Title: Some good news Post by: N9NEO on April 28, 2005, 06:40:18 PM Here is an interesting volley between a Ham and Agilent concerning putting old manuals into the public domain. It shows just how much value a well penned essay can have. I have no reason to believe it a hoax. Hope it reads ok, I didn't do any formatting. Thanks Sam!
Dear Mr. Simon, I have recently become aware that the documents for discontinued or out of support Hewlett-Packard and Agilent products have been removed from the BAMA site due to copyright infringement. Many radio amateurs like myself cut their teeth on products by major test equipment manufacturers like Agilent/HP and that experience has lead many of us to recommend and specify Agilent/HP product in our profession as well. Due to the abundance of many venerable Agilent/HP test equipment products now available from government and other surplus sources the hobbyist and amateur radio operator alike can afford to equip their home lab or "ham" shack very economically. This seems like a very good way to recycle our tax dollars. Unfortunately it seems that when the equipment has been surplussed the manuals are usually no where to be found. When one does find original manuals they are often only available at a prohibitive prices. In many cases equipment from the 1980's and prior has no real commercial value for current product development due to the rapid advancement of electronics technology so many of these instruments fall into amateur radio operator or hobbyist hands. I was once given a HP 200CD Audio Oscillator when the company I worked for bought a brand new HP204C. I was still in High School. I studied the manual for that 200CD and William Reddington Hewlett's masters thesis on that classic design. Even today I believe I could draw that schematic by heart! I still have that oscillator today and it still works! Personally, I can say without a doubt, I have learned more about real electronics from using and repairing HP/Agilent equipment than I did in the all years I spent in engineering school. I have spent more hours than I can count working on nearly every instrument HP made from the 1950's through the 1990's. It would be a great gesture for HP/Agilent to follow the lead of their contemporary Tektronix and grant a release to the public domain of all manuals for products that are no longer in production or under support. I believe that William R. Hewlett and David Packard would have wanted the great legacy of their company to live on through the conversion of these documents to electronic format for use as a reference for the current and future generations of electrical engineers and radio amateurs alike. I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read my letter and I hope that you will take my comments into consideration. With best regards, Sam Reaves W3OHM AND THE REPLY BELOW Hello Mr. Reaves, I believe this problem has been resolved and old HP manuals will return to the BAMA site. I really appreciate your contacting us and expressing the importance of having old manuals available. The issue is now better understood by the people who create out intellectual property policies. It has also been very educational for marketing people like myself. So again thanks for your feedback. Mike Gallagher Information Distribution Services Manager Title: Some good news Post by: W4LTM on April 29, 2005, 09:12:42 AM Very well written indeed. AMfone - Dedicated to Amplitude Modulation on the Amateur Radio Bands
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