Hello IMSAI Guy, it's Robert! You're seeing exactly what I saw. The odd thing is I recall it worked fine when I packed it away 20 years ago, and when I got into ham radio again, it was dead. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the series. (We're at our Tel Aviv office this week. In Jerusalem today on a day off I may try operating /4Z later this week on a borrowed radio. Look for me on FT8)
The LCD backlight is still working, for now.. I have one of these and when they work they're a nice radio, but between the output issue and the design flaw in the backlight driver they fail often. The backlight issue is the transistor used to vary the backlight level gets too hot and falls. Simply replacing it is a band aid, it'll just happen again. There used to be kits around to fix this but i have seen one in ages. Basically put a tiny heat sink on the transistor. It's also buried in the front panel so a fair amount of work to get to it.. The delaying action is to always keep the LCD on full brightness which reduces the heat disipation demand on that part.
Some things. I don't know about this rig, but keying the mic on my 735, in CW mode won't transmit a carrier, you have to use a key. Also, transmitting on the band edge, in CW, might try to generate a carrier below the 7.000 MHz edge limit, depending upon the radio. Just thinking out loud.
At 5:38 you say that 100 Watts is 40 dB. I believe that it is actually 50 dBm. 1 mW is 0 dBm, 1 Watt is 30 dBm, 10 Watts is 40 dBm and 100 Watts is 50 dB above 1 mW. At 5:49 you say that plus 20 Is one Watt, again I disagree. Am I wrong?
Hello IMSAI, Why don't you use the RF level offset option to see the real power? If you add the 20dB of the attenuator, you could have the correct reading in watts or dBms
Hello IMSAI Guy, it's Robert!
You're seeing exactly what I saw. The odd thing is I recall it worked fine when I packed it away 20 years ago, and when I got into ham radio again, it was dead. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the series.
(We're at our Tel Aviv office this week. In Jerusalem today on a day off I may try operating /4Z later this week on a borrowed radio. Look for me on FT8)
The LCD backlight is still working, for now.. I have one of these and when they work they're a nice radio, but between the output issue and the design flaw in the backlight driver they fail often. The backlight issue is the transistor used to vary the backlight level gets too hot and falls. Simply replacing it is a band aid, it'll just happen again. There used to be kits around to fix this but i have seen one in ages. Basically put a tiny heat sink on the transistor. It's also buried in the front panel so a fair amount of work to get to it.. The delaying action is to always keep the LCD on full brightness which reduces the heat disipation demand on that part.
I have this radio. The ATU wouldn't tune right. One of the motors was seized up. I fixed it and all is well now 😊
Some things. I don't know about this rig, but keying the mic on my 735, in CW mode won't transmit a carrier, you have to use a key. Also, transmitting on the band edge, in CW, might try to generate a carrier below the 7.000 MHz edge limit, depending upon the radio. Just thinking out loud.
A much better radio than the 7300. A few common failure points but easily resolved.
I'm sure it is better in some ways. but the 7300 has a better display with waterfall, USB control, narrow filters. what is the 736 better at?
At 5:38 you say that 100 Watts is 40 dB. I believe that it is actually 50 dBm. 1 mW is 0 dBm, 1 Watt is 30 dBm, 10 Watts is 40 dBm and 100 Watts is 50 dB above 1 mW. At 5:49 you say that plus 20 Is one Watt, again I disagree. Am I wrong?
sorry I said it wrong. the radio is +50dbm and the attn is 20db so into the analyzer is +30dbm which is 1 watt
Hello IMSAI, Why don't you use the RF level offset option to see the real power? If you add the 20dB of the attenuator, you could have the correct reading in watts or dBms
lazy, and very easy to do the calculation in my head.
If you tune to 114.1, can you hear the Morse identifier? [SJC]
yes
Are you sure it is not the IC-746S designed for the Japanese market with 20W output?
Yes, I'm sure. I used to work and now does not
wich diffrences from 746 to 746PRO? thanks
no idea. Didn't the pro have a color display
What antenna(s) do you use?
end fed wire for 40m through 10m J-pole for 2m and 440
Why not just hook it to a watt meter and a plain ol dummy load? Why all the over complicated stuff?? 😮
it will come in handy in later parts, keep watching