Free Manual Sites

Ralph David Miller, AA4DF

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Vendors "artekmedia" and "micromanuals" sure have huge inventories, don't they?

(Links to the free download sites where unscrupulous vendors acquire "their" manuals are below the next three paragraphs.)

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Please be advised that the majority of "their" manuals were acquired from and are available for downloading free of charge from K4XL's BAMA, the manufacturer's web sites, and the LOGSA military manuals distribution site. We would not normally even consider selling free internet downloads, but over a thousand freely downloadable PDF and DJVU manuals are being sold by "micromanuals" and by "artekmedia", who takes a few moments to renumber the pages, do a little bookmarking, and then write an extremely effective advertisement claiming "very high resolution". If you look at individual pages you will see that "artekmedia" is very often providing only the same free internet downloaded material, blatantly lying about specifications and charging entirely unjustifiable fees for such material. The folks who originally created these manuals meant them to be distributed at no cost, or at most only for distribution costs.

As original PDF producers ourselves, many of which we sell on CD and/or by FTP from our web sites (see www.aa4df.com), Jill and I have an understanding and appreciation of the amount of effort involved in creating electronic manuals. We believe the wishes of the fellows creating these PDFs for free or at most cost-based distribution should be respected.

Therefore, as we find the various sites where "micromanuals" and "artekmedia" download the material they sell, we list them here. "Micromanuals" and "artekmedia" are also reselling and claiming as their own product many things that Jill and I created. As long as they do that, we will very actively undersell their entire inventory. If "micromanuals" and "artekmedia" ever attain the wisdom to stop distributing our original products then Jill and I will go back to selling only what we've created ourselves, and such scammers will be able to go back to charging unknowing buyers whatever they want to for free internet downloaded material... therefore, we sincerely recommend you become familiar with some of the free manual distribution sites instead of paying anyone (including us) for such material.

A few of the free distribution sites where "micromanuals" and "artekmedia" download the material they claim they produce themselves are:

Our own free downloads area:
http://home.comcast.net/~aa4df02/download.htm Please note that we have a few other free downloads here and there in the other manual lists.

Here's a relatively new one that deserves your support:
http://www.ebaman.com Please note that you may see some of our PAID material there, as evidenced by our identifiers (website link in bookmarks and digital signature) being present in them. Please be aware that Mr. Larsson has those on his site WITH OUR PERMISSION. It's just good advertising for us! Mr. Larsson's site presently (18AUG07) has over 900 downloadable manuals!

A very large part of "micromanuals"' and "artekmedia"'s "leeched" inventories are items they downloaded from the Agilent/HP factory support site:
http://www.home.agilent.com

Another very large part of "micromanuals"' and "artekmedia"'s "leeched" inventories are items they downloaded from the Tektronix factory support site:
http://www.tek.com

ICOM Manuals are available for free right from ICOM:
http://www.icomamerica.com

All those military manuals that "leech" and "marketing" vendors like "artekmedia" and "micromanuals" use to trick up their 'volume counts' came from:
LOGSA

Here are a number of test equiment manuals, though most items are for computer equipment:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/

Fluke and Wavetek free manuals that the "leeches" download and charge big bucks for are at:
http://us.fluke.com/usen/support/manuals/default.htm

And of course there's the BAMA mirror at:
http://bama.edebris.com/manuals

And K4XL's BAMA:
http://bama.sbc.edu/

More download sites:

http://www.zen22142.zen.co.uk/schematics.htm

http://www.tuberadio.it/docs.htm

http://www.antiqueradios.com/archive.shtml

http://www.otari.com/support/pdf_manuals.html

http://www.pmillett.com/tecnical_books_online.htm

Please advise us of any other free manual sites of manufacturers and individuals so we can list them here. Perhaps in this way we may even be able to stop some of leech's thefts before they occur, instead of after they've had the chance to pick the pockets of folks who don't know any better than to buy free internet downloads! Please help spread the word in any way you can... the folks who are being scammed by "micromanuals" and "artekmedia" on eBay are not stupid, they're simply operating in an information vacuum. Please help fill it. Unscrupulous vendors such as "micromanuals", "artekmedia" and other such "CD mills" rip off other vendors, their buyers, and original document producers who are providing the material at no charge or at cost.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and become aware of some of the dirty dealing going on in the world of scanned manuals, where any sharp operator with a CD burner cuts themselves in for a 'piece of the pie', at great cost to everyone else involved, including buyers. Buyers take their biggest loss in the fact that original document producers leaving the field entirely because of the activities of "micromanuals", "artekmedia" and other such "leeches" are the main reason there are so many pieces of equipment you can't find documentation for at any price.

If you'd like to be a part of solving this problem, just talk about it to your friends and associates. The parasites that erode the scanned manuals field depend on buyers being unaware of the facts... so if someone mentions the word "documentation" or "manual", please jump on in and let them know "what's up", and please pass the list of free manuals sources around... post it at your club, put it on your web site, mention it at meetings. If you know of a URL that should be on the free sources list, let us know and we'll post it.

Thanks again for your time!

-Dave Miller, AA4DF, and
Jill Bryant
http://www.aa4df.com