I always thought the term "Rice Box" came from the fact that the early
Japanese radios came packed in boxes made of rice paper. Having "hosted"
an exchange student from Japan for a year I think I can say I'm not too
biased. He is 35 now and we are still close.
I bought a new Japanese radio from a retailer her in Michigan a few
years ago. When I got it out of the box and hooked it up it seemed to
work OK. I adjusted the squelch and put out a call on 146.52. No reply.
I had other things to do and so did not think much about it. The
following afternoon I made another call or two with the same results. A
phone call from a friend confirmed that the receiver was dead. I called
the store I had purchased the radio from and was told I could not return
it to the store but must send it to Kenwood East ( Oops ) for repair. At
this point I was a bit upset but packed it up and spent my $8.00 or so to
send it off. Three weeks later I got it back with a large scratch across
the display and still no receive. A phone call or two later and back it
went. ( Yep, another $8.00 ) A month later it came back with a new
display but still no RX. This time I took the cover off and discovered I
could make it receive by touching the crystal in the second conversion
oscillator. I wrote this all down, called Kenwood west ( Oops again )
and explained why I was sending it to them and trotted off to UPS with my
wallet in hand. Six weeks later, you guessed it, the radio is back less
receive. Never mind that I had described in detail what was going on or
that I had been told they had replaced the entire board.
I replaced the 33 pf chip capacitor in the oscillator circuit and the
receiver worked fine until I sold it and vowed that that particular
company had seen the last of my money.
I will continue to buy TEN-TEC not only because I like the radios but
because of the great service.
Sorry, but I had to get this off my chest.
K8JRO
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