[TenTec] Paragon II murphy!

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Thu, 2007-03-29 at 12:27 -0700, Denton wrote:
> My paragon 2 decided, all on its own, just to drive me nuts yesterday 
> morning...
> No matter which antenna, tuner, power supply, dummy load I had the rf output 
> of the paragon connected....
> 
> even with the rf drive (power control fully counterclockwise) set at 
> absolute minimum, and in tune position....
> 
> when activating the tune button, the paragon would almost immediately snap 
> the circuit breaker in the power supply, due to excessive current draw.
> 
> made a call to Ten Tec....they suspected the power supply....a TT 961
> 
> Turned out to be all the screws, nuts and bolts in the rf brick have all 
> worked loose over the years! After I re-tightened them and checked other 
> assorted connections for looseness and other stuff, the paragon is back to 
> normal operation.

Kenwood bulletin (I don't remember the numbers) on the TS-120 and 130
says just that. I've lost track of the number of radios with such
problems that I've fixed either locally, by e-mail, or by on the air
recommendations to tighten up the board mounting/grounding screws. 

The plastic of the board does what it name says and relieves the
pressure from the mounting screws and so the pressure on the ground
contacts. I've have better longevity of these connections by using
external star lock washers to get a better dig into the screw head and
the board.
> 
> But still will pull off the cover on the power supply to see if everything 
> is nice and tight... 
> 

-- 
73, Jerry, K0CQ,
All content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer