Topband: DXE NCC-1 phasing box

[kolson at rcn.com]

I hope hams are not becoming strictly black box users. I also hope that there isn't a parallel being made between a licensed ham buying a piece of amateur equipment and some dude buying a Smartphone. 

In almost any technical environment, having info on how the product works and troubleshooting info isn't just some frivolous luxury. At my job, not being supplied tech info is a significant argument for not buying the product. For my ham activities , h aving info on what's in my radio  is actually something that I as the buyer expect. In either case, I find being told "you just have to send it back" whenever there is any problem unacceptable. 

Of course, the business in question can run their affairs however they want. But so can the customer. I had to laugh, when a customer (who was not particularly patient) brought in one vendor's vacuum tube preamplifier for repair, I asked the manufacturer for a schematic to make things easier. He was a real nice guy, but replied that the info was proprietary. I responded that there were only so many ways to hook up triodes! He still demurred, so I drew out the schematic from the circuit board and sent him a copy  just for fun! 

And actually, I drive a Prius and there are schematics and troubleshooting info available for it... 

73, Kevin K3OX  



----- Original Message -----

From: "Jeff" <w7jw at charter.net> 
To: topband at contesting.com 
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2016 10:53:43 AM 
Subject: Re: Topband: DXE NCC-1 phasing box 

Because it's considered propriety information. You paid for a black box that 
does what it says it will. You did not pay for the why or how it works. This 
is not unusual business practice. You bought a car with dozens of black 
boxes in it, do you have schematics to those? 

-----Original Message----- 
From: Bob K6UJ 
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2016 10:40 AM 
To: topband at contesting.com 
Subject: Re: Topband: DXE NCC-1 phasing box 

Rob, 

I just looked at my NCC-1 manual.  No schematic. 
It seems odd they wont provide one. I wonder what their 
reason is ?  I would give them a call. 
I may call them myself, I am contemplating the purchase of the 
new model but would like a schematic 

I like your callsign :-) 

Bob 
K6UJ 


On 9/23/16 6:59 AM, Rob Atkinson wrote: 
> update:  I just received an email, perhaps a canned response from DX 
> Engineering telling me they won't give me a schematic.  In addition, 
> rather than work with me to find the problem, they only offer their 
> repair service.   I am very disappointed in this after spending over 
> $1000 over the past two years on the Pro-1B loop antennas.  I guess 
> this means no one has a schematic so I'll just have to signal trace. 
> If this is a business decision, I think it is a poor one. 
> It certainly gives one pause about future purchases. 
> 
> 73 
> 
> Rob 
> K5UJ 
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