Hey all, I've had my QCX+ collecting dust for a few years.? When it was shelved, everything was working fine (according to a much more knowledge ham than myself - he had to fix a small assembly issue).? My son decided he wanted to learn CW so we've dusted it off and have been practicing a bit.? The first few days, after powering the unit on it would somewhat randomly reduce the volume almost completely.? We'd turn the volume all the way up on the radio and the speaker and could barely hear the dits and dahs.? After a minute or two, the volume would slowly return to normal (and we'd reduce the volume on the radio and the speaker).? It started to get worse, and now it's to the point where after about 5 seconds preceding power on the volume dies almost completely and never comes back.? If there is a transmission on frequency after power on it sounds beautiful, for about 5 seconds.? This occurs with or without an antenna connection (we are careful to put it into practice mode without an antenna) as well as with a dummy load.? It happens with an external speaker as well as with normal ear buds.? It happens on battery or on mains, but when on mains there's the added nuisance of odd high-pitched chirping as the volume is decreased to almost nothing.??
I'm moderately okay with electronics, but troubleshooting them is above my head.? I'm fine with a multi-meter and can follow steps fairly well, I just don't even know where to start.? I have tried resetting the radio to factory defaults and performing the alignment steps.? The alignment is odd though, the values are very, very low even with the volume all the way up.? The Peak BPF value is towards the bottom of the 06 range.? With the volume half way up, the I-Q bal range is 03.? The video indicates it should be around 10, but if I increase the volume all the way up, it's barely to the top of the 03 range.? Phase Lo is in the 02, and Phase Hi is in the 03 range.??
Other parameters that might matter: Firmware is 1.07a.? 40 meter band.? I do have the TXCO, no GPS module.? No modifications from the build manual except for a header on the JP17 to use the battery meter with a small jumper cable (which hasn't been working properly either).? When on battery I use a 3S 11.1V Li-Po battery.? When on mains I use 12V wall warts and have tried 2 different ones that work fine for other uses.? I have the official enclosure.? That's all I can think of but am happy to answer anything else.? Thanks in advance.
