RadioBanter - View Single Post

January 5th 04, 08:15 AM

In article ,
says...
Well, as far as QC in manufacturing goes, it is undeniable that
Japan went to the extreme . Exported products (electric and electronic)
manufactured and shipped to the USA were tested so thoroughly I never
saw a defective one (other than dropped or crushed ) while doing QC in a
distribution and repair facility here. Warranty repair is another story-
practicaly ALL (!) Japanese- consumer products went bad after 2-3 years
of normal use (we are talkng about 25 years ago). Reasons are many,
but usually because the components were underrated and eventually their
products failed ,sometimes catastrophically...
As far as JRC goes, it is a maritime radio manufacturer, and as such it
designs its products to work very reliably and to last a long time. My
NRD 505 (amateur grade) is some radio , though it sounds muffled when
compared to Drake R 7 ( audio is supreme on a wide bandwith, especially
8KHz). R 8 is no match to either one ,though. NRD 515--------545 are
good ,but audio is only telephone grade. Their last 3 models have
plastic front panels- get scratched easy and lettering disappears
rather quickly. Excellent RF circuitry ,tough designs.

I've never seen a 525/535/545 that showed any really obvious wear,
except when really obviously abused. Just like any other brand of ham/SW
stuff. The main place wear shows on old 525's is the grey paint on the
black plastic gets rubbed through from callussed fingers if you "memory
channel surf" a lot. Mine had a slight amount of it when I bought it
used back in 1993 or so, and it's a little worse now. The other 525 I
had shows a lot of wear there, mostly due to the third owner's heavily
callussed fingers rubbing lightly on the top of the front panel while he
clicks through the 200 memories.

I've never seen anything JRC makes with missing lettering, including an
old tube type marine model some guy had at a hamfest. I wish I would
have bought it..

BDK