Allen,
What I try to do when there is an intermittent problem (this one qualifys 100%)
is to find out some key piece of information in describing it. I will become
obsessed about finding out key behavioral facts based soley on operational
tests. Does the problem happen on all bands, all modes. Does it happen on
another power supply - more often or less often. When the receive is numb -
what happens if I thump the radio - or rotate the controls - what happens if I
transmit - is it on frequency and at full power? I do all these things until I
have the clearest possible feel for the failure mode. Having said that, I sent
my OMNI VI+ in for repair yesterday knowing that the instant it is turned on it
will "seem" okay. My great fear is that the (quite busy) tech will think "I
don't have time to fix a working radio", do a couple voltage checks and ship
the radio back here. It is going to take someone that will allow the radio a
few minutes to display it's
misbehavior, and on a busy bench that is sometimes hard to get. Yet, in the
past TT service has paid the shipping for the second try at repair and nailed
it on the subsequent journey for me so we have fingers crossed. There is
nothing quite like an OMNI 6 if you are a CW guy and that includes K3 in my
book.
[TenTec] intermittent OmniVI rx problem
from [Allan Taylor]
My OmniVI/opt3 has a receive problem. It will intermittently drop down
in received signal level by 5 or 6 S-units. This dropout stays for
long periods of time yet is intermittent for sure. There are still
signals coming through, but it drops down enough to clearly hear hiss
from the IF stages. It was doing this over a year ago and got an
all-expenses-paid trip to TT service. Once back there, it, of course,
went away and TT couldn't find anything wrong. Net expense: ~$275.
That rig sat for most of the past year (I was using either the K3 or
MP in the meantime). I finally put it on the air for ARRL DX/CW last
month. It behaved for about 5 hours, then dropped out for a few hours,
then back, then gone and has remained gone.
I suspect an inter-module connector is not quite making contact or
perhaps the reed T/R relay has failed.
What would a failed T/R relay sound like? Is there a most-likely
connector to check? Is there a best before/after
place to check, stagewise?
I am not an experienced debugger/signal tracer and have limited test
equipment. I love the radio. Please give me your best input!
--
73 Allan K7GT
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