After several years of trouble free operation I had a strange problem
the other day; it would go "nuts" readout weird and the red TX light
was on, but no RF out. I had to do a reset with the button inside.
Being an older radio my first suspicition was the Lith. back-up batter
was due, but I measure 2.99 v. Assuming it's a nominal 3v battery does
anyone have a though where to go next? I did put it on the bench
powered up. After taking the power away (12v) and returing it a few
hours later it losses memrory. Please either post or email me, below.
My email is a different callsign; if you wish to contact me that way,
please visit:

http://www.ak2o.org (that's an "oh" not a zero)

In article . com,
wrote:

After several years of trouble free operation I had a strange problem
the other day; it would go "nuts" readout weird and the red TX light
was on, but no RF out. I had to do a reset with the button inside.
Being an older radio my first suspicition was the Lith. back-up batter
was due, but I measure 2.99 v. Assuming it's a nominal 3v battery does
anyone have a though where to go next? I did put it on the bench
powered up. After taking the power away (12v) and returing it a few
hours later it losses memrory.

WA7YCP-

On one hand, this sounds as if a Phase Locked Loop had become unlocked,
which might disrupt the frequency display and prevent transmitting. On
the other hand, the lithium battery should prevent loss of memory.

Other radios, both Icom and Kenwood, have 3.6 volt lithium cells. It is
possible that your radio will lose memory below 3.0, but I've had them
maintain memory when the battery was down to about one volt!

A PLL might go out-of-lock because of loss of the reference frequency
(usually a crystal oscillator) or drifted tuning of the VCO. There also
might be a low voltage regulator that has low output, often caused by a
leaky electrolytic capacitor.

Fred
K4DII

Sounds good Fred and thanks for the input. I've gone ahead and ordered
the battery from Icom in Bellevue, for that and the other to bands (1
and .7meters) since they are over 5-7 years old. Cheap to try at 7
bucks a battery. I'll really like the IC-x8 series. Even though they
only have three PL tones on the memory they work well in high RF areas
and simple to operate. I wish I could say the same for my VX5R. You
have to become a damn computer whizz just to do anything on it. On the
positve side it is easy to program with the RSS. I just like being able
to make a change on the fly, working on several club's repeaters and
links in the area. Also the Tx audio is great, if you take out that
stupid "rubber".

Karl in Spokane


Fred McKenzie wrote:
In article . com,
wrote:

After several years of trouble free operation I had a strange problem
the other day; it would go "nuts" readout weird and the red TX light
was on, but no RF out. I had to do a reset with the button inside.
Being an older radio my first suspicition was the Lith. back-up batter
was due, but I measure 2.99 v. Assuming it's a nominal 3v battery does
anyone have a though where to go next? I did put it on the bench
powered up. After taking the power away (12v) and returing it a few
hours later it losses memrory.

WA7YCP-

On one hand, this sounds as if a Phase Locked Loop had become unlocked,
which might disrupt the frequency display and prevent transmitting. On
the other hand, the lithium battery should prevent loss of memory.

Other radios, both Icom and Kenwood, have 3.6 volt lithium cells. It is
possible that your radio will lose memory below 3.0, but I've had them
maintain memory when the battery was down to about one volt!

A PLL might go out-of-lock because of loss of the reference frequency
(usually a crystal oscillator) or drifted tuning of the VCO. There also
might be a low voltage regulator that has low output, often caused by a
leaky electrolytic capacitor.

Fred
K4DII

The new battery didn't help. Anyone wanting to sell there IC-28
please give me a all or mail. Domain has my contact info:


http://www.ak2o.org