[TowerTalk] Buying Quality

[David Gilbert]

That's the beauty of the internet now.  My wife and I research almost 
all of our purchases online, from tools to consumer electronics to 
vehicles to software to specialty foodstuffs ... even the vendors 
themselves if we haven't used them before.  Some web sites like Amazon 
and Tiger Direct make it easy and include their own review systems, but 
simply searching on the brand/model of the product together with the 
keyword "review" will typically provide lots of good information.  Many 
web sites only include favorable testimonials of their own products, of 
course, so it's best to find something independently hosted if possible.

Hams have a bit harder time finding good reviews since a lot of what's 
out there is littered with very casual and often uninformed feedback.  
The numerical ratings on eHam.net are notoriously useless, but if you 
scour through the individual comments, looking for those that at least 
sound like they came from someone knowledgeable and objective, you can 
still sometimes get a decent picture of a product or service.  The QST 
reviews have some good technical information but I have yet to see a 
truly honest assessment of a poor product there.  if you can't decipher 
the measured technical data, look elsewhere for an objective judgement 
... especially for things like workmanship or reliability.

And then there are the various email reflectors like this one.  We often 
see someone asking for input on some type of product, and while some of 
the feedback is akin to that found on eHam.net ("I bought one and don't 
use it much but so far I think I like it so I'll give it five stars"), 
most of it is far better than you will find elsewhere.  I'm actually 
surprised that even more people don't ask questions here before they buy 
something instead of afterward when it isn't working properly or doesn't 
meet their needs.

73,
Dave   AB7E


On 12/22/2011 10:37 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
>
> ion.  It doesn't much matter... you can't 'buy American' or Brazilian, or English, or ....
> Right on, George. But what we CAN do is try our best to find QUALITY,
> from quality COMPANIES, and buy that.  Yes, it takes much more work
> (research and search) to FIND quality, and it often (but not always --
> see story below) takes more bucks to BUY it.
>
> This extends to every part of our lives. A few years ago, we needed to
> replace a very old Franklin stove, and I started research on the
> internet, first looking for old brands recommended by friends, then
> looking for alternatives when they either were no longer available, or
> had been bought out by conglomerates who were now selling cheap Chinese
> junk under those brand names.  Eventually I found two companies who were
> selling quality products, one mfg in Canada and one in the US, who had
> high customer satisfaction responses. We bought one of them, and we've
> been quite happy with it. It was a fraction of the cost of "pretty junk"
> being sold by showrooms downtown.
>
> We apply the same standards whether we're buying radios, antennas, coax,
> coax connectors, a new washer and dryer, a pair of shoes, a meal in a
> restaurant, or beer (I LOVE Belgian Ales, whether they're coming from
> Belgium, or from Unibrau in Quebec).
>
> 73, Jim K9YC