Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site almsa-1
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!almsa-1!control
From: control@almsa-1 (William Martin)
Newsgroups: net.analog
Subject: Re: Re: Electronics wearing out
Message-ID: <172@almsa-1>
Date: Wed, 19-Jun-85 11:51:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: almsa-1.172
Posted: Wed Jun 19 11:51:08 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Jun-85 00:33:33 EDT
References: <2663@decwrl.UUCP> <508@edison.UUCP>
Reply-To: control@almsa-1.ARPA (William Martin)
Distribution: net
Organization: ALMSA-1, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 28

In article <508@edison.UUCP> dca@edison.UUCP (David C. Albrecht) writes:
>
>Do WHAT?  I don't remember the original posting but I would imagine the
>RAM is used to store transient information such as station presets and
>perhaps volume settings. 
>
>David Albrecht

Unfortunately, this is not the case in the example being cited (Icom
R-71A shortwave receiver). The battery keeps a circuit (I really don't
know what flavor of device it is) alive, and without the battery that
circuit's contents are wiped out. This contains the basic operating
system and control info of the radio -- what frequency range it covers,
what parameters it can set, everything the microprocessor needs to know
to interface with the radio circuits. When that memory goes, the entire
radio dies, and must be returned (at least that part of it) for factory
reprogramming.

This makes it cheaper to make -- instead of burning a permanent memory
chip differently for the Australian version (does not tune below 2 MHz)
or the German version (does not tune above 26.1 MHz) or the US version
(tunes from 100 kHz to 29.999 MHz), you can program them "softly" to be
what you want. The cost is transferred down the line to the customer,
who must then pay vast amounts more for service 5 or 7 years later than
he would have paid in the incremental cost of having a permanently-coded
memory circuit built in the radio from the beginning! Disgusting!!!!!

Will