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DAMMIT ICOM WHY SO CHEAP?!!
Sailor is a REALLY nice marine SSB but the ones I have seen are almost
impossible to tune on Ham bands. THe Icom 802 is a lot more flexable if not quite as high quality. As Larry's sig almost always has his W4 (indicating his age :-)) call sign on it I suspect that Ham bands are important to him. :-) Marcus AAkesson wrote: Buy some real high-quality radios from Sailor instead. Their SSB is fantastic. www.sailor.dk /Marcus On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 22:58:31 GMT, (Larry) wrote: See the picture on alt.binaries.pictures.sports.ocean I took with a tiny little Logitech camera today while installing a whole suite of Icom radios into my buddy Geoffrey's Amel Sharpi ketch we brought to Charleston from Satellite Beach, FL a few weeks back. Gotta have all the toys....(c; The Icom M802 HF SSB/GMDSS/DSC radio sells, without the antenna tuner from Ham Radio Outlet in Atlanta for $2,399 + tax and recappable tires. The AT-140 antenna tuner adds another $480 and tax to that total, almost THREE GRAND in HF radio...... Then WHY SO CHEAP, ICOM?....DAMMIT!! 1) The tiny little Japanese 6-pin plug that's the control output for the tuner is a little fragile plastic plug that's NOT sealed in any way. It plugs into a tiny, little Japanese male outlet on the main SSB radio. This plug, if you are to install the proper cable (not included), instead of an overpriced Icom cable with the plugs already on them, making them impossible to thread through cable runs inside the boat loaded up with other wires, MUST BE ASSEMBLED! Notice how the plug is a SIX PIN PLUG.... Icom only uses FOUR of the 6 pins in this tiny little cheap connector AND ONLY PROVIDES FOUR TEE-TINY LITTLE PINS LEAVING ZERO ROOM FOR ASSEMBLY ERROR ABOARD A ROCKING BOAT! You don't even get the OTHER TWO PINS it doesn't use as goof-up spares! These loose female contact are VERY fragile, very small and easy to bend or break. The contacts probably cost $1/thousand at the OEM order level.....SO WHY DID ICOM ONLY PUT FOUR OF THEM IN THE PLUG KIT?!!.....&#)(*&@_#)(#@)$(*&#@%$ (EXPLETIVES DELETED) I got them installed without incident but what if someone makes a tiny mistake and breaks one? Why, oh why, oh why should he have to WAIT WEEKS FOR REPLACEMENTS OF SUCH CHEAP PARTS??!!! 2)....This same cheap, unsealed plastic inline connector is hanging out of the AT-140 antenna tuner on a little piece of cable, OUT IN THE WEATHER or on some boats IN THE HUMID, DAMP, CORRODING BILGE under some settee someplace. WHY CAN'T A $500 ANTENNA TUNER HAVE SEALING, WATERPROOF CABLE CONNECTORS MOUNTED RIGHT INTO THE ANTENNA TUNER'S WATERPROOF HOUSING??!! Hello? Icom? Does anyone at Icom own a boat? Ever worked on a boat? Ever seen an unprotected connector eaten by electrolysis because it was exposed to SEAWATER with 13.8VDC on it?!! Arrgh!.....(puke). Ok, so we'll get rid of this cheap little connector, right? The ANTENNA TUNER INSTRUCTION MANUAL shows that inside the tuner this useless pigtail wire is screwed into a TERMINAL BLOCK on the main PC board, on a European-style terminal block made for bare wires....right? WRONG AGAIN, FISH BREATH!! The damned pigtail is SOLDERED to fine little wires that are soldered to the PC board WHERE THE TERMINAL BLOCK IS SUPPOSED TO GO!! DAMMIT ICOM, WHY IS THIS $500 TUNER MISSING THE LITTLE TERMINAL BLOCK THAT COSTS AN OEM $1.39?!!! DAMNED CHEAPSKATES!! My plan was to open the tuner, unscrew the wires from the terminal block on the PC board and install the custom cable I pulled into the wireways in the boat, through the waterproof cable squeezer straight into the MISSING TERMINAL BLOCK!!!!!! IDIOTS!!!!! I cannot pull the main PC board out of the tuner because of all the HOT GLUED PARTS making disassembly impossible. I'm afraid if I unsolder the pigtail cable from the little wires soldered to the board, I may also unsolder the little wires from the unremovable bottom of the main PC board. I feel just like the Aflac Duck walking out of the barber shop with Yogi Berra in the commercial.......AHHHHHHH!!!!GGGGhhh!!!! Stupid Icom for a unit that retails for $3000 to be constructed so cheaply!! This ISN'T a consumer ham radio for someone's hamshack...THIS IS A BOAT RADIO!!! ALL connectors should be WATERPROOF, EVEN ON THE MAIN CHASSIS!! It's HUMID in a boat!!! 3) The remote unit, that may be mounted outside on some boats, IS waterproof. it has rubber keys, nice sealed box.....But, ARRGH!....THE CABLE CONNECTOR ON THE BACK OF IT IS A LITTLE MINIATURE DIN CONNECTOR OFF SOME HAM RADIO MADE FOR SOMEONE'S CAR!! Water is gonna get into that tiny connector with DC power on it and just EAT THE PINS RIGHT OFF IT!! Well, Duhhhh!!!....... Well, I'm gonna have another Newcastle English Ale and stop trying to figure out how I'm going to put the control cable to the tuner, tonight. I'll think more about it in the morning..... I just wanted every one of you to know how this nice radio (otherwise) is made. Its technology is certainly a wonder....but its construction is NOT A MARINE RADIO!!! PS - the matching M602 IS sealed like a marine radio should be. It has an EXTERNAL heat sink outside the sealed case. THE M802 HAS A FAN THAT DRAWS SALT AIR INTO THE CABINET TO COOL IT! Think about how wonderful that's gonna be in 3 years.....(c; Arrgh.......Any Icom reps or dealers wanna explain this to me?.....Planned Obsolescense? Payback for losing WW2? Why....WHY?!! Larry W4CSC 3rd Mate Engineering S/V "Claire's Navie" CAREFULLY soldering the FOUR LITTLE PINS you provided........ Larry Extremely intelligent life must exist in the universe. You can tell because they never tried to contact us. /Marcus -- Glenn Ashmore I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com |
DAMMIT ICOM WHY SO CHEAP?!!
On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 02:18:35 +0200, Marcus AAkesson
wrote: Buy some real high-quality radios from Sailor instead. Their SSB is fantastic. www.sailor.dk /Marcus "Sailor RT4822 includes a transceiver unit and a handset. The SPARC-BUS interface, an advanced balanced data and AF interface, can be used to interconnect multiple control units and for exterior computer based control/programming options." OH BOY! Another incompatible, non-communicating data protocol that won't talk to anything else on the boat! Who else uses Sparc (besides Sun, that is)?? I do see there's a secondary NMEA interface back there, somewhere, though. The other problem you'll have is SERVICE..... From the webpage: Please, choose a country: Austria Faroe Islands Iceland Rumania Belgium Finland Ireland Russia (C.I.S.) Bulgaria France Italy Spain Croatia Germany Latvia/Lithuania Sweden Cyprus Gibraltar Malta Switzerland Denmark Greece Norway Turkey Estonia Greenland Poland Ukraine Holland Portugal UK/Eire It is refreshing to know I could get it fixed in the Ukraine or Estonia, but what happens over the rest of the planet....places like USA, Canada, S America, Caribbean Islands, Hawaii, Tahiti, Oz, NZ?? Be great if you never leave Europe......er, ah, except maybe for the Army Green color...... Pass....but thanks for pointing it out.... Larry W4CSC 3600 planes with transponders are burning 8-10 million gallons of kerosene per hour over the USA. R-12 car air conditioners are responsible for the ozone hole, right? |
DAMMIT ICOM WHY SO CHEAP?!!
On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 20:29:15 -0400, Glenn Ashmore
wrote: Sailor is a REALLY nice marine SSB but the ones I have seen are almost impossible to tune on Ham bands. THe Icom 802 is a lot more flexable if not quite as high quality. As Larry's sig almost always has his W4 (indicating his age :-)) call sign on it I suspect that Ham bands are important to him. :-) Press 3 buttons while turning the Icom M802 on and its transceive frequency range expands to 1.6-30 Mhz.....including all the ham bands. Before turning the boat over to the "just sailor" clan, press the 3 buttons again and it switches the HF SSB back over so it will only transmit on the pre-programmed marine channels....more goof-proof for the CB crowd....(c; 73, Larry W4CSC......er, ah, which IS a vanity call because I'm NOT THAT OLD!! I was SO young they had run out of K2 calls so I had to get WA2 then WB4 when I moved to SC in '64....(c; Whisky Four Charleston South Carolina.........is the idea... Larry W4CSC 3600 planes with transponders are burning 8-10 million gallons of kerosene per hour over the USA. R-12 car air conditioners are responsible for the ozone hole, right? |
DAMMIT ICOM WHY SO CHEAP?!!
"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
... "Sailor RT4822 includes a transceiver unit and a handset. The SPARC-BUS interface, an advanced balanced data and AF interface, can be used to interconnect multiple control units and for exterior computer based control/programming options." OH BOY! Another incompatible, non-communicating data protocol that won't talk to anything else on the boat! Who else uses Sparc (besides Sun, that is)?? I do see there's a secondary NMEA interface back there, somewhere, though. The other problem you'll have is SERVICE..... From the webpage: Please, choose a country: Austria Faroe Islands Iceland Rumania big snip It is refreshing to know I could get it fixed in the Ukraine or Estonia, but what happens over the rest of the planet....places like USA, Canada, S America, Caribbean Islands, Hawaii, Tahiti, Oz, NZ?? Well, on the page before the one you cited it says: Africa Asia and the Oceania Europe North America South America The Middle East So, exactly *what* is your problem??? Meindert |
DAMMIT ICOM WHY SO CHEAP?!!
On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 10:10:58 +0200, "Meindert Sprang"
wrote: So, exactly *what* is your problem??? Meindert It's service network is very small on this side of the pond. OD Green looks awful against any wood panel.... Larry W4CSC 3600 planes with transponders are burning 8-10 million gallons of kerosene per hour over the USA. R-12 car air conditioners are responsible for the ozone hole, right? |
DAMMIT ICOM WHY SO CHEAP?!!
On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 20:29:15 -0400, Glenn Ashmore
wrote: Sailor is a REALLY nice marine SSB but the ones I have seen are almost impossible to tune on Ham bands. The new all-digital HC4500 SSB is according to information no problem to open up for the ham bands. I know people who are using it that way, for example www.reginasailing.com /Marcus -- Marcus AAkesson Gothenburg Callsigns: SM6XFN & SB4779 Sweden Keep the world clean - no HTML in news or mail ! |
DAMMIT ICOM WHY SO CHEAP?!!
On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 23:58:59 GMT, (Larry W4CSC) wrote:
"Sailor RT4822 includes a transceiver unit and a handset. The SPARC-BUS interface, an advanced balanced data and AF interface, can be used to interconnect multiple control units and for exterior computer based control/programming options." OH BOY! Another incompatible, non-communicating data protocol that won't talk to anything else on the boat! Who else uses Sparc (besides Sun, that is)?? Completely irrelevant. This is like asking what kind of protocol icom and others are using in their microphones with control buttons, it's not meant to be interfaced to any other equipment than a secondary control post. I do see there's a secondary NMEA interface back there, somewhere, though. Exactly, open standards for You.... The other problem you'll have is SERVICE..... Why? There are 9 locations listed. Texas Alabama California San Francisco Florida Louisiana New York Virginia Washington They hardly ever break anyways. They wouldn't be one of the top choices for the commercial fleets if they needed service often. Quite the opposite, Sailor radios are known to just work for decades without a glitch. /Marcus -- Marcus AAkesson Gothenburg Callsigns: SM6XFN & SB4779 Sweden Keep the world clean - no HTML in news or mail ! |
DAMMIT ICOM WHY SO CHEAP?!!
The inevitable question: $$$$?
Marcus AAkesson wrote: On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 20:29:15 -0400, Glenn Ashmore wrote: Sailor is a REALLY nice marine SSB but the ones I have seen are almost impossible to tune on Ham bands. The new all-digital HC4500 SSB is according to information no problem to open up for the ham bands. I know people who are using it that way, for example www.reginasailing.com /Marcus -- Glenn Ashmore I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com |
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