Funniest one....

[Chris Trask]

On Sat, 14 Mar 1998, Ed Kotkiewicz wrote:

> I ever saw....
>
> The wife worked at Heath in the Wired Instruments Lab back in the 70's.
>
.
.
.
>
> Whoever built it, took things like all the components with long leads,
> formed the leads over and hooked the component to what ever it needed
> to be hooked to.  Each component stood 1 1/2" tall, away from the
> chassis!!!
>

        I was told of an episode where a kit was returned to the factory
because it did not work.  When the technicians opened it up, they quickly
discovered that some people can take the instructions much too literally.
Somewhere, the instructions had called out for spaghetti tubing.  Not
finding any in the kit, the owner went to the kitchen and.........

        Needless to say, everyone had a good laugh.  They sent another
(built and tested) kit to the owner, and kept his as a means of showing
an example of what to avoid.

        I also use Heathkit manuals as an example of how to properly
write assembly and test manuals.  Nobody could write them better.

        Another good example of good manual writing is the series of
owner's manuals written for Volkswagens by John Muir Publications.
They are thorough, well-illustrated, and entertaining.  Check out
the assembly blow-up for a Dagwood sandwich in the Rabbit manual.
And the one entitled "Exploded Rabbit."  Never take anything too
seriously.


     ,----------------------.       Circuit Design for the
    /    What's all this     \            RF Impaired
   / extinct stuff, anyhow?  /
   \  _______,--------------'        Chris Trask / N7ZWY
  _ |/                               Principal Engineer
 oo\                                 ATG Design Services
(__)\       _                          P.O. Box 25240
  \  \    .'  `.                  Tempe, Arizona 85285-5240
   \  \  /      \
    \  '"        \                     Technical Editor,
     .       (  ) \                      QRP Quarterly
      '-| )__| :.  \                     QRP ARCI 9464
        | |  | | \  '.
       c__; c__;  '-..'>.__      Email:  ctrask at primenet.com
                               http://www.primenet.com/~ctrask

                    Graphics by Loek Frederiks

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