Tom,
As I said, there are a few exceptions... Tuning knobs can be one of
those. The key element here is that it's single board surface mount FRU.
With few exceptions, if anything of consequence goes wrong, it's a
board swap. I am of course speculating since I'm not the chief design
engineer for their company. The Russians have a unique way of doing
things, so I'm guessing as to the lack of service manual. The single
board makes me believe that this is their logic concerning not providing
a service manual. It could also be a proprietary issue, in that, they
do not want to provide any information concerning their design. I don't
think the manufacturer cares about what most of the radio manufacturers
do, frankly.
All of your questions are valid, however, I do have answers for
concerning Russian intellectual property. Under the current
circumstances, I'm more concerned about replacement parts and service,
which made it hard for me make the purchase. The entire supply chain
could fall apart overnight, depending upon the whim of the Russian
government and how the sanctions begin to affect their capability to
support their radio. It's difficult to predict what will happen in the
future concerning Russian companies.
L... WG9U
Thomas Tumino wrote on 4/11/2023 10:09 AM:
Interesting. ?But you know every other manufacturer is also doing
surface mount yet they still issue service manuals. ?And certainly a
tuning knob is not a surface mount component. Perhaps with enough info
we could all help diagnose the tuning problem and come up with a
solution. ?
Every manufacturer I know of has made mistakes in component
selection in ham gear, and most of those mistakes seem to be
discovered/diagnosed by users armed with service manuals. ?It¡¯s a much
faster process to effectively ¡°crowd source¡± your refinements as opposed
to relying solely on an in house tech staff. ?I mean after all, there
will always be more users in the field than designers in the company.?
Also you know there have been many QST articles on replacing
surface mount components. ?It¡¯s not beyond a hobbyist if they want to do
it. ?
Do other Russian companies release service manuals? ? Is the
Russian intellectual property law scheme different in such a way that
publishing service manuals would disclose otherwise secret information?
?Just a thought.
But really if there¡¯s a reason lab599 should divulge it. ?Maybe
they don¡¯t even have one internally. ?
73,
Tom, N2YTF?
Sent by phone, please forgive
my brevity and poor typing.
?
Tom,
My guess on this would be: 1. They are Russian and don't go by the norm.
2. It's a single board, surface mount technology FRU. They may not see
the need to have a maintenance manual since it's mostly a board
replacement and the rest will have to be handled at the depot, with very
little exceptions. Frankly, the majority of the work on surface mount
FRU, has to be done at the manufacturer, so I'm certain that's what they
are thinking.
Larry, WG9U
Thomas Tumino wrote on 4/11/2023 8:26 AM:
In my mind, to not publish a service manual is really against the ethos
of Ham Radio. ?Isn¡¯t ham radio all about experimenting, learning, and
tinkering? Fixing, modifying l, and building gear is really part of ham
radio. ?
I don¡¯t know of any ham manufacturer that hasn¡¯t published a
service manual for their gear. ?Many charge for the manual, but to not
publish one at all??! ?Not cool Lab599.
A service manual is especially important for a small, new
company. ?No one wants gear that may become unserviceable due to a lack
of a service manual if the company stops or can no longer support the
owners in the future. ?
Perhaps one reason why
people are reporting slow repairs from the US facility is that even they
don¡¯t have a service manual¡
Can someone with
some inside connection to Lab599 try to get them to release the service
manual in some fashion? I for one am happy to pay for it as long as it¡¯s
priced reasonably. ?
73,
Tom, N2YTF?
Sent by phone, please forgive my brevity and poor typing.
On Apr 11, 2023, at 8:39 AM, Norm
- KC1BMD <noka@...>
wrote:
?On
Tue, Apr 11, 2023 at 07:26 AM, Thomas
Tumino wrote:
Has Lab599 released a service manual for the rig? Anyone
have a link to it?
If they did, I would think it would be on the web site ( Downloads
section) but I only see a "User" manual.
?
--
73, Norm/KC1BMD
Larry Guillot