[TenTec] Jupiter Question

[Mike Bryce]

I too, wonder why I’ve been seeing a rash of bad CPUs in ham radio equipment.

Like Ed, mentioned, I have dozens of CPU devices that are decades old and still going strong. Why are we seeing such a high failure rate? Has me puzzled. The Omni VI, the Orion II both seem to suffer from becoming brain dead.

I like to repair old radios. That’s become harder to do now since almost everything has gone computer controlled and the use of surface mount components. I can deal with those. It’s the dragon ball ICs that I can’t do anything with. It’s beyond my pay scale.

Take the Icom 7300. It’s more computer than radio. Other than the transistors in the PA, there’s little to repair. I think fixing a 7300 is going to be like fixing your home computer—put in a new a mother board.


Mike Bryce WB8VGE
prosolar at sssnet.com

“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you never  know if they are genuine”

—Abraham Lincoln







> On Dec 17, 2016, at 11:44 AM, Al Gulseth <wb5jnc at centurytel.net> wrote:
> 
> Therein lies the rub. It has reached the point where the purchase of any 
> recent production (recent being the past couple of decades) technology item, 
> including automobiles, probably needs to be viewed as "disposable" from the 
> likelyhood of the item eventually becoming a parts donor or going to 
> recycling due to parts availability and repairability. Case in point: a "car 
> guy" neighbor of mine says he's seen certain models of ten year +/- old 
> luxury vehicles going for salvage value at auctions due to high 
> troubleshooting and repair costs related to the dozens of computer modules in 
> the vehicle. It's ironic that in many cases it's easier to keep the old 
> Tritons, early Omnis, etc. on the air than it is the newer stuff. That's the 
> advantage of having the rig's "CPU" be the one between the op's ears.
> 
> 73, Al
> 
> On Sat December 17 2016 9:19:24 am Ed lawson wrote:
>> On Fri, 16 Dec 2016 17:43:46 -0600
>> 
>>> Hope it’s not the CPU though...
>> 
>> That is my greatest fear.  I've never had a CPU go bad in other
>> consumer products, why do they seem a problem area in some ham gear?
>> 
>> Perhaps it is due to the fact ham gear is used for years.  After all,
>> how many people are still using a 486 based computer. That seems the
>> rub, a good radio is a good radio essentially forever while other gear
>> with CPUs become functionally obsolete within a few years.  Just seems
>> a terrible waste to have a nice radio become a brick upon the failure
>> of a part.
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