When I had my omni 6 plus, I observed same frequency shift…pulling the rigs
speaker and installing a fan in its stead gave me solid stability.
> On Jul 4, 2016, at 5:14 PM, Peter Klein <pklein@threshinc.com> wrote:
>
> I queried service@tentec.com by email about the following issue last Tuesday.
> I have heard nothing so far, so I thought I'd get some advice here.
>
> Background: I live in the Seattle area. I have modest wire and vertical
> antennas. I'm not a contester or hard-core competitive DXer. I do try to work
> DX when I can, and I might jump into a contest to snag a new country. But
> mostly I do HF digital (PSK, Olivia, MFSK), casual CW, or occasionally SSB.
>
> I've owned my Omni VI for 20 years. It has the Option 1 DSP upgrade. Over the
> years, the radio has several times developed a frequency instability issue.
> Over a time ranging between less than a second to a few seconds, the
> transceiver moves a few 10s of Hz off frequency, then "snaps" back. It's
> mostly done this on 30m, occasionally on 20m, and now on 40m. Lately, it
> happens on 40m, with a short "period," so if I am listening to a good, pure
> CW signal, it sounds like it has old-fashioned "chirp."
>
> The frequency shift occurs on both transmit and receive. When it happens, if
> I switch to another band, it does not happen there. It is intermittent.
> Sometimes it appears random, and sometimes appears temperature-related (for
> example after transmitting for a while, or if the radio has been just turned
> on in the last half-hour or so).
>
> When it first happened (1997), Ten Tec Service advised me to tweak the
> trimmer coil to the 30m mixer crystal 1/8 to 1/4 turn in either direction
> until the "drift and snap" stopped, and just live with the slight display
> error. I did, and later did the same thing to the 40m coil when that band
> acted up. It worked in both cases.
>
> When it started to do the frequency dance on 20m, I sent back to the factory
> for a tune-up. This was in October 2013. Now, it's doing it again on 40m.
>
> I spoke to TenTec's service manager a few months ago. He said that the
> problem might be solved by installing a temperature compensated crystal
> oscillator (the TCXO was never suggested before). He said that I could
> install this myself if I could solder a couple of wires. He quoted me a price
> of $200 to send me the necessary circuit board and instructions. He said it
> was up to me whether I wanted to spend $200 on "an older radio." He was also
> dead-set against my tweaking the trimmer coils to the individual band
> crystals.
>
> I decided to wait and see if leaving the power supply on 24/7 would solve the
> issue. Nope. And while I was waiting, Ten-Tec was sold and has new service
> policies.
>
> I would like to install the TCXO, *IF* it is very likely that it will solve
> the problem, and I can get at least another couple of years of good service
> out of the radio. On the other hand, the radio is 20 years old. So if it's
> just as likely that I will continue to have the problem, then maybe the TCXO
> isn't worth it, and I should think about a new radio.
>
> So, what would you do if you were me?
>
> Thanks and 73,
> --Peter, KD7MW
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
|