I haven't looked at any TVs in retail stores, but I've certainly looked
at a lot of them advertised on the web. If you look at some of the
online retailers you will see Class A and Class B devices advertised
together. There is no mention anywhere that the Class A devices are not
for home use. I'm sure they will sell to anyone. The particularly
disturbing thing is that the cheaper Plasma TVs tend to be Class A.
What are home buyers going to buy? The cheaper ones, right. If you
look at the 50" Plasma TVs I think you will find that probably at least
half of the 50" models are Class A. A typical consumer wouldn't know
(or care) since there is no mention anywhere that it is intended for
commercial/industrial use only. In fact, the only way to find out that
some of them are Class A is by downloading the User Manual and looking
at the Specs. Oftentimes, the condensed specs on the website don't
mention FCC type approval at all.
I just went to www.bestbuyplasma.com. I clicked on the first 50" Plasma
HDTV that I found. It happened to be the Panasonic model TH-50PHD3.
Nothing in the add tells you about FCC type acceptance, but if you
download the manual you find that it is a Class A device. Here's the
link to the manual:
http://www.bestbuyplasma.com/Plasma/pdfs/TH50PHD6UY.pdf
If you read the manual it tells you that this equipment is intended for
commercial use. It also says that use in a residential area is likely
to cause harmful interference and that if it causes interference then
the user will be required to correct the interference at their own
espense. It's nice that the manual says this, BUT I'll bet the
salesperson doesn't tell you this when you buy it. In fact, I'll bet
they'll even come to your home and install it.
This is just one example. I've found that at least half of the 50"
models are class A, esp. the cheaper models.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Brown [mailto:jimbrown.enteract@rcn.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 9:59 PM
To: N6KJ
Subject: Re: [RFI] Plasma TVs
On Tue, 09 Mar 2004 16:53:51 -0800 (PST), N6KJ wrote:
>Only since
>starting to research plasma have I found such a large number of Class A
>devices being marketed to home consumers.
If this is true, it sounds like someone should involve Riley.
Jim Brown K9YC
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