A quick bit of research reveals more about radio licences in the UK:
From 1971, only the reception of television transmissions required a licence, and radio-only licences ceased to be issued.
In the 1950s, if you were lucky enough to own a car, and were even more lucky to have a radio in it, then you were required to have a separate licence!
Last month I had an encounter with Mouser too. I order a few times a year from Mouser for my projects and usually they go smoothly, and I receive my order within a day or two, and that is delivered to Canada. However on my last order, it was on put on hold for "Export Review". Mouser has an office in Canada so I called their help line. They could not get an answer from their Export Review department in the USA.
There was nothing exotic in my order, just film and electrolytic capacitors, zener diodes, rectifiers, RCA connectors, terminal blocks, and power transformer for a build, plus 30 J113 to sort for future use. Perhaps it was the quantity of J113. After two weekdays and a weekend, it was finally released for warehouse picking and shipment. There was no reason given for the Export Review.
There was nothing exotic in my order, just film and electrolytic capacitors, zener diodes, rectifiers, RCA connectors, terminal blocks, and power transformer for a build, plus 30 J113 to sort for future use. Perhaps it was the quantity of J113. After two weekdays and a weekend, it was finally released for warehouse picking and shipment. There was no reason given for the Export Review.
Wonder if all this has something to do with Russia?
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/country-guidance/russia-belarus
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/country-guidance/russia-belarus
Shipping a item to canada or usa or vise versa.
No.... it has nothing to do with mouser, russia or china or any other
same old native skimmers
china has spy satelites this isnt the 1920's
weather ballon was pure BS
No.... it has nothing to do with mouser, russia or china or any other
same old native skimmers
china has spy satelites this isnt the 1920's
weather ballon was pure BS
That's exactly what happened to me. They show a timer on their checkout page like "order within __ time and it will be shipped today." I had the same thing happen as you, and they didn't bother send me an email or anything to let me know it was delayed. I called them and explained that their statement saying it would be shipped same day constitutes a contract, and they were in breach. They acted like they were doing me a favor when they finally released it. The item that snagged the order was shown as "in stock" in the US distro center.
I'm pretty sure the email they sent me about it afterwards was written by ChatGPT, by the way. 😒 Not really winning hearts and minds with that. Bye, Mouser.
They did not send me any email and they did not flag any items when I checked my order online. Initially it gave a shipment time and I was to receive the order the next day. Then it changed and the order was shown as under Export Review. Days later it changed to warehouse picking and the order was processed and shipped. No explanation was given.
Who knows man.
Working in a pick n pack environment is a horrible place to work.
and once you have enough volume, you are at the mercy of automated software.
and you dont know if software is garbage till volume comes in.
or if lazy people just quit because...well lazy
most time, human. then human again blame someone else
if 10,000 orders goes smooth nothing said
10 orders go bad. the bleep bloops go flying.
Working in a pick n pack environment is a horrible place to work.
and once you have enough volume, you are at the mercy of automated software.
and you dont know if software is garbage till volume comes in.
or if lazy people just quit because...well lazy
most time, human. then human again blame someone else
if 10,000 orders goes smooth nothing said
10 orders go bad. the bleep bloops go flying.
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I've noticed, the last couple of times I was searching, that Mouser's website seemed to be perceptibly slower than usual. The first time I thought it was later in the evening so perhaps they were doing some system work, but it has occured several other times.
On my last order from them, a part I ordered was duplicated, while another was missed. The duplicated item showed the missing items label. I communicated with the Canadian 'office' and had to send photos of the the two packages, and after a couple of days they told me to keep the duplicated parts, credited me for the missing parts, but never volunteered to reship the missing parts.
That's the first time I've had an issue, but one has to wonder if they are having issues.
On my last order from them, a part I ordered was duplicated, while another was missed. The duplicated item showed the missing items label. I communicated with the Canadian 'office' and had to send photos of the the two packages, and after a couple of days they told me to keep the duplicated parts, credited me for the missing parts, but never volunteered to reship the missing parts.
That's the first time I've had an issue, but one has to wonder if they are having issues.
Oh, wow. That's 'special'. Did you call them on it? It seems unreasonable that you should have to pay for their screwup.
Mouser has gotten worse in the past 1-2 years. My issue is mostly with the packaging. They used to use standard Mouser-branded cardboard boxes. They were great. Now they use these glued together boxes that often break open in transit and are impossible to break down for recycling. I recently ordered 500 mounting brackets. They put 500 brackets into a ziplock bag but didn't bother closing the bag so exactly zero (0) were left in the bag by the time the box arrived. On top, the box had broken open in transit, so out of the 500 brackets I ordered I received 360. They did ship the remainder, though. I've had other near misses where the only thing that kept the parts in the box was a piece of tape holding the bag with the parts to the bottom of the box.
Digikey has always re-shipped missing parts even if it was one 10-cent capacitor.
Tom
That sounds like some of the PE shipments ive had over the years…. One was a whole box full (about 40 pounds worth) of cabinet hardware that arrived wrapped in half a mile of cellophane tape, and almost nothing in its original ziplocks. Every single piece was there, but all of it just loose on the box (what was left of it). In one case they had to ship out TWO replacements for large compression drivers that never made it (according to the carriers logs, the boxes were destroyed). They made good on it at a cost to them well over a grand but if they hadnt been so skimpy with the PACKAGING it never would have happened.
I’ve had large Hammond tube output trafos come in from Mouser and Digikey on separate occasions and Digikey does a way better job packing so the internal boxes don’t get destroyed. The trafos have always been ok, but I can’t say the same for the boxes.
Im still waiting on a shipment of 125 200V/100-ish amp mosfets that have been on backorder for about a year and a half. That entire class of parts seems to have been scooped up by the automotive industry for the electric drives (and chargers too, probably). They keep sending status updates every month, and every month the expected date changes. Anything from some time this June to somewhere out in 2025. The latest “expected ship date” is supposedly this June. We‘ll see what they say next month.
I’ve had large Hammond tube output trafos come in from Mouser and Digikey on separate occasions and Digikey does a way better job packing so the internal boxes don’t get destroyed. The trafos have always been ok, but I can’t say the same for the boxes.
Im still waiting on a shipment of 125 200V/100-ish amp mosfets that have been on backorder for about a year and a half. That entire class of parts seems to have been scooped up by the automotive industry for the electric drives (and chargers too, probably). They keep sending status updates every month, and every month the expected date changes. Anything from some time this June to somewhere out in 2025. The latest “expected ship date” is supposedly this June. We‘ll see what they say next month.
While ANY distributer can be blamed for shipping and supply issues, one thing to consider is that venders, along with packing/parts pulling employees are the most important part of the game.
Sure, it's up to the distributor to maintain good procedures and reputations, but the occasional sloppy/careless shipping issues could be a result of a 'new' employee hire.
Some humans just don't have the expertise or common sense to pack things properly, taking into account of potential rough handling during transit.
And yes, you sometimes get a miserable/tired/sloppy delivery driver tossing boxes around.
A husband hung over, or in a heated divorce, or a new hire that doesn't care, just working for a paycheck.....
As for distributors not having something in stock, I'd say that the manufacturer has geared up for other parts runs, and the distributor doesn't have a say in that.
I've worked in a factory when I was fresh out of high school, and that's a common manufacturer procedure.
Sure, it's up to the distributor to maintain good procedures and reputations, but the occasional sloppy/careless shipping issues could be a result of a 'new' employee hire.
Some humans just don't have the expertise or common sense to pack things properly, taking into account of potential rough handling during transit.
And yes, you sometimes get a miserable/tired/sloppy delivery driver tossing boxes around.
A husband hung over, or in a heated divorce, or a new hire that doesn't care, just working for a paycheck.....
As for distributors not having something in stock, I'd say that the manufacturer has geared up for other parts runs, and the distributor doesn't have a say in that.
I've worked in a factory when I was fresh out of high school, and that's a common manufacturer procedure.
I have a design for a batch of very large class H amps - the third and hopefully final generation. It was designed with mosfet speaker relays, and stock for every suitable mosfet was pretty much wiped out worldwide. I just wish I’d ordered them a year before I did. At THAT time you could get them from anywhere. I finally put in the order when I saw how bad the entire situation had become and “I’ll get them when I get them”. It’s not really a hurry, the amps aren’t going to get done till my new facility is finished construction and that may be two years. Hell, I may have my new facility built and finished before the parts get here. I still havent sent the PCBs out for fab anyway, thinking there may still be construction-related design tweaks. But it will still need an array of 8 TO-220’s per board - bigger packages won’t fit the available Z-height and SMDs take up too much board space. It’s gotta be form/fit/function or a total assembly redesign. Damn the supply chain.
I'm not sure how much of that is done by employees these days. I think Mouser still has people who cut tape and such. At least the tape of SMD parts I received from them is often cut at odd angles and sometimes I get a few extra parts. Tape from Digikey is always cut perfectly between parts and if I order 10 I receive 10. I get the sense they're handled by robots.
Only mishap I've had with Digikey in that regard was when I ordered 250 or 500 of a resistor and received 500 parts on 15 pieces of cut tape in various lengths. My assembly guys would have had a cow if I gave them that. I complained to Digikey, they took the parts back and sent out one un-cut piece of tape with the correct number of parts. Apparently you have to specify "UN-CUT TAPE" in the notes field to avoid this.
Tom
With the run-in and gouging on some ICs that is taking place, I appreciate their efforts.
My assembly house doesn't like DigiReel/MouseReel. From what I understand the reels are sometimes spliced from multiple pieces of tape and the adhesive from the splice gums up the pick-n-place machine. Even if the tape with the parts is continuous, there's a leader that gets spliced on there that mucks things up. They'd much rather have either factory reels (full or partial) or cut tape.
Tom
I was listed as a reseller by mouser a year ago. I was polite with their customer service and with several tries they corrected the issue and reclassified me as a hobby enthusiast. My best guess is this was triggered from ordering 50+ MOSFETs to make matched pairs.
I’ve never gotten flagged even though I typically order parts in lots of 100. Starting a few years ago I stocked up lifetime supplies of stuff I was regularly using - like TO-92’s and TO-126’s, and values of resistors and caps and that were common to most of my builds and experiments. With the thru hole stuff going away I thought it prudent. Transistor types Ive used for decades either going away without warning, or going EOL with just enough warning to get some before they were gone. DIP ICs that I use regularly - even the non audio stuff.
I thought this was supposed to be DIY audio.
I know, I guess some of you have businesses to run too, but shipping the boards for your personal DIY projects to an assembly house is cheating. Besides, it costs money.