I am in need of some assistance... My trusty Lowe HF-225 appears to
have
gone bonkers. It appears to be no longer receiving anything outside of
the
normal US AM broadcast band with either a longwire antenna connected to
the
600-ohm lead or with a loaded antenna on the 50-ohm connector. I do not
have the W-225 option installed. Either antenna connected runs the
S-meter
up to about 3-4 but no signals are received on known frequencies above
1.7
MHz (e.g. WWV on 10 MHz) - and the radio does know that there's an
antenna
attached, as the S-meter drops to zero with nothing attached.

Occuring more-or-less simultaneously with this problem has been two
occasions when I have turned on the radio and the display has shown
"flt".
Turning the radio off and back on returns it to normal tuning - but
still
no
signals received other than below 1.7 MHz.

I do not have a service manual for this radio, nor do I really have the
ability to diagnose and repair it properly if I did. This radio has
served
me well since I purchased it and this is the first major problem I've
had.

Unfortunately, a little research on the web indicates that Lowe UK won't
do
business with us in the States, and shops such as RadioLabs who have
serviced Lowe radios in the past no longer do so... so I'm hoping that
one
of you out there who has a Lowe radio might know someone capable of
diagnosing and repairing it. I'm willing to ship it just about anywhere
to
get it repaired - obviously, I'd prefer the US, but will definitely
consider
shipping it outside the US should that be necessary.

Thanks in advance for any help!

FLT ( at least on the 150) indicates a uP fault. The 150's use a small
plastic trimmer for setting the xtal osc. frequency of the uP as this is
used to produce LSB and USB offsets. Note the position of the variable and
rotate it a few times- see if the radio doesn't come back to life.

Dale,

Thanks very much for the reply. I haven't had another problem with the
'flt' display on the radio.

Now if only I could find someone willing to service it. Universal Radio
emailed me back today and said they know of no one in the US who will
service a Lowe. What a shame. I just bought another HF-225 which I hope
will arrive in the next few days from a gentleman in the Netherlands. I'll
have to come up with another suitable power supply for it, but that's no big
deal... but this one has the W-225 and B-225 options installed along with
the sync detector (my current radio just has the sync detector). Kind of
looking forward to having one I can use more 'portably'.

Thanks again.