This just reported by NARC’s unofficial globe-trotter, Rex, K1HI, while recently in Japan on business. The Amateur Radio community was shocked today to learn of the death of the chief quality control engineer for the ICOM 775 DSP production line. Tokyo police answered a call from an anxious neighbor who had not seen engineer Aki “Nomi” Faulta in a week. When police forced open the door to his apartment, they were treated to the ghastly sight of Nomi’s body on the floor with a ceremonial Samurai sword sticking out of his chest. Attached was a note that, loosely translated, read, “I said the lousy rigs were not my fault!”
Investigators believe his death was linked to the recently failed line of ICOM amateur radio transceivers. The death has not been ruled a suicide, however, since authorities are actively pursuing leads to the whereabouts of ICOM’s chief knob design engineer, Inaccura “Kimchee” Myopi who disappeared about the time of Nomi’s death. ICOM officials declined to comment on the possibility of Nomi’s death and Myopi’s disappearance being related to a spate of seized tuning knobs on the ICOM 775 DSP transceiver as experienced by several NARC members.
A search of Myopi’s apartment turned up a well-worn document that appears to be the specification for the control knob for the ICOM 775 DSP equipment. Authorities were puzzled by heavily edited sections of the document that described performance of the main tuning knob. The particular passage in question reads: “The knob shall survive continuous, rapid turning for no less than 4.8 hours; 4.8 hours shall be the time it shall survive; not 4.7, nor 4.9, but 4.8 hours the time it shall be...”
Follow-up discussions with ICOM officials disclosed that the specification was at the center of a lawsuit with the subcontractor who prepared it, M. Python & Associates. The company alleges that M. Python & Associates mistakenly entered 4.8 hours instead of 48 hours for the knob spinning performance. Furthermore, company officials charge that the 600-page specification makes no reference to required severe testing for the knob: amateur radio contesters.
Stay tuned to the NARC BBS for more news as authorities search for Kimchee.