BCM magazine errors AGAIN!

[Jerry Liebler]

 Well, on page 23 of the April 2008 issue of Bus Conversions Magazine is the following:  "Previous articles illustrated that 50 amps is delivered on two hot wires, each of which is 120 VAC referred to as a neutral wire.  The hot wires are also out of phase, so that between the hot legs there is 240 VAC available.  Each hot leg is good for 25 amps ... 50 amps total."    The last statement is absolutely WRONG!!!  The fact is each leg is good for 50 amps.  A total of 100 amps of 120VAC loads can exist on a 50 amp shore connection.  If some one were to wire a 50 amp service with wire for 25 amps it would be a serious fire hazard.  Please, someone educate author David Smead.   Also a correction should be published in the magazine.
Regards
Jerry 4107 1120   

[JackConrad]

Jerry,
   
I removed the duplicate message that you posted.  I don't think anyone at BCM proof reads the articles for accuarcy of facts, but relies on the authors to make sure their facts are correct.  Jack

[gmbusguy1]

at least you folks get your Magazine. I have never recieved March and have left messages and emailed with no response

Chris
231 846 0880

[Chaz]

Thanx for catching that Jerry. As you know, I am not "the slickest slide on the playground" when it comes to stuff like this and I'm sure there are others like me. It's good to know there are those keeping an eye out on things some of us are less knowledgeable of.

   Chaz

[bobofthenorth]

I really hope you aren't right Jack but the number of times things like this happen makes me think you may be.  Some time ago now I wrote a correction for an air brake article that they ran which was dead wrong.  To MAK's credit they ran my correction immediately but it shouldn't be up to the readers to proof any magazine for accuracy.  If the goal of BCM is entertainment then its doing a really poor job of that. 

[berrybus]

hay hay hay . i have not recived my bcm  sense december . they wont answer us thanks jim. whats up with this?

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Our Own Richard Bower [Driving Miss Lazy]

has offered to proof read for the magazine but, I'm not sure if he has ever heard back from them.

Nick-

[makemineatwostroke]

Mike and Dennis have had plenty of time to proof read the magazine I just started taking it again but it has the same articles from the past I compared mine to a old one and it had the same mistake  FWIW

[Stan]

I was sent a complimentary copy of the first issue and I phoned Mile and told him the feature article had technical errors in it. His response was to the effect that if I thought I could do better, I should submit articles. He completely missed the point that people buy a technical magazine to get correct information.

[lostagain]

I paid for the online version a couple month ago. Haven't seen a thing yet.

[DrivingMissLazy]

The same error has been published twice in the last few issues. I advised them but no correction has been made. Any proofreading errors can maybe be overlooked, but this is a gross technical error that I do not think should be overlooked.

Richard

[Len Silva]

The original article is probably ten years old and I believe has been corrected in the past.  David Smead is a pretty highly regarded name in boating circles and is associated with Ample Power  http://www.amplepower.com/
He has written lots of technical articles, primarily on 12 volts, batteries, charging systems etc.

BCM has a habit of reusing old articles without checking for updates, not the first time I have seen this happen.

Len

[Songman]

I just let me subscription lapse. I took the magazine for a year and every magazine just had a couple of continuing articles on power systems. I know that is important stuff but is it really an entire years worth of reading? It's no wonder it takes people 10 years to build a bus if we are all waiting for information on other aspects of bus building. And honestly, those articles are much more indepth into engineering than any normal bus converter would ever need in my opinion. I could be wrong on this, but for me, it's just not worth subscribing to a magazine to have two continuation articles that go for a whole year when there are so many other aspects to bus building that I needed to know.

[Dreamscape]

I'm going to let mine expire too. Much of the information is old, that I already have in older issues. They need to nake a change and add features that are better suited for our hobby. Knowing that each bus is differant, the ideas and methods don't really change that much. Maybe have a feature called "The Bus Nut Corner". Where everyone would have a chance to add their experience, show off their skills.

FWIW,

Paul

[bobofthenorth]

On some level you've got to empathize with the guys putting out the magazine.  It must be like Elizabeth Taylor's 7th husband is reputed to have said on their wedding night - "I know what's expected of me but I'll be damned if I know how I'm going to make it interesting".  I can remember when BCM used to show up in the mail & I'd stop everything to read it cover to cover and then keep it by the bed for the rest of the month and re-read it.  That doesn't happen anymore.  It may just be that I'm older and more cynical but a lot of the material looks familiar.  I don't know for a fact that it is recycled but it looks familiar. 

What got me thinking about this originally was when they announced the online version & I thought "hey - that would work great for us".  Then I got to thinking "why?".  If there was an online-only version and it was a significant discount to the paper version then maybe but otherwise I don't think its worth it.  Its a moot point anyway for me - whenever my renewal comes I just pay it for the longest period they offer so that I don't have to think about it too often.  Its like pornography - everybody says they read the articles but we all know we just look at the pictures.