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Hi Michael!!
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I sincerely hope that you're able to figure out and fix your issues on the FIRST try -- it took me some MONTHS on a used unit; I probably CAUSED some of the failures, and Ashhar and others were a BIG help.??
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No design is perfect.? ?I don't know how many or what percent of units fail due to some "gotchas" in the circuit.? ?It happened to me; Allison pointed it out; it may have happened to you, and I think there may have been another.? ?If our guess is correct, over time, there may be some more of these failures, and therefore some busted units showing up on EBAY until the word gets around how to fix 'em.? ?Unfortunately a lot of ham radio land needs to GROW A BIT in "fix it skills" so there will be some gnashing of teeth associated.? ? ?I had HEATHKITS to start off MY ham radio career, and THEY had design issues that both bedeviled me, AND GREW ME UP with a new skillset in electronics.??
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OTHER THINGS TO FIX:? ?WHILE YOU ARE IN THERE (easy to fix some of this by adding a little SMT resistor tee-pee'd or otherwise in series -- there are some OTHER THINGS you may want to fix as well --?
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SEE THIS NOTE: ? /g/BITX20/wiki/36110
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There I tried to document all the busted diodes that likely *I* caused in my unit, but they still blew.? ?An errant probe can easily blow diodes that have no series resistance when they connect directly to +12!? ? I would encourage you to fixe those while you're there, because the diagnosing of problems in the complicated band-switching T/R circuit is truly difficult for people like me!!? ?When I finally understood what an amazing circuit Ashhar had created to do all that....well it took me a long while.??
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I'm not a manufacturer or quality inspector guy and no one so far knows the prevalence or incidence of these issues.? HF SIGNALS may or may not decide to add a bit of protection; who knows?? ?They have all kinds of very complicating sourcing and manufacturing issues to solve, way way way beyond me or the vast majority of us.? ? ?I have a friend who accidentally hit the PTT button on a baofeng that didn't have an antenna on it and POOF-- no more transmitter.? ? Every design is a compromise; you cannot include protection against EVERYTHING.? ?
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Hope you get that rig working great and have all kinds of fun with it!? ?I'm in the throes of trying to learn how to create a 64-bit disk and their new software and see if I like it, or need to add in some of the special features that I put into my 32-bit version.? ?This is part of the fun of the vast hobby.
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73
Gordon KX4Z
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