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[a417]

What are some of the shadiest things you've seen, caught or heard about a telecom shop doing to it's customers or in general? No names, no locations, no specifics that can be used to otherwise track down the offenders. This is a good times thread, not a S%!t starting one.

I'll start (if this is a dupe thread...sorry, I couldn't find it)...

Saw a shop use try to an STA to shoehorn in a trunked system into an already saturated market, even after the same agency was denied a trunking license.

Same shop pulled down a poorly functioning trunked system, then sold it to the next town over as new and promised them the stars and the moon above...until someone physically recognized the hardware.

 

[mmckenna]

There was a -large- nationwide shop that was putting small users on GMRS for a while back in the late 90's/early 2000's. No license, no grandfathered business GMRS, just sell someone a bunch of UHF radios, program up some GMRS channels and let them go.

Had a shop use a PL-259 connector on a radio with an N connector. It "works", but not right. Our PD doesn't use that shop anymore. And it wasn't a mistake, they short soldered the center pin so it would fit over the center pin on the female N connector. Someone knew what they were doing and knew it was wrong, but did it anyway, figuring no one would notice.

I've had to fix a lot of sloppy work done by radio shops, but probably many of us have. Usually it's dumb little things where either someone was in a rush or they were not willing to ask for help. Improperly crimped connectors, things wired up wrong that were obviously never tested, etc.

Then there was a local stereo shop that convinced our bus fleet that they could install the radios much cheaper than the radio shops. power wire was old speaker wires. Wire wrapped around screw terminals. Butt splices (use the right length of wire, dammit!) Had one bus that when we were doing the 800MHz rebanding, we could not locate the antenna. Wasn't on the roof. Wasn't a glass mount. Wasn't spliced into the AM/FM antenna. Finally we started disassembling the trim and following the cable. Up above the driver we found the antenna, NMO mount, about 8 feet of cable, etc. all wadded up with a ty-wrap and wound up in the wiring for the clearance lights. No attempt to install it correctly.

And then a local "dealer" who kept telling me that a specific radio was "backordered". Finally called the manufacturers rep for Kenwood to find out what was going on. Turned out the dealer had not been paying for the stuff he was buying, just kept getting new customers, using their money to pay for the previous customers gear and not delivering. He's not a Kenwood dealer anymore. And all the guy had to do was tell me the truth, but he was physically unable to do that.

 

[spongella]

Here's a different take on the subject. Back in high school I worked in a TV-Radio-Appliance repair shop. Some older tube AM radio models would cease functioning because the dial light burned out. The bulb was wired in series with the receiver. All that was needed was a bulb change but we had to charge the usual rate for taking the radio into the shop for troubleshooting. I distinctly remember one customer chewing us out, calling us thieves for charging her shop time for something so simple. Thank God the owner (RIP) had our backs but I still felt an inch tall after her tongue lashing.

 

[a417]

There was a Mr Carlson's Lab vlog where he threw in why a series lightbulb was wired in to some models of early tube radios. For the life of me, I can't find the video or the reference to it.

 

[spongella]

I remember the light would burn brightest when initially turned on, then it got slightly less bright and stayed that way. Of course it took a while for the radio to "warm up" too. No "instant on" those days.

 

[AK9R]

There was a Mr Carlson's Lab vlog where he threw in why a series lightbulb was wired in to some models of early tube radios.

The idea is that an incandescent light bulb acts as somewhat of a current limiter. This is useful in testing old tube radios as well as an indication of high current draw. AKA, "dim bulb" tester.

One of Mr. Carlson's videos on the topic:

Another variation on the idea that lets you switch in different light bulbs to provide limiting at different current levels: