[TenTec] Triton IV Intermittent Failure

[k8mp at aol.com]

Nice job Wes. 
"And you sir, are a steely-eyed Triton man"

Sent from AOL Mobile Mail


-----Original Message-----
From: wes Bolin <k5apl41 at gmail.com>
To: tentec <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Sun, Jul 19, 2015 06:42 PM
Subject: [TenTec] Triton IV Intermittent Failure



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<pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><tt>I just put up an antenna for 20M so I can check into the nets and also
chase
a
little DX.  As Murphy is alive and well, the 20M band had all kinds
of
noise/ pulses/FMing with a S7 to S9 noise level.  BTW today its normal.
And
my Triton IV that I had been only listening with decided to attenuate
the
receive signals after a
few transmissions.  After sitting awhile, it was normal
again. Until
transmitting.

I have a signal generator, and a scope, but
wanted to do a quick and easy
problem isolation.  The Cal was attenuated too so
I knew the problem was
following the
front end of the receiver.  My technique
was to heat circuitry with a hot
air gun from
Harbor Freight and see if I
could duplicate the intermittent failure.  Sure
enough the
AGC-IF board was
the problem.  I could heat Q6 and the receive signal would
drop.  Spraying a
little bit of Cool Spray on the transistor cooled it down
and the
radio worked
normally.  I replaced the MPS6514 with a 2N2222A and all
is
well.

Alternating heat and cold is a good way to find temperature
sensitive
intermittent problems.  Maybe this will help with other
troubleshooting
problems.  BTW I love these discrete
components.

Wes
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</tt></pre>
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