[Kenwood] TM 251a Mobile Transceiver Problem( for anyone owning this model, please read and advise.)

Sun, 5 Jan 2003 17:52:55 -0600

The connector going from the control unit to the display unit is at fault.
It's not the display. When you disassembled it to clean the display, guess
what, you unplugged and replugged the connector and it worked for a while
then quit gain because it wasn't replaced.
Clif Holland, KA5IPF
We have moved, do you have the new address??
AVVid
Authorized Kenwood and Icom Amateur Service
www.avvid.com
1-800-214-5779
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Tarkington" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 5:20 PM
Subject: [Kenwood] TM 251a Mobile Transceiver Problem( for anyone owning
this model, please read and advise.)
> Between us, my friend and I own three of subject radios purchased new a
> number of years ago just after they were placed on t he market. All
> developed the same problem after about a year ( you know, just after the
> warranty expired!) which I will describe as best I can: All radios have
> amber backlit displays with black LED's or somesuch device constituting
the
> displayed data. The individual display elements all go into motion in an
> unsychronized fashion and blinking on and off. It does matter if a
> particular data info readout is turned on or off, everything moves and
> blinks, then sometimes some will just stay off for a while and other just
> keep going in motion. This erratic display phenomena does not affect any
of
> the radio's settings including frequency, and they continue to operate
> perfectly except for the display. However, this problem makes them mostly
> useless, since one can never tell exactly what is or is not being
displayed.
> At first, this happened on an intermittent basis, but over time grew
> steadily worse, until it happened the instant the power was switched on.
> Sometimes a sharp blow would stabilize things for a brief while, but as
time
> went on this temporary measure became less and less effective. It does
not
> appear to be related to temperature, or vibration for that matter.
> Sometimes, the display will stabilize for a few hours, but sooner or later
> goes back to the same exasperating condition. Yes, I called KW more than
> once, and they declared they had never heard of such a phenomena with this
> specific radio. Not sure I believe them though. I finally disassembled
one
> display looking for a bad connection or solder joint. Found nothing. Had
> heard that the previous model, the TM241a, typically had display problems
> when a display connector had solder joints go bad. However, I also own a
> 241, and find the displays are not very similar in construction, at least
to
> my limited ability to make that determination. These radios cost us about
> 450ドル new and are obviously worth much less now, and probably nothing with
> this problem unresolved. I paid one tech 50ドル to repair if he could, and
it
> helped for about a week, then started again. Upon quizzing him, found he
> had disassembled the display and simply cleaned the plastic face with
> alcohol. This is what led me to try it myself, with same results. I do
not
> understand how this display works as I could not find a connecting cable.
> I did find at the heart of it an opaque plastic looking materiel that lays
> directly in contact with what looks to be the same type connections as one
> sees on a computer card edge connector. Cleaning both the plastic and the
> edge connectors does not seem to permanently fix the radio. Oh I have
found
> numerous technicians who are more than happy to take a look at 65ドル an hour
> with no gurantees. I am reluctant to spend much on them given that even
if
> in perfect condition, they are not worth a lot. On the other hand, if I
> could get a good fix, doubt I would want to dispose of them. Reason for
> this long discourse, is to see if anyone else out there in the KW world
> owning this radio has experienced this problem, and can provide some
helpful
> information relative to it. Thanks for your time in reading this.
Bill/k3yc
>>> - - -
>> Your moderator for this list is:
> Larry Wilson KE1HZ [email protected]
>> _______________________________________________
> Kenwood mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/kenwood
>