"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
news
Michael Lawson wrote:
"m II" wrote in message
news:hC%De.148005$tt5.90754@edtnps90...

m II wrote:


mike maghakian wrote:


I have owned both several times and currently own the 800.
the price of a later edition 8, which is the ONLY only one that
a
person should use is too high. almost double the cost of a good

tested

800





I've been wondering about the manufacturing dates on the 800. How

can I

tell when a set was made? In what order were the fixes made
during
manufacture?

If I see a set, how can I tell if it's the latest version, so I

don't

get stuck with garbage quality control?


Thanks for the information. I'll look elsewhere for the help.


RHF provided this a long time ago to the Yahoo Sat 800 group:

"The SN is # 8010008400"

Serial Number Decoder: 8YMM******
Y = "0" = 2000
MM = "10" = October

NOTE: The so-called Third Generation Grundig Satellit 800
Millennium Radios with all the "Fixes" built into them
started to be built in the First Quarter Jan-Feb-Mar 2001.

--Mike L.


The so called Third Generation Sat 800 is a term that was started
by
our favorite e-Bay scamster. It was so effective a marketing tool
that
it was picked up by Lextronix/Eton and used in their promotional
materials. Its use was also strongly encouraged when setting up the
numerous Grundig drop-ship "retailers" on e-Bay and other other
outlets.
But the term is entirely fictional. It has no meaning.

There is only ONE change in the Sat 800 over its entire
production
cycle: ball bearings on the tuning shaft. No other changes were made
throughout the life cycle of the product. This according to an
insider
from Lextronix, now Eton, and reported here, numerous times.

Though QC appeared to have improved in successive production
runs,
the rate of failure was still high enough in later runs to require a
significant percentage of refurbishment at Drake.

A general rule of thumb was (and still is) to buy the
Sat 800 from a reputable dealer, such as Universal.
We used to argue about this back when the Sat 800
was released, Peter. It always seemed that the Sat
800's sold by Universal seemed to work fine, but
the Sat 800's sold by places like The Sharper Image
seemed to have a high failure rate.

If you're really determined to go with this radio, find one that
has
been through the Drake repair center. History and user comments in
these
fora strongly suggest that there is no guarantee of a quality unit
simply by selecting from 'desirable' serial numbers.

All of the 'fixes'--- all ONE of them--- are found in any unit
with a
ball bearing tuning shaft.

That's rather odd. When I spoke to the Drake people
when I went to pick up my Sat 800 after a tuneup, they
said that they made several changes authorized by Eton
as part of bringing my Sat 800 (one of the first ones
sold) up to the current model. I didn't press them on it,
but several usually means more than one, and I don't
think they meant the couple of caps that were bad and
needed replacing, either.

Also, I do know that Lextronics did replace the original
power supply after a lot of people complained about
the RF in them; I did complain, and received a different
power supply model free of charge.

--Mike L.