Hello Andrew. Thanks for another excellent video. Sharing you experience when troubleshooting and repairing these classic radios is most helpful. Every detail counts. I scored an 830S that receives but yet to test on TX. Thanks again Andrew for sharing your experience. The radio sounds fantastic. Hearing you 51 this morning (12:15 UTC June 7 2024) on the Sothern Cross Net. Take care. Mike VE3XLF
Thanks once again for watching Mike and for the report on the Southern Cross net :) Another video will be coming out shortly where I get into a TS-820S :)
@@VK2XXL Hello Andrew Once again I appreciate you sharing your problem solving approach. I learned much from your video. We learn much from watching competent technical people like yourself walking us through a solution. Take care and all the best. Mike VE3XLF ps . Looking forward to the AR 88 video
I know I am asking a lot of a manufacturer to keep all of those parts on hand in case I want to replace or repair. Just think of the huge inventory necessary or at least what I wish they had. I think eBay has grown up and is almost mature now to order from... Those parts that are taking up space on your shelf. Someone will need soon but the manufacturer can't keep them all.... And what bad things are happening to the chip makers who are making a chip that had 1 application uses up and the next chip is not replaceable.
If it has one, watch for that pesky "fix" switch for the fixed crystal. (that no one ever uses). The frequency will warble all over the place when corrosion enters this switch. The "fix" is to push the "fix" button, again and again and again. Once the crud is gone the radio will operate normally again. Also, I LOVE vfd frequency displays. I wish they kept them longer. Beats the heck out of crummy LCD displays any day. On side note, DON'T let contact cleaner come into contact with the plastic case in any of these kinds of radios or you'll be sorry like I was. Take care and 73.
By being very old ham, I can now see the radios I bought brand new 30 years ago I now see built to last about 20 years, actually I think most things like cars and refrigerators have a limited lifespan built in also. Everyone who knows something about stuff that is 100 years old knows how well built it was built back then. the entry of China into ham radio market has ruined the Japanese radios forever. Now ham rigs are like computers let go out of date every three years. When I can buy K3 technology in a Chinese radio that is not as pretty but is inside good performance... WOW The era of super nice big Japanese rigs is over. I guess I own the last of the big radios== I have an FT DX 9000, ICOM 7800, and sold the last alpha I had. By the way, the ICOM 7851 looking closely. Is almost a lab instrument. It is definitely the last big ham radio, so get a 7851 as soon as you can because the market is not supporting it either---- get the dealers last one or even a dealer demonstrator. I know that at my age the page has turned and I had better move on to the Elysian Fields and hope my successors can hold the band spaces.
It's a shame to see ham radio going the way it is. Sadly I think we're seeing the last of traditional Superhet designs. I laugh at people spending $10,000 or more on SDR radios that don't even have an inbuilt screen or controls. 'Pure Signal' the latest fad where the SDR manufacturers have supposedly found a way to cut off the bleed through on either side of their transmission. Clearly the people opening their wallets have never heard of how Collins solved this issue way back in the 1950s with their Mechanical Filters! To add insult to injury, these 'Check Book Ham's' buy LDMOS Amplifiers and drive the absolute living s$%t out of them with horrible distortion, effectively nulling the advantage of their so called 'pure signal'. Try to tell them and they just abuse you or won't talk to you. The Icom IC-7800 and 7851 are the only rigs I would gladly pay the big bucks for (as I did with my 7800). Yeah I plan on getting the 7851 within the next year or so.
I know this might seem strange to you if you're not used to electron tubes. When under load and heating up, the 12BY7A would intermittently short out one of the grids (can't remember which one) to ground which would pull down the supply rail. In turn this affected the rectifier unit affecting the rest of the radio. A new driver solved the issue. Placing the old driver back in the issue returns.
@@g1cpu Neither did I for a while! The only thing that gave it away in the end was that it only went intermittent when transmitting and not right away. Only when something was warming up.
Hello Andrew. Thanks for another excellent video. Sharing you experience when troubleshooting and repairing these classic radios is most helpful. Every detail counts. I scored an 830S that receives but yet to test on TX. Thanks again Andrew for sharing your experience. The radio sounds fantastic. Hearing you 51 this morning (12:15 UTC June 7 2024) on the Sothern Cross Net. Take care. Mike VE3XLF
Thanks once again for watching Mike and for the report on the Southern Cross net :) Another video will be coming out shortly where I get into a TS-820S :)
@@VK2XXL Hello Andrew
Once again I appreciate you sharing your problem solving approach. I learned much from your video. We learn much from watching competent technical people like yourself walking us through a solution. Take care and all the best. Mike VE3XLF
ps . Looking forward to the AR 88 video
I know I am asking a lot of a manufacturer to keep all of those parts on hand in case I want to replace or repair. Just think of the huge inventory necessary or at least what I wish they had. I think eBay has grown up and is almost mature now to order from... Those parts that are taking up space on your shelf. Someone will need soon but the manufacturer can't keep them all.... And what bad things are happening to the chip makers who are making a chip that had 1 application uses up and the next chip is not replaceable.
If it has one, watch for that pesky "fix" switch for the fixed crystal. (that no one ever uses). The frequency will warble all over the place when corrosion enters this switch. The "fix" is to push the "fix" button, again and again and again. Once the crud is gone the radio will operate normally again. Also, I LOVE vfd frequency displays. I wish they kept them longer. Beats the heck out of crummy LCD displays any day. On side note, DON'T let contact cleaner come into contact with the plastic case in any of these kinds of radios or you'll be sorry like I was. Take care and 73.
By being very old ham, I can now see the radios I bought brand new 30 years ago I now see built to last about 20 years, actually I think most things like cars and refrigerators have a limited lifespan built in also. Everyone who knows something about stuff that is 100 years old knows how well built it was built back then.
the entry of China into ham radio market has ruined the Japanese radios forever. Now ham rigs are like computers let go out of date every three years. When I can buy K3 technology in a Chinese radio that is not as pretty but is inside good performance... WOW The era of super nice big Japanese rigs is over. I guess I own the last of the big radios== I have an FT DX 9000, ICOM 7800, and sold the last alpha I had.
By the way, the ICOM 7851 looking closely. Is almost a lab instrument. It is definitely the last big ham radio, so get a 7851 as soon as you can because the market is not supporting it either---- get the dealers last one or even a dealer demonstrator.
I know that at my age the page has turned and I had better move on to the Elysian Fields and hope my successors can hold the band spaces.
It's a shame to see ham radio going the way it is. Sadly I think we're seeing the last of traditional Superhet designs. I laugh at people spending $10,000 or more on SDR radios that don't even have an inbuilt screen or controls. 'Pure Signal' the latest fad where the SDR manufacturers have supposedly found a way to cut off the bleed through on either side of their transmission. Clearly the people opening their wallets have never heard of how Collins solved this issue way back in the 1950s with their Mechanical Filters! To add insult to injury, these 'Check Book Ham's' buy LDMOS Amplifiers and drive the absolute living s$%t out of them with horrible distortion, effectively nulling the advantage of their so called 'pure signal'. Try to tell them and they just abuse you or won't talk to you. The Icom IC-7800 and 7851 are the only rigs I would gladly pay the big bucks for (as I did with my 7800). Yeah I plan on getting the 7851 within the next year or so.
Why would the defective driver tube not allow the radio to receive?
I know this might seem strange to you if you're not used to electron tubes. When under load and heating up, the 12BY7A would intermittently short out one of the grids (can't remember which one) to ground which would pull down the supply rail. In turn this affected the rectifier unit affecting the rest of the radio. A new driver solved the issue. Placing the old driver back in the issue returns.
@@VK2XXL That's an interesting twist, would never of thought of that.
@@g1cpu Neither did I for a while! The only thing that gave it away in the end was that it only went intermittent when transmitting and not right away. Only when something was warming up.