[Kenwood] Operator's manuals today

Mon, 1 Mar 2004 23:46:12 -0600

I think it has a lot to do with how the radios have changed over the past
20 or 30 years. They used to be made of discreet components and anyone
with an electronics background and good troubleshooting skills could
repair one, tube or transistor rig alike. The theory of operation sections
were great for getting you started towards the trouble because it told you
what transitors did what job, if the schematic were not clear enough on
that.
But take today's radios and compare them. Large scale integration ICs
abound. In house numbers on so many chips that finding a replacement,
assuming you were sure what it was can be darned near impossible at times.
They are not made to be worked on by the layman these days. Oh, you can
get your feathers ruffled and say you know electronics if you want, but I
still think the idea these days is service of the more complicated stuff
like todays rigs was never intended to be done outside of the influence of
the factory and factory trained techs.
I troubleshoot electronic circuits for a living and I don't think that I
would want to take on a lot of repairs on these cryptic beasts. Sure,
there are some things that you can just about follow your nose to,
granted.
But I contend that 99.9% of the folks that would buy a TS-2000 are not up
to the task of repairing every kind of trouble it might present you with.
Probably very darned few problems.
I don't know if today's hams are less intelligent or not. Certainlly they
did not have to prove themselves in quite the same way as before. Way back
when, you had to prove that you understood a few things about how radios
do what they do. These days they should have to prove that they can use a
dummy load to tune up, or a counter to find their frequency, rather than
drop a cw carrier right on someone's qso, then move in freqency up to
where they wanted to be. That's all just manners though and good operating
procedures.
TO put it simply, the radios used to BE much simpler. A radio, be it a
receiver or a transmitter, or both was fundamentally a radio made of parts
that were separate from each other. now this is just not the case.
So I don't fault the manual writers too much, they just follow the trends
that the group is evolving towards. a manual written at a 'high level' for
a simply built radio is different than for a the digital stuff make today.
I don't think you can compare the two easily.
Maybe this is why my stuff is all old stuff, HI. Personally I find much
more joy in an old radio, no menu, no multi knob, no IR encoder wheels. I
have examples of all right here, and I tend to gravitate towards the
discreet and away from the software rigs they make now.
My take, maybe not yours.
Michael
N0XY
----- Original Message -----
From: "Darrell Drake" <[email protected]>
To: "John Geiger" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>;
<[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 10:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Kenwood] Operator's manuals today
> John.....
> I think the line in your last paragraph sums it up...."wonder if
this is
> saying something about the
> competency of hams today versus in years past".
> And judging from some of the questions which have been asked, and
statements
> made, on this and other reflectors, I'm led to believe that to some of
> today's "hams", the new style manuals are still not simple enough.
> Darrell,
> VA3DG/VE3DDG
>> > Has anyone else noticed a change in the level that
> > Operator's manuals are written at today? I have
> > recently picked up a few older pieces of equipment
> > here and there, and the manuals from 15-20 years ago
> > are a world of difference from todays.
> >
> > The older manuals would first thank you for purchasing
> > the equipment, and had circuit descriptions, block
> > diagrams, alignment procedures sometimes, and were
> > generally written at a high level.
> >
> > Todays manuals look like they are written for the
> > under 70 IQ crowd. They have cartoon figures. They
> > usually have a "your first QSO" section which really
> > insults your intelligence. It is written like we
> > wouldn't know how to turn on a radio, tune in a
> > frequency, and push the mic button without being
> > guided through it step by step. There are no circuit
> > descriptions, alignment procedures, or block diagrams
> > anymore.
> >
> > Now part of this might be cost, in that the
> > manufacturers want to cheapen the cost of manuals and
> > save all of that stuff for the service manual, but I
> > also wonder if this is saying something about the
> > competency of hams today versus in years past. If it
> > has changed that much, the last thing we need to do is
> > make the licensing procedures any easier.
> >
> > Just an interesting observation.
> >
> > 73s John NE0P
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