BDK wrote:

Icom R71a. Was totally dead when I bought it at a hamfest, had a bunch
of bad solder joints and really reeked of smoke. Works 100% now, except
for LSB has a warbling on it that I can't get rid of. Not bad, just
enough to drive me nuts.



That's usually from the cheap trimmers on the PLL board. Replacing
them with ceramics should do it.

In article ,
says...
BDK wrote:

Icom R71a. Was totally dead when I bought it at a hamfest, had a bunch
of bad solder joints and really reeked of smoke. Works 100% now, except
for LSB has a warbling on it that I can't get rid of. Not bad, just
enough to drive me nuts.



That's usually from the cheap trimmers on the PLL board. Replacing
them with ceramics should do it.



I replaced all of them already, maybe one of the new ones is bad. Thanks
anyway for the hint. I think there still might be a cracked joint or a
part with a bad lead. I pushed around on the PC board and got it to stop
ONCE, for about a minute, but I haven't been able to affect it much
since then. I got a new can of freeze spray a while back, and may try it
and see what happens. It gets slightly worse as it warms up. Slightly.
If I can find the part, it should be a 10 minute fix. Then I can sell it
for a nice price, since it looks great now.

I was amazed at how many bad looking joints are in every R71A I have
looked at, and it's at least a half dozen. Same goes for about every
other Icom transceiver made about 20 years ago. Most aren't really bad,
but they sure look like they will be. Kenwood's soldering looks better,
in general, but my 850 had a lot of bad electrolytics, and whoever
decided to put 15V caps in the 13.8 side of that rig should have been
canned. A bunch of the 10V ones in my radio were totally dried out, and
a few were leaking. About 10 bucks worth of new caps, and a lot of work,
and it's very nice now. I have a slight whine on 25-27 mhz, but it goes
away with an antenna hooked up. I think it may be normal.

BDK

BDK wrote:
In article ,
says...
BDK wrote:
Icom R71a. Was totally dead when I bought it at a hamfest, had a bunch
of bad solder joints and really reeked of smoke. Works 100% now, except
for LSB has a warbling on it that I can't get rid of. Not bad, just
enough to drive me nuts.


That's usually from the cheap trimmers on the PLL board. Replacing
them with ceramics should do it.



I replaced all of them already, maybe one of the new ones is bad. Thanks
anyway for the hint. I think there still might be a cracked joint or a
part with a bad lead. I pushed around on the PC board and got it to stop
ONCE, for about a minute, but I haven't been able to affect it much
since then. I got a new can of freeze spray a while back, and may try it
and see what happens. It gets slightly worse as it warms up. Slightly.
If I can find the part, it should be a 10 minute fix. Then I can sell it
for a nice price, since it looks great now.


'From what you describe, a cold solder joint sounds a likely
candidate. R71, R7000 and R7100 were particularly prone to
deteriorating solder connections. Mostly due to heat generated by the
regulator, which was woefully overtaxed.

Often, replacing the regulator with something more robust would solve
many problems.



I was amazed at how many bad looking joints are in every R71A I have
looked at, and it's at least a half dozen. Same goes for about every
other Icom transceiver made about 20 years ago. Most aren't really bad,
but they sure look like they will be. Kenwood's soldering looks better,
in general, but my 850 had a lot of bad electrolytics, and whoever
decided to put 15V caps in the 13.8 side of that rig should have been
canned.


Actually, the principles of good design recommend that electrolytics
be operated as closely as possible to their rated working voltage. This
helps keep the capacitor properly formed over a longer period of time,
and it helps reduce leakage.

An electrolytic operated an appreciable distance from it's working
voltage rating will be more prone to diffuse leakage, though less prone
to perforation.


A bunch of the 10V ones in my radio were totally dried out, and
a few were leaking. About 10 bucks worth of new caps, and a lot of work,
and it's very nice now. I have a slight whine on 25-27 mhz, but it goes
away with an antenna hooked up. I think it may be normal.


Now, that I've NOT encountered. Do let us know if the condition
changes. That may be an interesting challenge to hunt down.





BDK

On Sep 6, 10:17 am, BDK wrote:
In article . com, rhf-
says...





On Sep 5, 1:35 pm, BDK wrote:
In article .com, rhf-
says...

On Sep 2, 4:17 pm, RHF wrote:
On Sep 2, 4:01 pm, Eric F. Richards wrote:

BDK wrote:
No R-75 I have ever used had any of those problems.

BDK

Well, I suggest you use Google and read up on my experiences, because
I was quite vocal about them in the past. The most R-75 favorable
test came out in this thread, started May 5, 2002.

Message-ID:

For One and All,

The Great Debate of Radio User's Opinions :

Round # 1 - Drake R8 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

- - - now it would appear it is - - -

Round # 2 - Yaesu FRG100 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

So Tell Use Wants Your Opinion ?

cause it's simply about shortwave radio ~ RHF
.
.
. .

For One and All,

The Great Debate of Radio User's Opinions :

Round # 1 - Drake R8 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

- - - now it would appear it is - - -

Round # 2 - Yaesu FRG100 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

So Tell Us What Is Your Opinion ?

cause it's simply about shortwave radio ~ RHF
.
.
. .

#1 R8
#2 R75
#3 FRG-100

Not really wanting to own any of them..

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

BDK - Then what do you own ? ~ RHF
.

At this time:

JRC NRD-515 "Gilfer" with the "knobpot" fine tune mod, with 500HZ and
300HZ added filters. 96 Ch mem box, and the crappy sounding NSD-515
speaker I don't use. Bought it 21 years ago last month. Needs a little
touch up alignment on the PBT.

JRC NRD-525 later production with the Kiwa Ultimate rejection mod, with
1.8KHZ and 500HZ filters added.

Kenwood TS-850SAT, with 1.8KHZ SSB filter added. I recently recapped it
and changed the battery ..works great.

Hammarlund HQ-100, added product detector, and with a whole lot of other
mods. Equal or better than anything under 500 bucks I've put against it,
except where stability is concerned. Sounds great too. Bought on Ebay
for 58.00, including shipping. Only problem has been a 12AX7 went funky
and it sounded nasty until I replaced it.

Allied SX-190, Weak on all bands except for 9.4-10MHZ, where everything
is blasting in now. I still can't figure out why the other bands are so
far down. Has to be something minor since the one band is working so
well. When I bought it, it was nearly deaf, and was very dirty outside,
very clean inside. I put the case through the dishwasher, and it came
out looking great, just a few minor scratches on it. All the original
light bulbs still work!

Icom R71a. Was totally dead when I bought it at a hamfest, had a bunch
of bad solder joints and really reeked of smoke. Works 100% now, except
for LSB has a warbling on it that I can't get rid of. Not bad, just
enough to drive me nuts. Even after trying everything to get rid of it,
including washing the case in the dishwasher, it still reeks, just not
as bad as it did before.

That's it for now..

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

BDK - That's a nice set of Radios in you Shack.

How do you like JRC NRD-525 ? I have read
somewhere that it is a good AM/MW Dxing
Radio - What's your opinion on that ? ~ RHF

In article .com, rhf-
says...
On Sep 6, 10:17 am, BDK wrote:
In article . com, rhf-
says...





On Sep 5, 1:35 pm, BDK wrote:
In article .com, rhf-
says...

On Sep 2, 4:17 pm, RHF wrote:
On Sep 2, 4:01 pm, Eric F. Richards wrote:

BDK wrote:
No R-75 I have ever used had any of those problems.

BDK

Well, I suggest you use Google and read up on my experiences, because
I was quite vocal about them in the past. The most R-75 favorable
test came out in this thread, started May 5, 2002.

Message-ID:

For One and All,

The Great Debate of Radio User's Opinions :

Round # 1 - Drake R8 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

- - - now it would appear it is - - -

Round # 2 - Yaesu FRG100 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

So Tell Use Wants Your Opinion ?

cause it's simply about shortwave radio ~ RHF
.
.
. .

For One and All,

The Great Debate of Radio User's Opinions :

Round # 1 - Drake R8 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

- - - now it would appear it is - - -

Round # 2 - Yaesu FRG100 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

So Tell Us What Is Your Opinion ?

cause it's simply about shortwave radio ~ RHF
.
.
. .

#1 R8
#2 R75
#3 FRG-100

Not really wanting to own any of them..

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

BDK - Then what do you own ? ~ RHF
.

At this time:

JRC NRD-515 "Gilfer" with the "knobpot" fine tune mod, with 500HZ and
300HZ added filters. 96 Ch mem box, and the crappy sounding NSD-515
speaker I don't use. Bought it 21 years ago last month. Needs a little
touch up alignment on the PBT.

JRC NRD-525 later production with the Kiwa Ultimate rejection mod, with
1.8KHZ and 500HZ filters added.

Kenwood TS-850SAT, with 1.8KHZ SSB filter added. I recently recapped it
and changed the battery ..works great.

Hammarlund HQ-100, added product detector, and with a whole lot of other
mods. Equal or better than anything under 500 bucks I've put against it,
except where stability is concerned. Sounds great too. Bought on Ebay
for 58.00, including shipping. Only problem has been a 12AX7 went funky
and it sounded nasty until I replaced it.

Allied SX-190, Weak on all bands except for 9.4-10MHZ, where everything
is blasting in now. I still can't figure out why the other bands are so
far down. Has to be something minor since the one band is working so
well. When I bought it, it was nearly deaf, and was very dirty outside,
very clean inside. I put the case through the dishwasher, and it came
out looking great, just a few minor scratches on it. All the original
light bulbs still work!

Icom R71a. Was totally dead when I bought it at a hamfest, had a bunch
of bad solder joints and really reeked of smoke. Works 100% now, except
for LSB has a warbling on it that I can't get rid of. Not bad, just
enough to drive me nuts. Even after trying everything to get rid of it,
including washing the case in the dishwasher, it still reeks, just not
as bad as it did before.

That's it for now..

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

BDK - That's a nice set of Radios in you Shack.

How do you like JRC NRD-525 ? I have read
somewhere that it is a good AM/MW Dxing
Radio - What's your opinion on that ? ~ RHF
.



It should be, I primarily do UTES not DX though. It's plenty sensitive
down there, especially with the input filter bypassed (By the keyboard
command). It works great for everything, pretty much.

I had one of the first 525's made and it had a couple of issues that
annoyed me a little. The earlier ones hiss pretty bad in general, and if
your ears are still good, it will annoy you. Later ones are a lot
better. The hiss problem can be solved by just turning the speaker so
it's not facing you, so it's not a huge thing. If you are like a lot of
my friends in their 40's and 50's, you will say, "What hiss?" My ears
are still pretty good, so I just laugh when they say that. Apparently
I'm rare, I can still hear past 20khz with my right ear, and to about
17khz with my left. Going to drag races without ear plugs, and having a
big dog whose hobby seemed to be yelping like he was being killed every
time I started to get out of my car has left a dip in the response in my
right ear, right where women's voices are, and so my hearing is crap
compared to 20 or 30 years ago, where I could hear quartz watches
humming 20 feet away.

The early ones had an AGC issue where fast AGC was "clicky" on very
strong signals. The later ones don't do this, and the S-Meter isn't
nearly as "spastic" as the first ones are.

None of this really means anything in any SSB mode, where the 525 is
really good. Not quite as sensitive as my 515, or the Drake R7a I had
here for a while (fresh from A Drake checkup), but very close. Since my
515 is modded, it's not a really fair comparison. The R7A and the 515
were roughly equal on some freqs, and on the low end the Drake was
better, and above 25MHZ, the 515 was more sensitive. Both of them, in
the winter when it's quiet, could pick up SSB voice comms that were
amazingly weak with perfect copy.

If I had to pick one single receiver, I would have to take the 515, just
because of the Drake's horrible ergonomics. JRC is the best ever, IMO,
in the "pleasure to use" category. Even the later ones, the 535 and 545
are nice to use compared to most other radios.

One more thing to watch for if you look at buying a 525, the keypads are
wearing out on them, and if a previous owner was a "puncher", it's a
headache to fix. JRC used very cheap switches on the pad, so they don't
take abuse well, and a couple of the ones I worked on have had broken
traces on the front panel PC board. JRC had a ton of the switches, and
any other place like Digi-Key sells the same, or close enough to work
switches for about 20 cents each.

BDK

On Sep 7, 9:03 am, BDK wrote:
In article .com, rhf-
says...





On Sep 6, 10:17 am, BDK wrote:
In article . com, rhf-
says...

On Sep 5, 1:35 pm, BDK wrote:
In article .com, rhf-
says...

On Sep 2, 4:17 pm, RHF wrote:
On Sep 2, 4:01 pm, Eric F. Richards wrote:

BDK wrote:
No R-75 I have ever used had any of those problems.

BDK

Well, I suggest you use Google and read up on my experiences, because
I was quite vocal about them in the past. The most R-75 favorable
test came out in this thread, started May 5, 2002.

Message-ID:

For One and All,

The Great Debate of Radio User's Opinions :

Round # 1 - Drake R8 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

- - - now it would appear it is - - -

Round # 2 - Yaesu FRG100 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

So Tell Use Wants Your Opinion ?

cause it's simply about shortwave radio ~ RHF
.
.
. .

For One and All,

The Great Debate of Radio User's Opinions :

Round # 1 - Drake R8 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

- - - now it would appear it is - - -

Round # 2 - Yaesu FRG100 -versus- the Icom IC-R75

So Tell Us What Is Your Opinion ?

cause it's simply about shortwave radio ~ RHF
.
.
. .

#1 R8
#2 R75
#3 FRG-100

Not really wanting to own any of them..

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

BDK - Then what do you own ? ~ RHF
.

At this time:

JRC NRD-515 "Gilfer" with the "knobpot" fine tune mod, with 500HZ and
300HZ added filters. 96 Ch mem box, and the crappy sounding NSD-515
speaker I don't use. Bought it 21 years ago last month. Needs a little
touch up alignment on the PBT.

JRC NRD-525 later production with the Kiwa Ultimate rejection mod, with
1.8KHZ and 500HZ filters added.

Kenwood TS-850SAT, with 1.8KHZ SSB filter added. I recently recapped it
and changed the battery ..works great.

Hammarlund HQ-100, added product detector, and with a whole lot of other
mods. Equal or better than anything under 500 bucks I've put against it,
except where stability is concerned. Sounds great too. Bought on Ebay
for 58.00, including shipping. Only problem has been a 12AX7 went funky
and it sounded nasty until I replaced it.

Allied SX-190, Weak on all bands except for 9.4-10MHZ, where everything
is blasting in now. I still can't figure out why the other bands are so
far down. Has to be something minor since the one band is working so
well. When I bought it, it was nearly deaf, and was very dirty outside,
very clean inside. I put the case through the dishwasher, and it came
out looking great, just a few minor scratches on it. All the original
light bulbs still work!

Icom R71a. Was totally dead when I bought it at a hamfest, had a bunch
of bad solder joints and really reeked of smoke. Works 100% now, except
for LSB has a warbling on it that I can't get rid of. Not bad, just
enough to drive me nuts. Even after trying everything to get rid of it,
including washing the case in the dishwasher, it still reeks, just not
as bad as it did before.

That's it for now..

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

BDK - That's a nice set of Radios in you Shack.

How do you like JRC NRD-525 ? I have read
somewhere that it is a good AM/MW Dxing
Radio - What's your opinion on that ? ~ RHF
.

It should be, I primarily do UTES not DX though. It's plenty sensitive
down there, especially with the input filter bypassed (By the keyboard
command). It works great for everything, pretty much.

I had one of the first 525's made and it had a couple of issues that
annoyed me a little. The earlier ones hiss pretty bad in general, and if
your ears are still good, it will annoy you. Later ones are a lot
better. The hiss problem can be solved by just turning the speaker so
it's not facing you, so it's not a huge thing. If you are like a lot of
my friends in their 40's and 50's, you will say, "What hiss?" My ears
are still pretty good, so I just laugh when they say that. Apparently
I'm rare, I can still hear past 20khz with my right ear, and to about
17khz with my left. Going to drag races without ear plugs, and having a
big dog whose hobby seemed to be yelping like he was being killed every
time I started to get out of my car has left a dip in the response in my
right ear, right where women's voices are, and so my hearing is crap
compared to 20 or 30 years ago, where I could hear quartz watches
humming 20 feet away.

The early ones had an AGC issue where fast AGC was "clicky" on very
strong signals. The later ones don't do this, and the S-Meter isn't
nearly as "spastic" as the first ones are.

None of this really means anything in any SSB mode, where the 525 is
really good. Not quite as sensitive as my 515, or the Drake R7a I had
here for a while (fresh from A Drake checkup), but very close. Since my
515 is modded, it's not a really fair comparison. The R7A and the 515
were roughly equal on some freqs, and on the low end the Drake was
better, and above 25MHZ, the 515 was more sensitive. Both of them, in
the winter when it's quiet, could pick up SSB voice comms that were
amazingly weak with perfect copy.

If I had to pick one single receiver, I would have to take the 515, just
because of the Drake's horrible ergonomics. JRC is the best ever, IMO,
in the "pleasure to use" category. Even the later ones, the 535 and 545
are nice to use compared to most other radios.

One more thing to watch for if you look at buying a 525, the keypads are
wearing out on them, and if a previous owner was a "puncher", it's a
headache to fix. JRC used very cheap switches on the pad, so they don't
take abuse well, and a couple of the ones I worked on have had broken
traces on the front panel PC board. JRC had a ton of the switches, and
any other place like Digi-Key sells the same, or close enough to work
switches for about 20 cents each.

BDK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

BDK - Thank You for the very informative reply ~ RHF