What's wrong with my radio?
 

My Yaesu FRG-8800 has been acting strangely. Tonight while listening to
the BBC on 5975 I had blasts of static interrupt the broadcast. Finally
around 0310 the broadcast became inaudible. This is a problem with my
radio, since ALL stations all across the spectrum are now inaudible. I
tuned up to 6050 khz as well as checked WWV on 5 Mhz and everything has
gone deaf. I suspect that my troubles with listening to Cuba are related
to the same problem. A week ago I had a brief problem where a very
staticky Radio Australia swamped the spectrum. What could possibly be
wrong with my radio? How can I contact Yaesu? I had their contact info
years ago when I had to send my radio in for repairs twice, but I lost
it.

What's wrong with my radio?
 

Brenda Ann wrote:
"running dogg" wrote in message
...
My Yaesu FRG-8800 has been acting strangely. Tonight while listening to
the BBC on 5975 I had blasts of static interrupt the broadcast. Finally
around 0310 the broadcast became inaudible. This is a problem with my
radio, since ALL stations all across the spectrum are now inaudible. I
tuned up to 6050 khz as well as checked WWV on 5 Mhz and everything has
gone deaf. I suspect that my troubles with listening to Cuba are related
to the same problem. A week ago I had a brief problem where a very
staticky Radio Australia swamped the spectrum. What could possibly be
wrong with my radio? How can I contact Yaesu? I had their contact info
years ago when I had to send my radio in for repairs twice, but I lost
it.


They didn't just start up BPL in your area, did they?

....and if you are not sure about BPL coming to a neighborhood near you,
do you have a second radio that you can try?

What's wrong with my radio?
 

I doubt (although I am no expert on radios) the radio itself is creating
that static all by itself.The static is bound to be coming from
somewhere else.
cuhulin

What's wrong with my radio?
 

Carter, K8VT wrote:

Brenda Ann wrote:
"running dogg" wrote in message
...
My Yaesu FRG-8800 has been acting strangely. Tonight while listening to
the BBC on 5975 I had blasts of static interrupt the broadcast. Finally
around 0310 the broadcast became inaudible. This is a problem with my
radio, since ALL stations all across the spectrum are now inaudible. I
tuned up to 6050 khz as well as checked WWV on 5 Mhz and everything has
gone deaf. I suspect that my troubles with listening to Cuba are related
to the same problem. A week ago I had a brief problem where a very
staticky Radio Australia swamped the spectrum. What could possibly be
wrong with my radio? How can I contact Yaesu? I had their contact info
years ago when I had to send my radio in for repairs twice, but I lost
it.


They didn't just start up BPL in your area, did they?

....and if you are not sure about BPL coming to a neighborhood near you,
do you have a second radio that you can try?

I pulled my Degen 1102 out of storage, and everything is fine on that
radio. I unplugged my Yaesu and plugged it back in after 15 minutes, and
suddenly it was ok. It is definitely the Yaesu, maybe a corroded
connection. At least I have a backup. But listening to Cuba is
frustrating on the Degen, since the limits of the Degen's circuitry
exacerbate the problems with Havana's audio, making mush out of most of
the broadcast. Tonight they were talking about the secret terror suspect
shuttle service, and how terrible it was that America has 12.5% of its
population living in poverty while the rich build giant shopping malls.
;)

What's wrong with my radio?
 

On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:19:18 -0800, running dogg wrote:


I pulled my Degen 1102 out of storage, and everything is fine on that
radio. I unplugged my Yaesu and plugged it back in after 15 minutes, and
suddenly it was ok. It is definitely the Yaesu, maybe a corroded
connection. At least I have a backup. But listening to Cuba is
frustrating on the Degen, since the limits of the Degen's circuitry
exacerbate the problems with Havana's audio, making mush out of most of
the broadcast. Tonight they were talking about the secret terror suspect
shuttle service, and how terrible it was that America has 12.5% of its
population living in poverty while the rich build giant shopping malls.
;)

You may want to remove the cabinet screws and get some freeze spray
handy. Next time it happens cool each component one at a time to see
if you can isolate the anomaly.

What's wrong with my radio?
 

Kinda looks like you've been hit by the BPL monster. I live within 75
feet of Taylor University's library-where all the computers are. On
nights when the students do home work at the library, my HF-225 goes
thru the same throes. The students summer vacation is my DX time now.
Jack

When in trouble or in doubt
run in circles, scream and shout.

What's wrong with my radio?
 

In article ,
running dogg wrote:
My Yaesu FRG-8800 has been acting strangely. Tonight while listening to
the BBC on 5975 I had blasts of static interrupt the broadcast. Finally
around 0310 the broadcast became inaudible. This is a problem with my
radio, since ALL stations all across the spectrum are now inaudible. I
tuned up to 6050 khz as well as checked WWV on 5 Mhz and everything has
gone deaf. I suspect that my troubles with listening to Cuba are related
to the same problem. A week ago I had a brief problem where a very
staticky Radio Australia swamped the spectrum. What could possibly be
wrong with my radio? How can I contact Yaesu? I had their contact info
years ago when I had to send my radio in for repairs twice, but I lost
it.

Generalizing by the same sort of problems with my Kenwood R-1000,
I'd first look at the power supply cabling and connectors. 1980 era
Japanese radio designers thought those 2.5 mm connectors were really
neat and managed to design stuff that tried to put way too many amperes
through one really small contact. Look for connector shells turning brown
or pins in the terminal strips/headers that have desoldered themselves
from the PC board.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

What's wrong with my radio?
 

What's wrong with my radio?
 

running dogg - Has this been a daytime thing too, or just evenings?

Bruce Jensen

What's wrong with my radio?
 

bpnjensen wrote:

running dogg - Has this been a daytime thing too, or just evenings?

Bruce Jensen


Haven't checked in the daytime. Last time I checked 11 Mhz band, it was
totally dead. This was around 2000 UTC. I did notice a LOT of birdies
however, which I attributed to my computer. It seems that I'll have the
Yaesu go dead, I'll turn it off and unplug it for 15 minutes, then it
will be fine. I haven't noticed any similar problems on my Degen.

What's wrong with my radio?
 

Does the radio have a little battery in it? Sort of like a little round
digital watch battery similar in computers.Looks like some sort of a hit
and miss thingy.
cuhulin

What's wrong with my radio?
 

Uh, what's BPL

wrote in message
...
Kinda looks like you've been hit by the BPL monster. I live within 75
feet of Taylor University's library-where all the computers are. On
nights when the students do home work at the library, my HF-225 goes
thru the same throes. The students summer vacation is my DX time now.
Jack

When in trouble or in doubt
run in circles, scream and shout.

What's wrong with my radio?
 

BPL is Broadband over Power Lines.You dont want it in your city or
neighborhood.
cuhulin

What's wrong with my radio? UPDATE
 

running dogg wrote:

My Yaesu FRG-8800 has been acting strangely. Tonight while listening to
the BBC on 5975 I had blasts of static interrupt the broadcast. Finally
around 0310 the broadcast became inaudible. This is a problem with my
radio, since ALL stations all across the spectrum are now inaudible. I
tuned up to 6050 khz as well as checked WWV on 5 Mhz and everything has
gone deaf. I suspect that my troubles with listening to Cuba are related
to the same problem. A week ago I had a brief problem where a very
staticky Radio Australia swamped the spectrum. What could possibly be
wrong with my radio? How can I contact Yaesu? I had their contact info
years ago when I had to send my radio in for repairs twice, but I lost
it.


I turned off the computer. I was listening to BBC English on 5975 when,
ten minutes into the broadcast, loud popping noises started going off
rapidly causing abrupt changes in signal level, like I reported before.
I immediately switched over to the Degen, and I had no further problems
for 20 minutes until I turned the radio off. The fact that I experienced
the problems ONLY with the Yaesu and not with the Degen rules out BPL or
some other external RFI source as the problem. I opened up the Yaesu and
cleaned it with compressed air since there was some dust inside, but I
still had the problem. It IS the Yaesu that is causing the problem, not
the computer or the ethernet connection or BPL or some other external
source. I did not experience these problems while tuning through the
15Mhz band earlier today. It appears that once the Yaesu heats up that
some connection fails. It appears that continued listening on one
frequency for about 10 minutes causes this heating up and failing. Any
ideas?

What's wrong with my radio? UPDATE
 

It sounds like your PLL is going out of lock............could be a faulty
trimmer capacitor that is used to warp the reference crystal on frequency.
Check the phase detector input for the reference frequency.

Pete

"running dogg" wrote in message
...
running dogg wrote:

My Yaesu FRG-8800 has been acting strangely. Tonight while listening to
the BBC on 5975 I had blasts of static interrupt the broadcast. Finally
around 0310 the broadcast became inaudible. This is a problem with my
radio, since ALL stations all across the spectrum are now inaudible. I
tuned up to 6050 khz as well as checked WWV on 5 Mhz and everything has
gone deaf. I suspect that my troubles with listening to Cuba are related
to the same problem. A week ago I had a brief problem where a very
staticky Radio Australia swamped the spectrum. What could possibly be
wrong with my radio? How can I contact Yaesu? I had their contact info
years ago when I had to send my radio in for repairs twice, but I lost
it.


I turned off the computer. I was listening to BBC English on 5975 when,
ten minutes into the broadcast, loud popping noises started going off
rapidly causing abrupt changes in signal level, like I reported before.
I immediately switched over to the Degen, and I had no further problems
for 20 minutes until I turned the radio off. The fact that I experienced
the problems ONLY with the Yaesu and not with the Degen rules out BPL or
some other external RFI source as the problem. I opened up the Yaesu and
cleaned it with compressed air since there was some dust inside, but I
still had the problem. It IS the Yaesu that is causing the problem, not
the computer or the ethernet connection or BPL or some other external
source. I did not experience these problems while tuning through the
15Mhz band earlier today. It appears that once the Yaesu heats up that
some connection fails. It appears that continued listening on one
frequency for about 10 minutes causes this heating up and failing. Any
ideas?

What's wrong with my radio? UPDATE
 

Pete KE9OA wrote:

It sounds like your PLL is going out of lock............could be a faulty
trimmer capacitor that is used to warp the reference crystal on frequency.
Check the phase detector input for the reference frequency.

I have no clue how to service modern radios. I'll have to send it to
Yaesu.


Pete

"running dogg" wrote in message
...
running dogg wrote:

My Yaesu FRG-8800 has been acting strangely. Tonight while listening to
the BBC on 5975 I had blasts of static interrupt the broadcast. Finally
around 0310 the broadcast became inaudible. This is a problem with my
radio, since ALL stations all across the spectrum are now inaudible. I
tuned up to 6050 khz as well as checked WWV on 5 Mhz and everything has
gone deaf. I suspect that my troubles with listening to Cuba are related
to the same problem. A week ago I had a brief problem where a very
staticky Radio Australia swamped the spectrum. What could possibly be
wrong with my radio? How can I contact Yaesu? I had their contact info
years ago when I had to send my radio in for repairs twice, but I lost
it.


I turned off the computer. I was listening to BBC English on 5975 when,
ten minutes into the broadcast, loud popping noises started going off
rapidly causing abrupt changes in signal level, like I reported before.
I immediately switched over to the Degen, and I had no further problems
for 20 minutes until I turned the radio off. The fact that I experienced
the problems ONLY with the Yaesu and not with the Degen rules out BPL or
some other external RFI source as the problem. I opened up the Yaesu and
cleaned it with compressed air since there was some dust inside, but I
still had the problem. It IS the Yaesu that is causing the problem, not
the computer or the ethernet connection or BPL or some other external
source. I did not experience these problems while tuning through the
15Mhz band earlier today. It appears that once the Yaesu heats up that
some connection fails. It appears that continued listening on one
frequency for about 10 minutes causes this heating up and failing. Any
ideas?

What's wrong with my radio? UPDATE
 

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:10:09 -0800, running dogg wrote:

Pete KE9OA wrote:

It sounds like your PLL is going out of lock............could be a faulty
trimmer capacitor that is used to warp the reference crystal on frequency.
Check the phase detector input for the reference frequency.

I have no clue how to service modern radios. I'll have to send it to
Yaesu.


Pete

I would concur -- I have an Icom 735, and at one time, after being on
for a few minutes it would go blank all across the spectrum -- the
inexpensive plastic trimmer caps for the VFO needed replacing; a
technician replaced them all with new ceramic caps, and that solved
the problem. Sounds like maybe Yaesu is using cheapo trimmer caps,
too. You might check their web site -- see if they have any service
sheets with common problems on your rig. You'll probably have to send
it in for service.

bob
k5qwg



"running dogg" wrote in message
...
running dogg wrote:

My Yaesu FRG-8800 has been acting strangely. Tonight while listening to
the BBC on 5975 I had blasts of static interrupt the broadcast. Finally
around 0310 the broadcast became inaudible. This is a problem with my
radio, since ALL stations all across the spectrum are now inaudible. I
tuned up to 6050 khz as well as checked WWV on 5 Mhz and everything has
gone deaf. I suspect that my troubles with listening to Cuba are related
to the same problem. A week ago I had a brief problem where a very
staticky Radio Australia swamped the spectrum. What could possibly be
wrong with my radio? How can I contact Yaesu? I had their contact info
years ago when I had to send my radio in for repairs twice, but I lost
it.


I turned off the computer. I was listening to BBC English on 5975 when,
ten minutes into the broadcast, loud popping noises started going off
rapidly causing abrupt changes in signal level, like I reported before.
I immediately switched over to the Degen, and I had no further problems
for 20 minutes until I turned the radio off. The fact that I experienced
the problems ONLY with the Yaesu and not with the Degen rules out BPL or
some other external RFI source as the problem. I opened up the Yaesu and
cleaned it with compressed air since there was some dust inside, but I
still had the problem. It IS the Yaesu that is causing the problem, not
the computer or the ethernet connection or BPL or some other external
source. I did not experience these problems while tuning through the
15Mhz band earlier today. It appears that once the Yaesu heats up that
some connection fails. It appears that continued listening on one
frequency for about 10 minutes causes this heating up and failing. Any
ideas?

What's wrong with my radio? UPDATE
 

Bob Miller wrote:

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:10:09 -0800, running dogg wrote:

Pete KE9OA wrote:

It sounds like your PLL is going out of lock............could be a faulty
trimmer capacitor that is used to warp the reference crystal on frequency.
Check the phase detector input for the reference frequency.

I have no clue how to service modern radios. I'll have to send it to
Yaesu.


Pete

I would concur -- I have an Icom 735, and at one time, after being on
for a few minutes it would go blank all across the spectrum -- the
inexpensive plastic trimmer caps for the VFO needed replacing; a
technician replaced them all with new ceramic caps, and that solved
the problem. Sounds like maybe Yaesu is using cheapo trimmer caps,
too. You might check their web site -- see if they have any service
sheets with common problems on your rig. You'll probably have to send
it in for service.

Unfortunately, I don't have the money to do so at this time. Somebody
reminded me that the last time I had it in for service, Yaesu kept it
for several months, and I had to keep calling them to get them to repair
it. The problem was a blown resistor-a resistor that was a common
problem on 8800's. I may not even fix it. Yaesu rigs don't seem to be
very high quality, at least not the HF receivers. I can get an older
Icom off Ebay for $3-400, and I may go that route. I searched for "Icom
receiver" and turned up 36 matches, of which only a couple were radio
mart offerings.