[TenTec] Paragon power problem

[Vic Klein]

The gounding looked goo and all mounting screws has lock washers that bit
into the board edge traces very well. Actually, after more fiddling around I
may have located the problem. The coax connector from this LL Amp board to
the final amp module may have just gotten a bit dirty such that flexing the
board in the center of the opposite side was causing it to make a poor
connection. I cleaned the pins on that connector and the power has remained
steady since. I'll be watching it, but for now all seems OK. 

=Vic=

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Paragon power problem
From: GARY HUBER <glhuber at msn.com>
Reply-to: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec at contesting.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 10:53:02 -0500
List-post: <tentec at contesting.com">mailto:tentec at contesting.com>

Vic,


As a former owner of a 585 and having sent mine back several times over the
ten years I had it, I learned that some of the board problems had to do with
grounding. In fact one mod was re-solder the corners of the board, put star
washers on both sides and then with a slightly longer screw remount
securely. Is there any chance you have an intermittent grounding problem
rather than a bad board? 
73 ES DX,
Gary -- AB9M


-----Original Message----- From: Vic Klein 
Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2013 10:11 AM
To: tentec at contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] Paragon power problem

My 585 paragon has developed an intermittent issue with power dropping off
to QRP levels and the ALC light going off. No other issues exist and the
signal remains clean and distortion-free when this occurs. Some
experimenting indicates the problem is with the Low Level Amp/NB board which
is located above the Loop boards enclosure. Flexing the board in the area of
the Q connector replicates the issue and either drops or restores power. I
have cleaned the contacts and even swapped connectors, and reflowed solder
in all the joints in that quarter of the board between that connector and
Q4, but the problem remains. This board is marked 81560 on the board, and is
slightly different than the 81350 as shown in the manual. Does anyone happen
to have a spare lying around that they would like to part with?

=Vic=
WA4THR