June 23,Y2K 11:00 AM PDT
Recieved my SGC in time for field day. 
I tested it and it works OK.
The people at SGC were responsive to my emails and we had good phone.
They replaced the radio.
the new Serial # is 79654173
 
 

June 15, Y2K 1:00 PM PDT
Shipped the radio to SGC.
Went on the Internet last to UPS and scheduled a pickup (Amazing!)
The people at SGC are very nice and tell me they will try to get it back by FIELD DAY, Y2K.
that would be Fantastic! This will be my 1st Field day and I'd sure love to go Portable QRP.
"Do the QRP with your SGC. 
      America is Asking you to Call."
                Sung to the tune of "See the USA, in your Chevrolet"
 
 

June 14 Y2K 4:00PM PST 
SGC has responded to me and I am returning the unit for repair. 
They have assured me that this was NOT a usual situation and I'm going to believe them.
Some one once said that a Mistake is an Error that isn't corrected.
I plan to look at this as an error and soon will be the happy owner of a WORKING SGC-2020 radio
I'll update as soon as I recieve the Radio

Below is the reason for this page.
the story starts out bad but hopefully, It'll have a happy ending.

I was aware that the delay was because of a leaking roof at their shop and I was happy to get it on my way out of town.

When I got to my first destination, I filled it with batteries hooked it up to an outbacker antenna and fired it up.

I learned how to use the controls but found I could only get one strong signal, a tone somewhere in the 20 meter band. I figured it was because I was using the antenna inside of a motel room. Although I had no plans to transmit at the time, it turns out it's a good thing I didn't. 

The next day we continued the trip and I mounted the outbacker on top of the vehicle and took off. The previous evening, I had put connectors on the end of the supplied power cord, so I could use the cigarette lighter adapter in the truck. I hooked up the power and nothing happened, the unit wouldn't power up.

I tried power from the battery case and it worked. I tested the cord from the lighter and found out I had 13+ volts. I tried it again and it wouldn't power the radio.  I put the battery pack back on and decided to check out the cord later.

For the next half hour or so I scanned the bands and got nothing but hiss.
This puzzled me because I was at 5200 feet in Arizona and I thought I should hear something.

I put the radio away until the next day when I was at a location I had been before, A house in Apache Junction where I had had a QSO with PA6500A in Brazil using my outbacker and an Atlas 210x.

I hooked everything up properly and got nothing but hiss.
I noticed the noise level never changed as I changed bands, and remember that happened to me once before, when I didn't hook the antenna up to the my Atlas radio.
I took my ohmmeter out and checked the antenna pass through the battery compartment, and found the center line was an open circuit. I dismantled it and discovered the center wire was not, and had never been hooked up. See below:
 

There was solder in the connector but none on the wire which is a solid core coax. Since it is bent rather drastically after being hooked up, I recommend a braided center conductor and a little thicker coax altogether. It was too long so it turned into a slinky when the case was closed. Also there was a lot of stray braid near the hot connector.
I noticed after I removed the connector, there was a cut out in the slot where the wire goes through. If the person who had soldered this had faced the slot toward him or her,  they would have seen the wire didn't go in. This could happen to anyone, but the fact it was not tested bothers me.

Next I tested the power cord that didn't work, found out it still had power and discovered that you had wired the power cord incorrectly where you inserted it into the 3 hole connector. The ground wire was on the wrong side. What is the 3rd connection for? Fortunately the RED and BLACK weren't reversed. See Below.

The Radio repaired, I listened to stations for a couple of hours and when asked why I didn't transmit, I said I was afraid the Radio would melt.

Now the good news.
I put the Portapack in a pack with a dipole and a tuner and went to the top of Falcon Canyon in northern Arizona, threw the wires up and tried my first wilderness QRP. I found that if I tried to tune it at 5 watts with CW , the Radio would make a raspy death rattle and shut down when I approached perfect SWR. It seemed the Radio wanted a little coming back at it. I partly solved the problem by tuning at 1 watt.  Anyway I had a voice QSO with Art Varney, WA6OZQ,  Downey, California. We were both pretty impressed at my location and my supposed output power of only 5 watts ("accurate calibration not supported" I know, I know). 

Now back to the bad news. 
I get back to Los Angeles, Hook the Radio up to a power supply, Turn it on and now all I get is a quiet hissing noise, no display at all, no reaction from any of the controls and I cannot even use the power switch to power off this radio (Piece of Junk) I have to unplug it. 
About two months ago I paid over $1200 for this fun. I've now had the Radio (Piece of Junk) for less than two weeks, spent 3 hours fixing the Piece Of Junk (radio) had one QSO and now this Piece of Junk  (SGC-2020 Portapack Ser#79658656) is a true BoatAnchor.

You know, I'm new to the hobby having been a HAM only since Pearl Harbor Day, 1999, and I prefer to buy American, but you're giving me the impression that you're taking advantage of my good faith and my good attitude.
You should be ashamed of yourselves taking advantage of a not so YL like that.

Well, SGC, your thoughts?
What do you propose to do about it? I repaired this radio while it was under warranty. Will you pay me to fix it?
You should.
Sharyl
W3VET

P.S. more QC problems -  the fit of the cover was very bad. It appears someone tried to correct it with a ball peen hammer. I repaired it with a more gentle method by removing it and bending it with Vise Grips. See Below:

BTW I didn't notice any Chirp on CW  for the few minutes I had it.