[TowerTalk] Re: What was his name BUT HIS LEGACY LIVES ON!!!

[K7GCO@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/19/00 2:21:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
paulfinch@msn.com writes:
<< Hello,
 I have tried to list on this group 2 times today and I have not gotten
 either one of the earlier one yet!  Will try again!
 
 This cutting of cost is exactly the reason that the public can't use their
 cell phones or other radio equipment in hospitals these days.  I was in a
 local hospital and keyed up a 440 HT on low power and set off the hospitals
 fire alarm, talk about poor quality!  HP and the other major suppliers of
 critical care equipment have cut costs by taking out the very parts that
 would keep this equipment working in most environments.  Meaning bypass
 caps, ferrite beads and things to keep RF out of the device.  I have had
 some hospitals say you can't carry a pager in their hospital because the 1st
 or 2nd oscillator may interfere with their critical care equipment!  You
 know how little RF is radiated from these oscillators, not much.
 
 On the other hand other manufactures cut out parts on non-critical equipment
 like CRT's,(HP) phones (Toshiba, AT&T) systems and other equipment used in
 these hospitals that put out so much RF from their processor clocks that if
 you get within 15 or so feet of the device the paging transmitter is covered
 up, even with a 300 watt transmitter located on-site!  It's happened in
 Houston, Philadelphia, Washington DC and other cities I used to engineer
 systems for, been there done that!!!
 
 History, I worked for a hospital only paging system for almost 17 years.
 
 Paul
 WB5IDM
  >>
This is the first example of cost cutting I've heard of for HP.  Everything I 
have of HP is out standing including all their test gear.  I still have and 
use daily 2 HP-11 calculators that are at least 25 years old that I dropped a 
hundred times.  They have 3 mercury cells that last about a year.  It turns 
out that if you take them out every year and clean them they last about 8 
years.  I've purchased the HP-48, 28 and bunch of others.  I ordered 2 extra 
of one model when I heard they were to be discontinued and I really didn't 
need them.  No other calculator performs like the HP's do. They have the 
worst instruction manuals, however.  TI's were pretty good.

There is another area of HP you should all known of.  I always wanted one of 
those HP 141 Spectrum Analyzers for a special project that was in QST about 
30 years ago.  It used to cost about $35,000 and they didn't cut on parts.  
With an attachment, 3D panoramic displays of the band activity were displayed 
on a storage scope screen.  You could see the "Signal History" of the band.  
A great concept for DX'ers.  I have been pushing for this in rigs for 25 
years so far with no success even though the circuitry would be very 
inexpensive.  I got a HP-141 for $250 and it had a problem.  I called HP for 
service rates which were $105/hr.  We discussed the reasons for this fee at 
length (I couldn't change it hi).  I send it in and then I'm informed the 
repair cost is $1000 for working on the main frame and $500 each for the plug 
in units.  After I picked myself up off the floor I stated very forcefully "I 
don't work for the Government or Boeing you normally rip off with these 
service prices.  I'm retired and I was given totally different figures before 
I sent it in.  Let me talk to your supervisor."  There was a pause and he 
said "I call you back."  He calls back and says "we checked it over and it 
has as simple PS problem you can fix and we are returning it.  I said "what's 
the charge?"  He said "No charge and it's being returned free of any 
charges."  I said "it's a pleasure to do business with HP."  You just have to 
know how to talk to these guys.  HP like many others makes more money on 
servicing their equipment than they did selling it initially. So do car 
dealers. Car parts typically cost 10-20 times their cost to make.  The HP-141 
is a very specialized instrument that few could service.  In hind sight 
$105/hr was cheap if I could have got it serviced for that normally.  I still 
like HP and all their products.  K7GCO

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