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Bruce in alaska

In article
,
wrote:

I have had it. With all my problems with electronic stuff, I will
never give up my paper charts (I never did fortunately) and will
continue plotting by hand and using my hand held compass for near
shore nav. I am spending far more time repairing electronic stuff
than I am using it.

I wonder just WHAT electronic equipment your complaining about?
Please list Makes & Models.... and what makes you think you are
experienced enough to do ANY internal Repairs to said equipment.
Having spent 40+ years in the Marine Electronics Maintainance
Biz, I can state that Good Marine Electronic Techs are few and far
between. On the West Coast of the US, and the North Pacific, you can
count the Excellent Outfits one two hands, and there are fewer of them
now, then there were 10 years ago. The reason is, that with modern
Electronic Design and Parts, there is much less service required, per
operating Hour. So with less Service being required, fewer outfits are
needed to do the service, and much of the equipment is not designed to
be non-Serviceable, and a throw-away, when it dies. The classic example
is Marine Radar. 1st Generation Radars like the WWII SO's had a
operational MTBF of about 20 hours. 2nd Generation Radars like the
Raytheon 1200, 1500, 1700, the Decca 202's, 303's, 404's, and the Kelvin
Hughes 21's and the like, extended that out to, Maybe, 200 hours. Then
came the 3rd Generation Hybrid Radars like the Decca 101's, 050's, the
Furuno KRA Series, and the like, that had MTBF's in the 1000 operational
Hours. NOW, with 4th Generation Radars which have only ONE Tube, the
Magnetron, we have Marine Radars that run, basically for the life of the
Maggie, unmaintained, and with a Maggie Replacement, essentially for the
life of the Electrolytic Capacitors. (10K+ Hours) Try finding a Good
Marine Radar Tech, these days, that has experience with 2nd and 3rd
Generation Radars, and can actually troubleshoot, and repair one. You
can Look for a VERY LONG time. Most of us are getting to OLD to climb
the masts anymore, have gone on to do other things, or DIED.

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Bruce in alaska
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