Alright Kevin....nice repair job! My Dad (electronics tech and radio tech) taught me the water/dish soap and toothbrush trick for cleaning. I am fond of those little Icom HF radios. My first HF Rig was a Kenwood TS-520s Hybrid and my next HF and first solid state rig was an Icom-728 that I later traded for my first Yaesu FT-817nd. For nostalgic reasons I recently bought another Icom-728, in brand new condition, to add to my other rigs. I am a big fan of little basic radios that do a big job.
Auto polish works very well on front panels and cases. it makes them look like new as it removes minor stains as well as cleaning. Nice easy fix on a good old radio. Keep up the good work. Karl
Excellently helpful video. My 725 was drop-kicked by a bunch of parcel gorillas, sustaining severe front panel damage. Amazingly, it mostly still worked, but dropped out above 22MHz. I found the DDS loop coil needed a tweak and it's made a major improvement. However there are still a couple of minor faults.
OMG, that's exactly what's wrong with mine! And it comes and goes - sometimes it works ,& sometimes it doesn't. Watching yer video with great interest! (yes I did the MARS modification, but it worked fine for almost 30 years....just started doing this a few days ago....) This is so cool, thank you kindly! I'll try yer fixes n let you know what happens. Cheers.,..
Kevin, thanks for a great video on resurrecting the old IC-725. I have a IC-726 good old radio really nice with an added cw filter. Enjoy your videos..
Gday Kevin ,would like to say a BIG THANKYOU for making this video about that icom rig ...I Have a IC-726 That HAD the same problem ,and it was identical to the 725 .....repair worked on mine to .........look forward to watching more of your videos ok ...73 de VK4LA In Brisbane Australia...
I'm looking at getting my HAM and this seems like the kind of radio I need. Old enough to be a "reasonable" price but modern enough to be fairly simple to use. Now to find something locally, thats the problem.
Kevin, maybe your skill with repairs is your door to a new enterprise. I know folks around Houston are always looking for a knowledgeable tech to repair a HAM rig. Just a thought.
Good Job Kevin on the Repair am sure when you felt you got it was a little more then thumbs up !!! maybe little dancing going on lol lol Yes was surprised to see that it had moved that far ? I can understand little changes on coil Lou to heat or someone inside happen to Pri about on some parts . But good video well explained as you went along.So thanks for the Efforts Made look forward to more 73's Dale WB8WOJ
IC-735 is the same... ..a real pain to set the reference osc. freq.>....when you reassemble the radio the reference osc. shifts freq, which requires several "guesses" at the setting of the warping cap.
Nice vid. I also own a IC-725 that has been laying around for over 25 years. It would have been nice if the scope was shown also. Any links to the service manual perhaps :) thx.
Nice work. I'm not a fan of coincidences, although they do happen. Years of repairing "previous" repairs, or in this case mods, often something was done that they don't recall or didn't realize they did it. I wonder why that coil was so far out? Perhaps another component, cap or resistor has gone out of tolerance. This repair would fix the issue, but if it comes back or gets worse, that other component might be further out of spec or failed.
That's tricky. You could tap the VFO. the local oscillator. But it's not going to be the exact frequency due to mixing. You'd need a custom frequency counter module that could have an offset value programmed. Sometimes there's already a custom made version for specific models of radio. Google for your radio make and model, plus the words frequency display. You might find one.
Kevin Loughin I’ll look into that right now I’ve got to get a new wire antenna and put it up my last one got destroyed from a storm thx for the information
Are you saying that the knob will turn but the frequency doesn't change? If that's the case, the encoder is probably dirty. You'd have to take it out of the radio and figure out if it can be opened up and cleaned. Either that, or there's an electrical problem preventing the signal from the encoder from getting down to the CPU. In that case, you'd have to trace the signal and see where it stops.
Mine has drop-outs, too. Now I know what to do. Thanks and 73.
Good job on the IC-725. Always good to see an old rig resurrected and in service again. Thanks for sharing it with us. 73 DE K7RMJ Frank
I was a CFARS operator (Canadian equivalent to MARS) and did a tour in Israel as Net Control. Was a fun tour of duty. Nice job on the repair Kevin.
Alright Kevin....nice repair job! My Dad (electronics tech and radio tech) taught me the water/dish soap and toothbrush trick for cleaning. I am fond of those little Icom HF radios. My first HF Rig was a Kenwood TS-520s Hybrid and my next HF and first solid state rig was an Icom-728 that I later traded for my first Yaesu FT-817nd. For nostalgic reasons I recently bought another Icom-728, in brand new condition, to add to my other rigs. I am a big fan of little basic radios that do a big job.
Auto polish works very well on front panels and cases. it makes them look like new as it removes minor stains as well as cleaning. Nice easy fix on a good old radio. Keep up the good work. Karl
i love the way voice is distorted on ham radio and shortwave, its just cool ya know?
Excellently helpful video. My 725 was drop-kicked by a bunch of parcel gorillas, sustaining severe front panel damage. Amazingly, it mostly still worked, but dropped out above 22MHz. I found the DDS loop coil needed a tweak and it's made a major improvement. However there are still a couple of minor faults.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the sneak peak on the repair. Glad it was an easy one. 73 WB3BJU
OMG, that's exactly what's wrong with mine! And it comes and goes - sometimes it works ,& sometimes it doesn't. Watching yer video with great interest! (yes I did the MARS modification, but it worked fine for almost 30 years....just started doing this a few days ago....)
This is so cool, thank you kindly!
I'll try yer fixes n let you know what happens. Cheers.,..
Kevin, thanks for a great video on resurrecting the old IC-725. I have a IC-726 good old radio really nice with an added cw filter. Enjoy your videos..
Great work Kevin - much appreciated at this end of the spectrum
Nicely done. Anther machine saved.
Gday Kevin ,would like to say a BIG THANKYOU for making this video about that icom rig ...I Have a IC-726 That HAD the same problem ,and it was identical to the 725 .....repair worked on mine to .........look forward to watching more of your videos ok ...73 de VK4LA In Brisbane Australia...
Glad to know it was helpful and you were able to fix yours. That's why I share these. Thanks for watching!
I'm looking at getting my HAM and this seems like the kind of radio I need. Old enough to be a "reasonable" price but modern enough to be fairly simple to use. Now to find something locally, thats the problem.
Kevin, maybe your skill with repairs is your door to a new enterprise. I know folks around Houston are always looking for a knowledgeable tech to repair a HAM rig. Just a thought.
I have one of these that wont stay on frequency in receive or transmit, this was helpful.
Good Job Kevin on the Repair am sure when you felt you got it was a little more then thumbs up !!! maybe little dancing going on lol lol Yes was surprised to see that it had moved that far ? I can understand little changes on coil Lou to heat or someone inside happen to Pri about on some parts . But good video well explained as you went along.So thanks for the Efforts Made look forward to more 73's Dale WB8WOJ
i use a bit of spray 9 on a paper Towle to clean nice jobe
Great video Kevin 👍
Good work Kevin
I do also save old Radios and clean the housing an the front panel as you have done it.
WD40 is indeet a verry good cleaner ;-)
73
IC-735 is the same... ..a real pain to set the reference osc. freq.>....when you reassemble the radio the reference osc. shifts freq, which requires several "guesses" at the setting of the warping cap.
Nice vid. I also own a IC-725 that has been laying around for over 25 years. It would have been nice if the scope was shown also. Any links to the service manual perhaps :) thx.
Another really interesting video. Thank you
Vary intresting your a clever bloke
if a varcap needs that much adjustment could it be that a connecting capacitor has gone dull in needs replacing?
My OCD is making me crazy, did you re-do the MARS modifications?
The main dail it’s broken it will change frequencies only by useing hand desk mike
I will be getting anthoer ts 430 eventually
muy buen video buen trabajo,estoy por comprar uno igual,saludos desde Uruguay
The icon is nice also
Good job, Kevin.! How old is that rig?
It was new somewhere around 1990 I think.
Hi my name is victor i have icom ic725 n it dnt transmit any way to fix
Nice work. I'm not a fan of coincidences, although they do happen. Years of repairing "previous" repairs, or in this case mods, often something was done that they don't recall or didn't realize they did it. I wonder why that coil was so far out? Perhaps another component, cap or resistor has gone out of tolerance. This repair would fix the issue, but if it comes back or gets worse, that other component might be further out of spec or failed.
MARS stands for Military Affiliated Radis Service.
how to remove the tuning knob? After unscrewing the allen key, the knob is still holding something.
I have a Yaesu Ft 1000 mp that has a transmit issue. Do you work on them? If so, how do I contact you for the repairs on it.
Great vid as always I’m currently running a ft7 analog radio I need to get a digital readout so I can tell my frequency while transmit any suggestions
That's tricky. You could tap the VFO. the local oscillator. But it's not going to be the exact frequency due to mixing. You'd need a custom frequency counter module that could have an offset value programmed. Sometimes there's already a custom made version for specific models of radio. Google for your radio make and model, plus the words frequency display. You might find one.
Kevin Loughin I’ll look into that right now I’ve got to get a new wire antenna and put it up my last one got destroyed from a storm thx for the information
they don't make them like they used to. This transceiver is now ready for another 20 years of use and abuse.
Help my icom725 the main dial it’s stuck it will turn or maybe it’s broken so I used the mike to change frequencies
Are you saying that the knob will turn but the frequency doesn't change? If that's the case, the encoder is probably dirty. You'd have to take it out of the radio and figure out if it can be opened up and cleaned. Either that, or there's an electrical problem preventing the signal from the encoder from getting down to the CPU. In that case, you'd have to trace the signal and see where it stops.
WHILE YOU WERE IN THERE I AM GUESSING YOU DIDN'T LOOK AT SETTING THE MASTER OSCILLATOR DID YA??? YA I KNOW IT'S ONLY 5PPM BUT... KØOJ
Why can't all transceivers be like the TEN-TEC (R)(C) SDR Transceiver made at Dolly Parton pkwy 1185 Sevierville TN?