Paragon 585 Woes

[Michael C. Tope]

I am having problems with my Ten-Tec Paragon 585 locking up in the =
transmit mode, and was wondering if anyone out there in Ten-Tec Land had =
experienced, or more preferably, solved a similar problem with the =
Paragon.

In one mode of failure, the transceiver will lock up occasionally when =
going from receive to transmit, leaving the unit stuck in some kind of =
meta state in which the TX indicator symbol on the LED display is on =
simultaneously with the receiver. When in this state despite the TX =
indicator being on, the RF output power from the transmitter appears to =
be at or near zero (no deflection on Drake W-4 wattmeter), the S-meter =
is pegged, and the audio output consists of white noise (sounds like an =
FM rig with the squelch off). The frequency of occurence seems to be =
proportional to output power level, and the fault can be cleared by =
cycling the main power switch or resetting the CPU.=20

In a second mode of failure, the unit locks up, but with the TX =
indicator light off instead of on. In this mode, the receive audio =
sounds more like ignition noise than white noise, and the S-meter =
reading is much lower (~S7). As with the first failure mode, the fault =
can be cleared by power cycling or CPU reset. This mode occurs =
occasionally on 20 meters even with a dummy load which would tend to =
preclude "RF in the shack" as the primary causal factor.

The last mode of failure, which seems to be isolated to 15 meters, =
sending a dit or two to CW sometimes caused the receiver to drift =
wildly, indicating possibly that one of the PLL's in the RX chain is =
out-of-lock. This problem is fixed by either cycling power, or more =
simply by moving the VFO knob a little. I suspect this is a PLL chip =
thats being crashed by stray RF or some kind of transient.=20

If anyone has further insight into the cause or soultion to this set of =
problems, I would sure appreciate a push in the right direction. Please =
reply direct to me at mtope@iu.net and I'll summarize any replies.

73 de Mike, W4EF..........................


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