FedEx and the DX-3, the freight handlers dropped it from 
a truck, and even the factory international shipping carton couldn't
protect it.  The rub in this case was that Fed Ex came and picked up
the amp and xfmr boxes and promptly LOST them. That's why they
agreed to pay, they said.

So now, a year later, I needed to send an amp out to Colorado and that's
2,000 miles from Kentucky, so I wasn't driving it. I sent it Fed Ex
Freight,
(The Red, not the Green). It was packaged in a wooden crate made of 
3/4 plywood with 1X2 stiffeners along all seams, with 4X4 pallet bars
on the bottom. The crate is 36" x 30" x 20" high. Inside, there are four
layers
of dense styrofoam blue board, two layers of thick plastic sheeting, a
layer of
thick nap carpeting underneath, with wedges of white styrofoam up to 3"
thick
on all surfaces.  The amplifier crate weighs 230 pounds, and that's
without the
anode supply (which weighs 210 pounds just sitting there).  Fed Ex
Freight delivered
the crate to Colorado within 24 hours of it leaving the farm, and had no
damage.

It cost me over $700 to ship this under Class 250.0, with $3700.00
additional
liability.  What choice is there?

Someone I know is currently sending someone else I know another mint
77Sx. They
called a company named Craters and Freighters to do the wrapping. I will
be interested
in seeing how the amp travelled and will report the results herein.

last week I sent Tomm Aldridge my spare Alpha power transformer. It took
5 hours to make
a crate just for that. In the end, a 45 pound xfmr in its container
weighed 64 pounds, but who
do you trust?  I was not willing to gamble and possibly lose a valuable
component.

Thanks, everyone, for all your fine comments. I have edited and passed
them along to Fred
Hoffman, who is suffering from UPS destroying his amplifiers.

Sincerely,

Hal Mandel
W4HBM