[BC] Nautel 2 Armstrong

[Stevan A. White]

Good Morning All,

Yes, what Ernie described about unqualified persons trying to "fix" 
their transmitter DOES occur.  I got a call from one such person.  He 
DID tell me that they (Armstrong tech support -- Sinan in has particular 
case) told him to stay out of the transmitter and call a qualified 
engineer.  When I arrived on site I got another ear full and went to 
work.  It was definitely not a problem that person could have fixed; in 
fact, I had to call and ask a couple of questions as I recall.  Had this 
fellow continued to poke around he would have been fried for sure 
because he didn't think it was necessary to turn off the transmitter to 
find and fix the problem.  That was pretty strange to me since the 
problem we were looking for was related to the HV supply.  So not only 
will Armstrong tech support give personal attention to your problem, 
they will attempt to help you even if you really aren't qualified to do 
the work.  Most importantly, if they tell you politely to stay out of 
the box, you should stay out of the box.  Whatever amount of money you 
spend on a qualified technician to fix your problem is likely far less 
than the cost of your funeral.  In that respect, Ernie, Sinan and the 
entire Armstrong crew stand head and shoulders above most of the rest.  
Just gotta say this, I remember calling Harris about a 20H3 problem and 
the kid answering the phone said he didn't know anything about the 
transmitter because they were so old.  I think we decided that they were 
out of production before he was born.  Ask anyone at Armstrong about any 
Armstrong product and you will usually get a valid answer before you 
hang up even if it requires help from someone else there in the plant.

Thanks Ernie, Sinan, and everyone at Armstrong for all you do for us who 
don't have huge budgets but need decent equipment to deliver our product!

Best Regards,
Steve White

Ernie Belanger wrote:
> Paul,
>
> This does not sound like a typical response.
>
> In fact our guys usually go above and beyond I've heard suggestions of 
> placing a call to the power company to have the line coming to the 
> site monitored for spikes and drops, calling an electrician to come 
> check out the service panel,  checking STL to see if a signal drop was 
> triggering carrier mute etc.
>
> I can't help with a 3.5 year old problem I wish I would have know 
> about it ASAP after it happened. I could have done something then for 
> you.
>
> In general however let me defend ALL manufacturers customer tech 
> lines.  As many on this list will attest, a Tech Services line is 
> there to provide support for engineers  who a) have reached the level 
> of their knowledge in troubleshooting a specific product and need some 
> guidance from the factory, b) have found or have speculation as to the 
> cause of a possible problem or have formulated solutions they wish to 
> confirm before moving forward c)have a problem and seek guidance as 
> the best place to start their trouble shooting to minimize down time 
> or d) need parts. (yes, there are other reasons but you get the point, 
> they are Engineering Support lines not consumer support lines.
>
> Sadly (and I am not saying this was your case) what we see more and 
> more of is abuse of the Tech Support lines by unqualified individuals 
> who don't have any need to be messing with equipment repair.  These 
> are the folks who call and expect "turn by turn" directions in simple 
> tasks which are in the basic skill set of trained and knowledgeable 
> engineers.
>
> These calls are difficult to field because normally the last thing the 
> caller wants to hear is that  are not qualified and they need to spend 
> money to have a qualified engineer come to the station to deal with 
> the problem. In fact I have actually had tech support callers argue 
> against calling their own contract engineer because they feel they can 
> fix it themselves. Normally we gently nudge folks into understanding 
> they are in over their heads and after a few minutes of discussion  
> they usually agree to call an engineer.
>
> (again not saying this was your situation)
> On occasion however, (and yes I actually did this after 15 minutes of 
> attempting to diplomatically get a station owner to agree to call an 
> engineer)  you just have to be more blunt.
>
> In my case the question I asked was " Are you married and have a 
> family?"... "Yes, came the reply "what does that have to do with 
> this?"... "Well to be honest with you" , I said,  "I don't want your 
> widow to collect your life insurance. So please leave the transmitter 
> building, call your engineer and have him call me"
>
> The engineer called me  about 5 minutes later.
>
> No I wasn't with Armstrong at the time.
>
> Ernie
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul B. Walker, Jr." 
> <walkerbroadcasting at gmail.com>
>
>
>> When I worked at a station who had an Armstrong that was malfunctioning,
>> their customer service after hours was left ALOT to be desired. We 
>> weren't
>> sure if the issue was with our transmitter or the building itself, 
>> but we
>> tried giving them a call to see if they might know.
>>
>> However called us back was very cold, quick, impersonal and rude. 
>> When they
>> determined it wasn't THEIR problem he didn't seem very willing to 
>> wanna help
>> us out and try and determine what the issue was or where to go to fix 
>> it.
>> (Neither one of us were the "engineer" types back then, 3 1/2 years ago)
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> The BROADCAST [BC] list is sponsored by SystemsStore On-Line Sales
> Cable-Connectors-Blocks-Racks-Wire Management-Test Gear-Tools and 
> More! www.SystemsStore.com       Tel: 407-656-3719    
> Sales at SystemsStore.com
>