https://www.ebay.com/itm/CR-282-Com...998712?hash=item1c74489778:g:m0QAAOSwX9FZHrr7 Long story short, these are garbage. 3 out of 4 could not be netted, and stability was nowhere near the super-drifty 706MKIIG stock crystal at 7ppm. Keep your original crystal. These are trash. The 4th crystal I had 'a guy' do it. Likely he wasn't qualified so he didn't mention it could not be done. Also not helping, a guy on the 5 star comments writes (in a different listing, same seller, same items): https://www.ebay.com/itm/CR-282-Com...6?hash=item2807351906:g:GXAAAOSweW5VcRqs#rwid "Great TCXO for Icom radios, half priced, excellent quality. Identical pinout. Recommended." Um, this is a TCXO? No it IS NOT. A TCXO has a resistive heating element. This is just a similar crystal to the stock one, except it is far worse in ppm than 0.5ppm as the seller claims (worse than 7 which is your stock crystal), and it cannot be 'netted' because it drifts so wildly. It CANNOT be calibrated. These are not only worse than stock, they are complete trash. About the only thing you can say for it is that the pinout IS the same. My guess, it is either 1) a cheap OEM batch of crystals that do not meet specs (rejects) that the guy is selling as good working 0.5ppm crystals (which they are not as tested), 2) they are possibly counterfeit. I had several people asking me earlier about 'Radio Shack TCXOs' with much curiosity. $45 seems like a steal. ICOM wants like $160. The ICOM ones are REAL TCXOs. These only fit the pins of it, they are NOT equivalent items. DO NOT BUY THESE. Will update the progress on returning them, but not hopeful, as we had them several months before sending the rigs off to be properly aligned/calibrated/etc. So not expecting much but a too bad. Its lousy that a seller pulls this 'don't give me a negative at all' since it skews ratings to all 5 stars when many are unhappy. There may be tons of sales, and tons of returns too.
Not disputing anything about why you wrote this, just a minor correction. A TCXO is a Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator, what you described is a OCXO, or Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator. A TCXO doesn't heat the crystal, it measures the temperature and applies compensation over a temperature range. Sorry to hear you're having difficulties!
So did you give him negative feedback? No negatives on his feedback seen. Says 100% including TXCOs for rigs.
I didn't buy them, my dad did. 3 radios were his and 1 were mine. And because we didn't install them until a few months later, we could not leave feedback at all.
Umm ... doesn't anybody yet realize that buying from Hong Kong or anywhere in China is a crap shoot at this point? There are some good products, most are crap. China has no regulations regarding consumer fraud or protections of any kind for buyers, so there are tons of bad products from over there. This is what happens when there are no governmental regulations, this is why regulation exists and are good things. Free unchecked markets with no oversight are never good for consumers. If you buy from China directly, without any intervening company in your home country to perform QC you are not guaranteed anything and caveat emptor is the order of the day. Without exception. Certainly by this point in time we are all aware of the risks of buying from Chinese sellers. Chinese governmental lack of concern of individual rights and protections makes purchasing from this nation risky, especially for those of us from nations that normally look out for consumers by regulating industries dying to make a quick cheap buck. Yeah ... that's changing here too ... that's what deregulation really means ... but at least for now ... If you buy from anywhere, at least make sure the source is located in your own country. This way you have half-a-chance of having some protections from consumer fraud and false claims ... assuming you don't live in a country like China. I would suggest you also check out ANY purchase you make as soon as you receive it. This way if you get no satisfaction from the seller you can do a charge-back on your debit/credit card and get a refund. Otherwise you have only yourself to blame. With charge-backs you typically have 180 days from the date of purchase to make a claim and get a refund. If a person fails to perform due diligence on their purchase than blaming someone else, even the scammer, is just shirking ones own personal responsibility.
^^ Exactly ^^ I got ripped off from a Chinese seller of a rubidium frequency standard, it went out of lock in two hours. Sent it back and he never picked up the package. Chinese postal service sent it back to me after three months. He had great reviews, a guarantee, bla, bla. They are professional thieves.
Great points, all. I wish we had them installed as soon as we got them. We would have known right then. Neither one of us had the test equipment to know. Won't make this mistake again, and dad opted for a genuine ICOM high-stability crystal this time, which works great, and was from a legitimate US radio business, not some guy overseas.
