[TowerTalk] Comtek stack unit failure

[kq2m at kq2m.com]

Hi Ignacy,

In 2011 I had a failure of my ACB-80, 16 years after I bought it (1995). 
  I sent it back to Comtek for repair, paid for the repair and received 
it back.  Unfortunately I was extremely ill at the time and was unable 
to put it back in the field.  (I was not operating at all).  A few weeks 
before CQWWCW 2013, I rebuilt my 80 M 4-square and noticed that there 
STILL was no F/B of F/S.  After inspecting it, I saw nothing obvious so 
I attempted to contact Comtek - by this point Comtek had been sold to DX 
Engineering - so I sent it to them for repair.  They were kind enough to 
repair it at no cost to me and ship it back to me via 2 day UPS (also at 
no cost!).

Rod, K2RR told me at that time that the tech had discovered numerous 
cold solder joints underneath the circuit board as well as some debris - 
which together caused the malfunctions.

I received it back the night before CQWWCW and it worked perfectly!  I 
was thrilled with the fabulous service of DX Engineering and really 
annoyed at the lousy service of Comtek which obviously did NOT test my 
unit two years before to make sure that it was working properly before 
sending it back to me.

Of course we all know now that DX Engineering bought Comtek and the 
Comtek units are no longer being built.  In Spring 2022, one of the 
relays immolated and I sent it to DX Engineering for repair - and am 
happy to report another exceptional job by them, replacing the still 
functional but badly corroded old Comtek relays which were likely to 
catch fire as well.

Cold solder joints.  Check.  Relay issues.  Check_

In fairness, I have not had any trouble with my Comtek ACB-40, now 27 
years old.

I have no real complaints.  It's not realistic to not expect problems 
with units that live outdoors in an extreme wx environment continuously 
for 25+ years.  For what I paid for the units and all the use I have 
gotten out of them and the performance that they have delivered for that 
long, I consider myself pretty fortunate.

73

Bob, KQ2M


On 2022-11-05 21:05, Ignacy Misztal wrote:
> There were quite a few reports of failures of Comtek units usually
> attributed to bad relays.  Recently my Comtek 2 stack unit was becoming
> intermittent. It has sealed Potter-Brumfield relays so no water 
> ingress. It
> turned out that one connection was not soldered. Furthermore, the
> jumper wire was very stiff and hard to solder. I am wondering what kind 
> of
> wire does Comtek use and whether Comtek's problems are due to poor
> soldering with that wire?
> 
> Ignacy NO9E
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