[TenTec] Orion drops lock?

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Sun, 2009-09-20 at 14:39 -0400, Martin Ewing wrote:
> Right, but is there a do it yourself prescription, short of digging in with
> the probes and actually trying to *understand* things?  (Awful thought!)  I
> could/will ask TT, but I wonder if anyone has done it out there.  (Shame
> that there is no repair manual.)
> 
> I can't make the condition appear on command, so that complicates matters.
> It's intermittent.  Experience (more than I have with the Orion) would
> probably help...

Often an intermittent can be forced by applying alternate heating and
cooling. A hair dryer or hot air gun supplies heat and a spray can
product like Freeze-Mist or even the dry air lens cleaners provide cold
from the rapid expansion of a compressed gas. Start with a large area,
and if that triggers the problem, then cut the area in half, until the
part is located. That's called a binary chop when writing a computer
program for searching. Half the area previously searched.

Then maybe you will find (the circuits are available) that you have hit
on a temperature sensitive capacitor part of a VCO and all you need to
do is to turn the slug in a coil ten degrees in or out to get it back in
range. With the controlled failure induced by heating and cooling, you
can soon find which way is an improvement. It is possible to overheat
circuit boards with some hot air guns, like those made for paint
removal. You don't want that much heat. The $12 hair dryer can be
enough.
> 
> 73 Martin AA6E
> 
73, Jerry, K0CQ