UPS Vice US Postal Service

[Jerry Rego]

Been sending things through UPS for years, and what you had happen sounds like a horror story boarding on the bazaar. Like you have not ever had a problem.  I know I preaching to the quire here.  Try the Post Office and then see what happens.  My regards and hope you will not have to go through that again.  If it passes the rattle test, you got it made.  They also ensure the following items for preparation of shipping:

1.  Taped securely - they like reinforced tape to be quite honest.
2.  Box (es) is in excellent shape - it does not have to be new, but able to make the journey.
3.  On very heavy items they like to see taped and tied. yep they still rely on the packing twine at,
     least in my area
4.  Use corner braces, if possible/ I am friendly with some small business and get a lot of my packing material from there.  After all they just throw it away.

5.  On sturdy items like small bi-polar devices - crumbled up news paper, will suffice with flying colors.  I use colored "zip like doggie ) bags so the receiver will find the small parts without loss.

6.    Label it correctly with a font large enough that a near blind person can read it to the receiving party. Your return address can be much - much  smaller.  They do not want to see to large of a return address, so confusion is not an issue and you getting your own package back.  Put your address and the recipient address on the inside and on top of the box.  Just in case they destroy the address.  They, (shipping concerns) suggest this.  They will open the box, and check to see if that information exists inside the box.  If it is, that is a great help to the poor shipping concern.  That is almost a requisite.(They handle millions of packages - give your package a fighting chance

7.  Us folks that use a ink jet printer for addressing - protect the printed material.  If it gets wet, the ink jet will run and they can not read it.

My wife is a professional packer and that is what they like to see.  Not only that - did you ever wait for a insurance refund check for a lost item and then the fun begins.  I just lost a Howard 460 receiver and they are a rare bird while sending it to a friend.  And that really hurts.  When is the last time you have seen a Howard 460 with a Central 20A and a 60 L1 and all that goes in between 

I hope this may be some help - if not hit the delete button.  Just trying to help.  Heathkit are getting harder to find and we can not afford to lose them thru a carrier.

Thanks for reading this and hope this will help someone out there from loosing a rare kit..  ARS KE7YG       Jerry Rego.


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