I'm not sure if this would apply to this problem or not- but
here's my story...
I had an Icom IC-735 that acted the same way. After operating
for a few moments, the SWR would go off-scale. External meter
AND internal meter. Obviously, this condition would cause the
power level to drop. A trip back to Icom, and when it came back,
the power level was turned down to 50 watts from 100, but the
problem still manifested itself. The dealer told me I was bonkers,
that the problem had to be in the antenna. I mounted the rig into
a mobile, took it to his shop, and began operating in the parking
lot on 10m (at his suggestion, since he could not cause it to
fail in his shop). After about 5 minutes, it begain showing the same
high SWR condition. I invited the dealer out to examine the
rig. He brought out a service monitor, which showed the rig
transmitting all the way from 160 through 6 meters! Obviously,
an antenna can only match ONE frequency! So- what he discovered
was that the rig was going into oscillation somewhere in the final
amp. It was replaced with a new rig after almost TWO years!
(but NOT by the dealer, ICOM replaced it.). Sometimes it
just doesn't pay to deal with a dealer. Sometimes you just HAVE
to go to the source, which in my case, paid off. Sending the Titan
amp to Ten Tec was a wise decision. They'll get it fixed properly,
I bet. Oh, the reason the dealer could never cause the fault in
his shop is that he only tested the rig on a dummy load, which
will show a low SWR no matter WHAT frequency you transmit
on. Had he bothered to put the unit on an antenna, it would have
saved me TWO YEARS of not being able to use my radio
properly! Lesson #1: If your dealer doesn't have an antenna, and
won't actively use your rig to test it out- go ELSEWHERE!
73 all, -Web, KR4WM
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