SERVICE & REPAIR POLICY

While we do not have a regular standard procedure to service or repair kits as this has not proved necessary, if you cannot resolve problems and have assembled your kit with reasonably decent workmanship, please contact us. If you lack basic test equipment or if you feel it is necessary, we may recommend that you arrange to send it to us for examination subject to following conditions:

a) Prior arrangements have been made with us.
b) Kit is completely assembled and unmodified, no "embellishments".
c) ATV Transmitters must have stock amateur band crystals installed.
d) Circuit board only, no cases or user supplied connectors.
e) Decent, reasonable workmanship, no acid or paste fluxes used.
f) Payment for shipping and handling enclosed.
g) E mail address, Phone or fax # where you can be reached if needed.

If these conditions are met we should have no problems in getting your kit working as it should.

You will be advised if other charges must be made before repairing. However this is not likely as we really do not wish to get into situations where the repair or service is going to cost more than a third of the cost of the kit. This means around $20 to $40 or so including parts & shipping. If you have done a reasonable job, this will not happen. Our policy is to return the kit and your uncashed check for repair charges if an excessive amount of rework is required. Very poor workmanship or failure to complete the kit would be the reason for this. We cannot afford to spend much more than an hour on any kit as overhead does not permit this. So please understand that our object is to save us time and you money. Therefore kits received that are customized, altered, or that are in cases cannot be accepted. Please contact us before sending in a kit so that we know to expect it and also give you an estimate and turnaround time, and avoid confusion and unnecessary delays. We use test setups specific for PC boards alone and cannot take the time to disassemble individual cabinets and cases not of our own manufacture. We cannot spend time doing disassembly of custom work. Correct workmanlike assembly is a must and it can take many hours to tear apart and reassemble a circuit board, as well as the cost of replacement parts. We simply cannot do this for the $20 to $40 we may ask. You can do this work yourself and we will be glad to check the kit out again if you still have problems. If you wish, we can get an independent electronic technician to do this for you, but at todays labor rates ($60/hr) this can be expensive. To make service and repair arrangements, please Email to support@northcountryradio.com (preferred way as we may have some further information we can Email you) or call 518-854-9280.

PARTS AVAILABILITY

If you need replacement parts contact us and we can arrange to supply what you need in case they cannot be obtained thru your suppliers. Please be specific (2N3563, not "Q3"). It has been our experience that devices sold for TV service or general use may not always work properly in some of our kits, especially in certain critical RF circuitry. Consult us before using "generics" so to avoid circuit problems or poor performance. In some kits exact replacements are a necessity and may be hard to come by from distributors shelves. We stock all parts for all kits we have ever offered, including our first kits in 1986. We are not parts distributors and while we will sell a limited number of parts to anyone, certain parts in short supply such as ASICs must be reserved for our customers that have purchased kits from us in the past. Many times some really useful parts excellent for hobby and experimental projects are discontinued for reasons other than technical obsolescence, such as economics, changing market demands or corporate buyouts. This seems especially true of ASICs and some RF transistors. We would like to be always able to supply those parts for our kits even if the parts are discontinued by the manufacturers, and no longer available through distributors, so please understand our policy. Also note that we may ask for a minimum order.

SOFTWARE AND FIRMWARE UPDATES

Kits employing microprocessors may at times have improvements made in the operating software. We reserve the right to improve our kits and are not responsible for incorporating these changes in previously sold kits. An updated microprocessor/microcontroller may be obtained from us by sending in your existing chip for either exchange or reprogramming, for a nominal fee. Source code is generally proprietary and is not available.

Rev E

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January 16, 2004