AT&T DumVerse

Quality is OK, but the prices are 3x, sometimes 5x, sensible.

--

John Larkin Highland Technology Inc

Precision electronic instrumentation Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators Custom timing and laser controllers Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links VME analog, thermocouple, LVDT, synchro, tachometer Multichannel arbitrary waveform generators

Pasternak once told me "we never sample." Maybe they did for big customers.

Engineering purchased them, to replace some oddball connectors to see if they would replace parts that were NLA from an approved vendor. They were for some nylon jacketed microwave cabiling. They would have bought about $15,000 a year, if they had been approved for production. They couldn't get any answers from Pasternack, so they wrote their name on the wall of non approved sources.

Sometimes a good vendor has problems they won't admit to. I blacklisted Beckman pots when they refused to admit to defective seals on their washable pots. We replaced every line item with Bourns. Six+ months later we got a letter from Beckman where they admitted we were right, and wanting us to switch back to them. We didn't. It was a lot of work to approve and update over 100 item masters.

When you use around 10K RF connectors a month, price is as important as quality. Some of the Pasternack stuff I saw looked like early Chinese. Rough threads, bad plating and poor fit. The also had high insertion loss, compared to Amphenol & other well know OEMs.

All of our BOMs are based on our own 7-digit part number. Our database program has a list of approved vendors and vendor part numbers, and room for notes on each. So it just takes a minute to add or remove a vendor part, and that extends to all BOMs that use that part. We can also add a LAST RESORT note or 18WK LEAD or something like that.

Our system archives data sheets and our own extended data/notes, too.

The paperwork trail to explain the changes, and required signatures are what took the time. It's the system that was in place when I got there, and had been that way for 30 years. I found an error in some early test documents, and had to have one of the founders sign off the correction, since he had originally approved it. It was a CYA system, since they sold to governments around the world and needed documentation on product changes. Some models went through several revisions, and remained in production for over a decade. The original 1200 series had lots of 20 turn pots & switches on the front panel. The last version had LED displays and a microprocessor. They all worked with any module built for any version.

Any notes about delivery times, or other items were only available to purchasing & planning. Production didn't need to know, and it took more paper to print it on the travelers. The data was stored on a Prime minicomputer, with about 50 computer terminals, or terminal software on PCs. It also kept all other company records, including the cal lab.

This one?

Looks like a Cisco ISB7005. FCC ID MXF-S981116N Made by Gemtek in Taiwan. The inside photos on the FCC ID web pile look ok.

Incidentally, if you want to do the FCC ID search, go thee unto:

and plug MXF into the upper box, and -S981116N , including the leading hyphen, into the lower box.

They

other

The labels show it to be a Motorola VP2250 / VIP2250, made in china. It seems that the local office is so hosed that they think the units are = fine (they may be until the local office tries to send a (possibly) defective version of the upgrade) and bricks some (perhaps initially marginal) units.

?-/

Maybe not, but it can be quite stubborn.

-- Cheers, James Arthur