The AM Forum

I ran across a thread in another ham radio forum, in which people were freaking out because Yaesu misspelt the word "Transceiver" on the front panel logo.  They spelt it "Tranceiver". I understand they corrected that mistake and offered replacement panels.  Some owners say they are keeping their originals hoping they will some day become collectors' items.

That makes me wonder about the model number.  Is the FT-dx5000 supposed to work more DX than would a plain old FT-5000?  I can recall when their top-of-the-line box was the FT-1000, and  later on, the FT-ONE. 

The old FTdx rigs I remember dated back to about 1970, and were pieces of crap that weighed a ton, used circuit boards with vacuum tubes, and developed crackles and intermittents after a year or two of regular use.

The world of plug-in appliance ham radio never ceases to amaze me.  ::)

Maybe the lower case "dx" is a marketing ploy to imply it works "DX" while giving the manufacturer an excuse should the performance be found wanting.

It's a model number, no different than DX-100 or 75A-4. Does using a Viking Valiant make one more brave? Does using a Apache make one a warrior or an excellent horseman? These are radios and nothing more. They are only as good or as useful as the person using them and the antennas to which they are connected. This is the same for any radio, even homebrew ones.

The world of piss-n-moan ham radio never ceases to amaze me.

It's nothing more then the marketing and advertising managers whimsical thought process for an eye-catching model number. When you have a very focused market, and fierce competition, you do all you can to resonate with the customer.

There is no FT-5000 but there is an FTdx9000 series.

You can see the missing "s" here: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamhf/0355vlrg.jpg

They are all in a snit because a teeny tiny word on the front panel says "tranceiver" or something?  Does it not work right because of that?   ;D

The world of entertainment center ham radio never ceases to amaze me  :D

Since transceiver is a combination of two words would there be some rule as to how to spell it?

At least they spelled Yaesu properly.

Or, one could always come up with their own names...

T

Come now, gentlemen....

Don is an elder statesman in the world of AM. For him to take the time on such a gorgeous weather Sunday to log onto the internet, seek this story out, and re-post his findings here on 'fone tells me that this is a serious matter which is very important to him. Should I ever decide to buy a radio made by Yaesu, I will trust his judgement and check the front panel labeling carefully before committing any funds.

And only a few weeks after Daylight Shifting Time. Obviously we are not as focused on the important matters here as folks on other sites.

Thank you Don.   :)

 :o

 ;D ;D

Or would that be "Dr. Rove?"

Wonder if the reason behind the spelling mistake might be because the designers of the radio were Japanese and speak Japanese? So when they wrote out what it was to say it was in japanese and then translated. Try reading the manual to a piece of equipment that was built in China or Japan and take note of some of the errors, more than likely the instructions were written down in the builder's native language, then translated (rather poorly) into English.

Come on, What's in a name?

WOW Bill,

That is the rare Super Defiance "HI low". Notice the mix of upper and lower case letters on the "PiTCh" control. That's worth a bundle!  ;D

It seems the term "transceiver" originated back in the 20's. They had 90 years to get it right.

 Something was lost in translation ?   ;)  Most of us remember the instruction manuals that used to come with new gear of all sorts out of  Japan just a few short years ago ...... actually they are doing much better .  Whats amazing is Hammy Hambone makes an issue out of something so trivial ,  when what really matters is how the damn thing works .   I guess thats why the world is in the shape its in .  Priorities  ::) 

N7BDY 

Don, the Irb of the 21st sentury

Who's pissing 'n moaning?  I think a more accurate term would be "comedy".


Even more challenging were assembly instructions for kids' toys and other cheaply made products from "offshore".

One of the reasons many of the manuals are better these days is that "Made in China" (or some other country) is increasingly likely to be a U.S. product made by a U.S. company that has relocated its assembly operation overseas. Two examples that come to mind are Hunter ceiling fans and Apple.

Actually, the quality of many offshore products has improved in recent years.

I agree Don, you are very amusing. So are clowns.

Who wants to be the first to tell DAVE his tranceiver is spelled incorrectly?

With regards to that whole conversation over there on the zed, we have to keep things in perspective. $6,000 is a lot to spend on a radio in the first place and a small oversight like the lettering error would bug a lot of people. It's no different than buying a car and having one of the dealer monkeys put a key scratch near the door lock.

Personally, I've played with the 5000 and I while I thought it was nice, it certainly wasn't all that. Receive wise, while switching back and forth on an antenna switch, it wasn't as good as my 20year old INRAD equipped 1000D. If I was going to go into that price range, I would up the till a little and just get the FTDX-9000D for $10Large and get it over with. I had to opportunity to play with one and it really is a thing to behold. To me, receiving is everything, and that rig has a set of ears on it like one of those little foxes that runs around in the desert.

  

The original product brochure for the FTdx5000 showed the same misspelling on the front panel so they were warned prior to purchase.

I wonder if the poor guy that gave the final OK before production on the front panel will commit hara kiri over that   ;)


I wouldn't send mine back .... after the production change with the new panels having one of the old ones would be akin to having a coin that was mistruck from the mint .   More desirable and rare , no ?  

$5K or $10K for a tran(s)ceiver is too rich for me.  I'm saving up for my Shevy Korvette.

On a more serious vein consider this .  Yes its a lot of money for a rig , but sometimes being too fussy over nothing can bite you in the butt .  Here you have a brand new rig that works flawlessly ,  but you spot this "defect " .  You box it up .... you pay for shipping ,  you risk your new rig getting thrashed in the mail ,  then what if you get a factory tech who perhaps isnt one of their best or who got drunk or loaded the night before or had a fight with his girlfriend or a wife who just threw his laundry out in the yard ,  or thinks he isnt paid enough and isnt concentrating or doesnt care . He butchers your rig and it comes back with more problems than a misspelling on the panel .   I'm not saying it would happen but its a roll of the dice .  No , personally I wouldnt risk it .   I'd run the rig through its paces and if  I was happy with it  ,  I'd let it slide unless there were other issues ,  then maybe have 'em change out the panel .  I'm very fussy with my stuff but that misspelling is a non issue to me .  But everyone is different .   Some people get wound up and ulcers over this kind of stuff .  Lifes too short to sweat the small things .

Yeh really ,  I just run old stuff here so I dont worry about that kind of crap .  But the more money a person has and the more they spend the more anal they get it seems . 

I sorta used to be that way ... but the longer in the tooth I get ,  I find my priorities have changed .  Its easier on my nerves   :)

Probably not. If they only made a handful, maybe, but they didn't.


"Misspelling" should always be an issue. And, on a front panel of a product, it's totally embarrassing.

Don, FWIW the FT-ONE came first, in the early 80s. The FT-1000 and 1000D began production in the late 80s and was a complete new design. The FT-ONE had some issues.  

My Hallicrafters SX24 is also mis-labeled.
Perhaps that is why it is deaf on the higher bands.

Bob

Bob ,  you may be a bit late to send that one back in for a redo  :D
Besides ,  it looks like they may have put an apostrophe in there so it would be exempt ..... they did it right .  Doesnt seem like they saved a whole lot of space though .

That almost looks like it was engraved doesnt it ?   Maybe thats the way they did those old sets .   

I love my 1000D. It's a later build that came as a D with the 6.0 firmware installed. I went thru the pains to hunt down and install all the various International Radio filters and the 73Mhz "roofin" filter. A few maintenance cap and resister changes, yellow LED backlighting for the meter to lose the incandescent heat, but keep the stock color, and a few of the performance mods found around the net. Finish it up by touching up the alignment, and she's a keeper. Never put it to the test, but she has ears on par with my wj 8711a and my Almeco 390a.

I was amused that the misspelling of "transceiver" had created such a stir on a mainstream amateur radio forum.  Surely, anyone who purchases one of those rigs already knows it's a transceiver. I don't understand why they needed to put the word on the front panel at all in the first place.  I would have been more concerned if one of the control functions, like "selectivity" or "tuning" were misspelt.

I have seen posts on other forums and comments in print publications in which the writer seemed to be unaware that hams had ever used anything but a transceiver. The concept of separate transmitter and  receiver almost seemed beyond their realm of comprehension.

I just thought it was something amusing that I would share here, and figured it would generate a few laughs and nothing more.  I had no clue that my comments here would create almost as great a stir accompanied by sarcastic remarks in some circles here, as the original news item about the misspelling did on the other forum.

The issue among many potential customers might be the view that Yaesu's quality control is lacking in catching the error. i.e. What else did they miss in this $6K box.

I thought the correct American past tense, past participle, and adjective is "misspelled" not "misspelt".


We have big box users here too.

Trivia: In 240 separate posts on this forum, the word "receiver" was spelled "reciever" one or more times per post. We also have a firm grasp on misspelling.

Not sure but think I've seen "lightening" more often than "reciever" ...

The reciever was hit by lightening.  :-\   

what's wrong with exactness or being anal?  I work in a military environment and exactness is expected. If you don't have it you get creamed and reamed.

If I buy something I expect it to be what I expect it to be especially when paying big bux.

I'm not the best writer and speller but when I see stuff on the net many times I'm left in doubt whether it be something that is a potential buy, knowledge, etc.  Trust goes out the window, to some extent.  The same goes for stuff that comes across my desk for review at work. If I see one misspelled word back it goes to the sender.  And I don't have an issue with someone pointing out that I F'ed up.

There was a period of time when consumer stuff coming from overseas was considered "gray" market. A lot of times gray market items were not honored under warranty if something failed. Imagine the dismay of customers who found out that they got  a good deal initially only to find out that product wasn't supported.

The same goes for when people add an "s" to my last name. I deny anything if my last name isn't spelled correctly.  I've gotten more B&W over the years. I'm  a product of my environment I guess.

In 60 separate posts on this forum, "lightening" appears one or times per post.

Didn't read each post so there may be some valid "lightening" in the threads.
Lightening is the present participle of the verb "to lighten," and refers to the process of making something lighter in color.

Lightning is a noun - it refers to the meteorological phenomenon that is followed by thunder.

I could use some lightening

I climbed to a great "HeigTH" so it took me time to get "OrienTATED."

If I bought a FTDX-5000 I would definitely expect them to not make spelling mistakes on the front panel.  The sad thing is that it made it to market without the mistake being caught.  Mistakes happen and my first GMC pickup came with a Chevrolet branded owner's manual but they took care of that quickly, the dealer claimed that one time the transport unloaded a new GMC with a Chevy logo tailgate mistakenly installed.

Many years ago another JA company had to replace manuals after it was found that a diagram used an unfortunate four letter word that apparently meant the same thing as screw (in some contexts) when showing how to install the legs on an accessory item.   In the 90s when I was providing part of an executive MBA program in Mexico I frequently passed a Ford plant with a clock tower that bore the then current  Ford slogan "quality is job 1" .  The nice clock at the top of the tower had been broken for years, it sent a mixed message at best.

As pointed out earlier, if the panel print labeling job wasn't set up properly it does raise questions about the more complex sections inside.

<<We have big box users here too.>>

you bet.  Gates, WeCo, Raytheon, RCA...


It gets better.   Over the past year or so I've read columnist comments in QST along the lines of, "in the old days amateurs ran equipment using vacuum tubes,"  and, "at one time hams manually tuned their transmitters." 

It's almost as amazing as the world of piss-n-moaners who piss-n-moan about the world of piss-n-moan ham radio but fortunately not as rare.

Look it up in the dictionary.  Both are equally correct.  Take your pick.


Speaking of the military, I once ran across a piece of WWII era Signal Corps surplus, and both the manual and the stencil below the fuse-holder used the spelling "fuze".  According to the dictionary, "fuze" is correct military jargon only for an electrical or mechanical device to detonate the explosive charge in an artillery shell. For all other meanings, the word is "fuse", and that includes a tube or cord filled with combustible material to ignite an explosive, as well as the electric over-current protector. I can see how that could lead to confusion.  Wonder if anyone got reamed or creamed over that one.

Sometimes terms get lost in translation from one language to another.  Remember G-M's famous gaffe in Latin
America with the Chevy Nova?  They couldn't figure out why that car didn't sell, until it finally dawned on someone that no va in Spanish means "doesn't go".

Look up the French word (and its pronunciation) for "seal".  Better still, check out this 800 y.o. village in Austria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucking,_Austria).

I recall a few years ago a university professor was fired for using the word niggardly in one of his lectures.  It is a perfectly good English word (of Scandinavian origin) meaning "miserly" or "stingy", pre-dating and totally unrelated to the similar sounding racialist slur. He got his job back after threatening to take the university administration to court, publicly embarrassing them over their ignorance.

 Words... we are talking about words (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ISil7IHzxc)

Now I understand; from the Urban Dictionary: "misspelt" - This is a rarely used but often preferred (among the pretentious, eclectic, geeky, artsy, or British) spelling of "misspelled."

In the Merriam-Webster "misspelt" is not listed. In dictionary.com, "misspelt" automatically rolls to "misspell". In the American Heritage Dictionary (printed version), "misspelt" is not listed. In Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, "misspelt" is not listed.

But we digress further from the original topic at hand; is Yaesu's front panel misspelling just a rare product slip-up or have there been others out there in recent years. Even thinking back to the "good old days", I can't think of any other manufacturer's (Hammarland, Nationial, Hallicraftors, E&F Johnsons, etc.) front panel printing that had a misspelling.

Does your browser click on the same dictionary.com as mine?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spelt

Also, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/misspelt

Urban Dictionary is fun, but not exactly authoritative.

...and ham radio discussion forums are not exactly amateur radio.