In article ,
Mys Terry wrote:

When I bought my present boat, it had an am/fm/cassette unit from Standard
Horizon. Model MST60. It is a unit that comes in it's own "underdash" hanging
box with a flip lid on the front.

I never really liked it much, and figured at some point I would update to a
nicer am/fm/cd/XM unit. It wasn't a high priority.

Last season, the buttons on the unit started becoming non-functional one at a
time. I could tune up, but not down, etc. Annoying to say the least, but I
wasn't using it that much anyway. I figured it was probably time to upgrade
this
winter. This unit is inside the cabin of a sailbost where it really isn't
exposed to direct water or weather.

Today I was at the boat and decided to take the unit home to see if I could
replace a few switches using parts from my junk collection and make it go
another year or two. Oh yeah... In a previous life I was a licensed CET
consumer
electronics tech. I have a LOT of experience repairing high volumes of
electronics far more complex that this.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled of the front cover and removed the front
circuit board containing all the switches. This is a "marine stereo" marketed
by
a company that supplies a lot of marine electronics. Guess what? NO conformal
coating on the most vulnerable circuit board of the whole unit. Nothing. I
could
understand a "non-marine" company marketing a "marine stereo" without doing
the
basics, but Standard Horizon?

It gets worse. The reason for the failure is that there is almost no solder
on
the connections that failed. Just large expanses of bright bare copper.
Despite
the lack of corrosion protection, corrosion didn't kill this unit. Some of
the
switches simply didn't get properly soldered, and quality control (?) didn't
catch it. I'm not talking about anything hard to see, either. There was so
little solder on these joints that I didn't see any solder at all until I
used
bright light and a jewelers loop.

In case anyone has a short attention span: STANDARD HORIZON



and this is a "Big Suprise" to you, WHY........... back in the Old
Days.. Standard was one of the JUNK Marine Electronics OEM's, and
was just barely above the level of Ray Jefferson, or SMR ......
You would NEVER find a Standard Brand Radio on any commercial vessel,
but on the noncommercial and pleasure type vessels.....

Me