Path: sdsmail!seunet!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!noc.near.net!sunfish.hi.com!brainiac.hi.com!user From: steve@hi.com (Steve Byan) Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave Subject: dead ICOM R71A Message-ID: Date: 26 Jan 1994 15:13:41 GMT Followup-To: rec.radio.shortwave Distribution: world Organization: many piles of paper Lines: 55 NNTP-Posting-Host: brainiac.hi.com I'm forwarding the following note I received from Chris Parker, regarding ICOM R71A power supply failures, and info on ICOM's repair of dead R71A battery-backed-up RAM. -Steve -------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Jan 94 08:43:21 EST From: parker@vnet.IBM.COM To: steve@hi.com Steve - I'm not able to post this to the net, and Ken Brooker's address is not recognised by my system. "Dead" R71s...... The power supply board is held in place by about 4 screws on spacers. One of the spacers is the ground connection for the supply. I only found my intermittent by seeing a spark from the bottom of the board!!! Please send me a note if you need clarification. Chris. Date: 14 January 1994, 08:55:02 EST From: PARKER at FSHVMFK1 To: ddc at nyquist.bellcore.com Subject: R71a Dan - how old is your radio? The battery should last at least 7yrs, and I don't know the symptoms when it fails (mine hasn't yet!) - but I have had my radio go completely dead, no sound, no display and NO LIGHTS. The fuse was good - tapping the case 'firmly' fixed the problem for a week or two then it returned - same 'fix' worked again. After the 3rd time I figured I had to find out what the problem really was.... After a LOT of searching I found that the ground from the power supply was connected to the system by a screw contacting a printed circuit land on the power supply board, and it was loose. Tightening has fixed the problem ever since. If the display lights are working that this is probably not your problem - and it could be the battery - ICOM will replace the battery and reprogram the data in RAM for $35! and takes 10 working days.... (or you can do it yourself if you have an eprom programmer and a bit of patience). Let me know if you need details. Chris. parker@vnet.ibm.com (BTW feel free to post this to the net if it's of value) Steve Byan internet: steve@hicomb.hi.com Hitachi Computer Products (America), Inc. 1601 Trapelo Road phone: (617) 890-0444 Waltham, MA 02154 FAX: (617) 890-4998