Hi, Jose

My answer is probably not, but maybe. I do have a backup writer, but mostly because I've been in the biz a long time (when I bought my current writer, the one I'd been using went to "backup" status.). But even if I didn't, I work in an office with eight other reporters, I know many other reporters in my geographic vicinity. If something were to happen to my writer, i'm confident that I could put out a cry for help and someone would have a machine to loan me in a pinch. Also, there's a company that repairs steno machines in my city. I think they might have loaners. Not to mention that I have a support contract on my writer so that I could send it in for repairs and get a loaner in the meantime. So my question to you is do you think you have enough contacts, enough resources available that you'd be able to get/borrow/rent a machine if something happened to yours?

Yes, when you borrow/rent writers you may have to deal with keys not quite adjusted to your style/preference or maybe not having wide * and TS keys and things like that, but if you're in a pickle, at least it's a machine to use. Right?

As an aside, if you do have a backup writer, make sure you take it out every once in a while and use it, even if just for practice, to make sure you remember how to hook it up if it's different than your primary writer (different cables, maybe, or connectors or COM port settings or whatever) and to make sure it's in tip-top shape.