Sunday 3 April 2011

Not good news

With the higher bands opening up nicely over the weekend I thought I would try my hand at some CW on 15 metres. I started to tune up my trusty TS830s when it blew the fuse. Not the mains fuse, the fuse in the rig. Since this has happened before I was not too concerned and i had some spare fuses to hand. I replaced the fuse and a few minutes later as i keyed the rig, everything went dead again. This time replacing the fuse had no effect. A totally dead rig, no transmit and no receive. I checked the mains plug but no, that fuse was fine. In truth I knew something was more seriously wrong as when the rig died this time there was a small wisp of smoke coming from the top cover! I took off the covers, hoping to see something obvious, perhaps a blown capacitor but there was no visual sign of the fault. Opening up the PA compartment again revealed nothing obvious. i guess it is time to download the service manual and try to check some voltages so it looks like I am going to have to devote some time to the 830s and maybe seek the help of one of the more technical locals eventually. Since this rig is around 30 years old now and has never let me down before I should not complain.

In the meantime I have rewired my CW Key so it works on the FT1000MP. I had a QSO on 80 metres CW with it last night. It works OK but it just doesn't sound as nice on receive as the old TS830.

5 comments:

  1. It's a pretty old age for an electronic device. I am afraid the rig has died. 73 Paul

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  2. It's good you have another rig to use...I had the FT-1000mp it too is a very good rig. Do post as you find out what is wrong with the 830.

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  4. Hi Kevin

    My old TS830 did that on transmit - would'nt mind betting it's the (2W) ? resistors that sit under the 6146's in the PA.
    73 Peter

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  5. Paul,

    You may be right, I hope your wrong! :)

    Mike- I will update this blog with any developments

    Ian, Yes I agree and the 830 is a lovely old rig

    Peter-Thanks for that- I will take a look.

    73 and thanks for all your comments-Kevin

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