It's been an interesting ride for my transmissions. I had sent a parcel to our resident genius, Daryl Turner, with three ETO transmissions in late January. With the current virus plague shipments are slow, parcels and mail normally go on commercial flights in cargo on a space available protocol and with so few flights, mail movement is glacial. So here's me watching this parcel daily, parcel sits in Moskau for couple weeks, then moves to Germany (Russia Post apparently has a deal with German Post of the moment). Parcel went DHL to New York and there it sat. For days. Parcel finally began to move and Thursday I checked again shortly after noon US time. US Post said the parcel was being returned to sender, 'can not deliver as addressed', and that's when your nuclear flash detector went off. Weird thing is parcel was delivered to Daryl early Friday as if nothing untoward was amiss. Go figure, and at least I'm off my heart defibrillator for the time being. My fear was that little nest of thieves at Post up in northern NJ had gotten this shipment, but now I've got some in stock at ETO.

Four more left for Daryl today and another four will leave Wednesday next for him. Hopefully shipments will become a tad more rapid and timely in the near future. As for the SitRep here, all is completely normal. We are on mask regime city wide but all shops, stores, offices private and government, factories, everything is working as normal. Vaccines are readily available but I'm too old to get the current Sputnik, I'll get the next version specifically made for us 'old' folks, should be late May.

I learned the hard way that you can't trust tracking info. I once ordered an item from Arizona to be delivered to me here in Detroit. I watched as tracking said it went from Arizona to Utah to Indiana to Michigan, and then it appeared to stop moving. I finally called my local P.O. and the woman there found that the package was actually STILL IN ARIZONA. Every post I had seen at the usps tracking site was a lie. The woman told me those are called "system generated updates", based on where the package was SUPPOSED to be at any given time. So now I know that what you see at the tracking site may, OR MAY NOT be true. About a week later the package arrived, but the tracking info never changed to reflect a true state of affairs. So now I know that the only way to find out what's really going on is to get your local PO to track the item, as their system only includes ACTUAL SCANS, nothing generated by the system.

I have found that our local Post is pretty accurate as is German Post. I had no idea that Moskau and Berlin have a Post agreement to the point that the parcel went from Moskau to Germany and was taken by DHL from there to NYC. Doubly odd in that there was no extra charge to me. The big delay was after the parcel hit the facility in NJ, that's where it stayed for quite some days. Was it there all that time? I don't know. On the other hand, even our local Post can screw up, for instance I have a herd of bearings in transit, delivery scheduled for 25 April. Hmmm. Sunday delivery? Not in this village, they roll up the sidewalks at 20:00 Saturday and roll 'em back out 07:30 Monday..

The delay in NJ was most likely customs, and they're one of those mystical organizations that no one really knows anything about their inner workings. Kind of like that little guy behind the curtain in the Emerald City. Seriously, though, I get a lot of stuff from outside the US and it seems like there are certain routes that take less time in customs. Most of the stuff I get that comes into the US on the east coast usually moves right along, but if it comes into the US from the west coast it sometimes goes from the coast through Chicago, and that can take lifetimes (or so it seems). And no matter how long they hold it, there really isn't anything I can do about it. Like trying to fight City Hall, good luck with that one!! And as for Sunday delivery, that's rare anywhere, but lately I've gotten stuff on Sunday, especially anything bought on amazon. The first time I saw the usps mail carrier out on a Sunday I had to check the phone to make sure it really was Sunday. For a minute there I thought I lost a day, I was so surprised. Not complaining, just surprised.

Don't get me started on USPS, that Rube Goldberg device of a mail delivery organization is nightmare fuel.

NJ Customs is always a mess, Chicago isn't much better, and the damn black hole of the Atlanta regional facility swallowed a Tamiya 2.4G TX set for so long I was issued a paypal/ebay refund and bought another, only to have the missing one magically show up 2 months later in perfect shape with no damage whatsoever to the label, so free transmitter set but higher blood pressure.

FedEx, UPS and DHL have all been mostly good other than when the FedEx ground hub in Atlanta had 200 trailer backup during the holidays and everything was about 4 days late.

No more EMS from Japan for a while, anything you buy better say FedEx or you are not getting it for 3 months as it takes a leisure cruise across the Pacific on an Evergreen liner....

Well, the good thing about US Post is they give us a reason to drink......often.

Stuff from China by epacket doesn't seem to be delayed too badly. But they usually only use those for very small items.

My near heart attack moment with USPS came last year, actually it began in November of 2019 when I ordered the very last set of
1/6 Panzer III Ostketten from the late Martin Schneider via his brother Stefan. I watched as the package sllllloooowwwwllllyyy made its way to the states then all updates to the package's status disappeared and when I inquired into the tracking number online I only what get an error that said the tracking number had expired (!). Shortly after the tracking number reappeared but at a different place somewhere before customs. It stayed that way for over a month and at that point I filed a missing package inquiry. A month later
( 3 1/2 months total) a package shows up at my doorstep with a million yards of USPS "Recovered mail piece" tape and stickers on it. When I opened this box within was a plastic bag and within the plastic bag was what I can only guess was the original package sopping wet and nearly paper pulp with pieces of label mixed in. There was also a "We apologize for any inconvenience"
printed note inside....

Happily my tracks were there including the spare links.... only 3 1/2+ months late and probably as many months shorter life on my part...

Jerry

Jerry, I know how you felt! Info from Post is nonexistent in most cases and reliable information beyond anything computer generated is as reliable as the word of a lady of questionable virtue on a Saturday night at the local bar who is holding your wallet as you go to the Porcelain Goddess Room. One can laugh now, but during the turmoil and tussle it's anything but a laughable matter.

It sounds like you have way, way too much experience with questionable women. I'm impressed.

USPS sucks, I won’t send anything vital through it I use fedex ground.
it used to be if you got a tracking number you were safe but now usps has lost its mind with stuff taking trips back and forth across the country a couple times for a few weeks just to get something from San Diego to Phoenix or to San Diego from the east coast, not just once but several times.

I lost an IBU when I had to return a faulty one to the US distributor for a warranty exchange and the tracking showed it never left my post office. It was poof gone. Never scanned past ticket creation, That hurt cause I ate it.

Other than bashing Postal workers; the ETO trannys are awesome. I was driving my Katy Cat Ez8 yesterday with the T66 tracks. I used to have tracking issues with the tank as it stressed the trannys and pulled hard on the sprocket. Tracks came off, jammed etc. I eventually broke the sprocket shaft off the tranny in a battle. See photos from San Deigo battles. And I think it was posted by DAK last year.
Yesterday with the ETO tranny I was driving in my DTC in deep sand that will put the toughest tank through the paces and not one issue with the tracks,
. This tank is rock solid with the ETO tranny. Super strong, perfect alignment just rock solid.
I now have a few of them.
My only complaint is they are really slow, sorry Bob, I know that’s the stock design.
But, Bob is so awesome, I had asked for a much faster Sherman tranny for my Chile M50/60HV Sherman. He did a lot of tests and worked up one for me that he hoped I would be happy with. I have to say I am thrilled with it. It is perfect for the scale speed the turbo diesel Chile Sherman was rated at. My future purchase will be the same request for my M51 when i can afford it, I’m a bit tapped out right now.
Yeah, they are not cheap, but quality is worth what you pay for.

If it's the last Transmissions you ever have to buy for that tank I would say they're worth the extra money.

Rich, you are going to make me blush with your complements, which are very much appreciated by the by.
I have worked very hard over the years to make installation of my transmissions as simple as possible, my goal, which was achieved, was to require no modifications to the tank lower hull beyond two extra holes in the floor for the trans mounts, the new holes keying off two existing holes and the instructions for each unit spell out in detail a simple and positive way to locate them. Panther is the only exception, there is zero extra room in the nose, but the mod to the hull lower front plate is very simple and just a mod of an existing pair of slots. Works well, too, with images in the instructions showing how and where, basically 10 minutes if that. I am working on a way to eliminate even that little modification.
The only other 'problem' was with the Tamiya Tiger E, aka Tiger 1. My units required one simple modification to fit that beast and all my main frames include that mod, in essence one main frame fits all. The good thing about my transmissions is you purchase them once and your grandchildren will inherit them and parts and service will still be available as long as Daryl, VCO and/or me are alive. For those who don't know, VCO is a generation younger than me and knows the transmissions like the back of her hand, ergo you are good for another 30 years or so. She did all the blueprints for them and was instrumental in making parts universal and bullet proof, being the trained designer engineer she is.

They will be the last ones you will ever need. I do recommend you have extra track links though, depending on where and how you drive. If you get a stone caught in the tracks the only damage may be a broken link, my transmissions will not be affected in the least. They have survived 10 years in this rock garden we call home and have often been driven by young students at Battery Museum, albeit under one on one adult supervision. Still and all, children are children and things happen...but not to my units.