SENSELESS SHIPPING TRAGEDY

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I was awaiting a Robyn 520 SSB Base station to arrive, and of course, it came in on my day off. Nonetheless when they said that a box arrived I looked at it and thought "Hmmm, must be something else, because I don't think a 520 could fit in it".

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Sad to say, it did, just barely, with no foam, peanuts, newspaper, etc. So I took it out of the box, plugged it in and - Nada. No lights, no nothing. Time to do a check up:

1. FUSE - GOOD
2. Knobs, button, etc. set correctly? Yep
3. 12vdc (inside) good
4. Switch - good

So that send me to the Worldwide Radio Forum where I put out a plea for help, and got some good advice, especially from Nomad. He said that those PCB's were prone to cracking during shipment, and to check near the mounting screws of the board.

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And there I found a crack. So naturally, I went home and slept on it, and got to thinking I'd check out that cracked area again. It was pretty obvious that one connection had been isolated from the rest of the board, so I'm thinking "Hey, there must be 12vdc on that connection". A quick check with the ever handy voltmeter confirmed my suspicions. I made a bridge from wire and solder connecting the little 12v "Island" to the mainland and now have power, lights, and sound. I'll check it out tonight when I get home, but I think it may be A-OK ---However, this is a good reminder to those of us who ship radios, that we pack them well to give them their best shot at making to the other end....Alive.

'Nuff Said,

Woody