Thumbs down, OHR! – online documentation for QRP rigs
Every now and then, a QRPer has a need for documentation of a radio or kit they bought second hand. The majority of such material exists online and is freely downloadable, much to the credit of those vendors.
Those offering it are probably under the correct impression that a prospective buyer will be able to make a better decision of whether or not to buy based on the increased knowledge of their product that would come from a thorough reading of its description, schematic, parts list, etc.
Plus, there is the spirit of QRP – the sharing of technical and operational information. This takes place on various mailing lists, Yahoo groups, on the air and in magazine articles. And, as mentioned, among most QRP kit sellers.
Much credit is deserved by the unselfish attitude of those who make this possible, and they deserve our business.
They are:
- Small Wonder Labs
- Elecraft
- Hendricks QRP Kits
- 4-State QRP Group
- MFJ
- Ten Tec
- Genesis Radio
- Kanga
- QRP-Me
- Jackson Harbor Press
- AmQRP
- And numerous others via their Yahoo Groups (KB9YIG SoftRock kits, KD1JV’s ATS series, AZ sCQRPions, the BD4RG’s HB-1A, etc)
In other words, almost everyone offering a kit lets you fully inform yourself prior to making a purchase.
Those who won’t?
Fortunately, it’s a short list:
Oak Hills Research and Wilderness Radio.
OHR will snail-mail you a manual for $13 if it’s for a currently available kit! But wait – there’s more – it’ll cost you a whopping $23 if it’s for an out of production kit. Wow, thanks. Damn – does Halle Berry deliver it personally?
That’s not a price, that’s an insult to your customers.
I’m surprised OHR’s phone number doesn’t begin with 1-900…..no telling how much money could be made by charging $5/minute in order to call and order a product.
.
.
Themocracy
I know your list is for rigs, but we constantly get requests for our EndFedz manuals- which are available on our site, but seem to be overlooked:
http://www.parelectronics.com/manuals.php
Dale W4OP
for PAR Electronics, Inc.
Although I bought my unit pre-built, I’ve been pleased with the friendly communication from http://www.rpc-electronics.com for their QRP-power APRS tracking unit, RTrak. They use their Yahoo group as a repository for most of their OEM technical documentation as well as the usual collection point for user contributions.