[Kenwood] TS-430, slow turn-on on lower frequencies?

Tue Aug 1 16:42:47 EDT 2006

On Tue, 1 Aug 2006 20:00:01 -0000, you wrote:
>Hi All,
>>About a week ago a "condition unknown" TS-430 arrived here, a gift from 
>friend. He'd never powered it up but said that the previous owner claimed 
>"it had problems, probably bad Finals". When I first powered it up (after 
>cleaning it etc.) I found out that it had NO display, no operation and a 
>steady tone in the speaker (sounded like a steady CW sidetone). That 
>problem was traced to bad solder connections (all three) on the 7805 Voltage 
>regulator. Soldering those brought the radio to life and it seems to 
>perform well with ONE exception. Visual examination showed that somebody 
>had indeed been in the "final" compartment but no problems were traced to 
>that area of the unit, thank goodness!!
>>Now, when first powered up it takes a few moments for the lower frequencies 
>(somewhere below 7MHz) to come to life. IF I tune in a steady signal on the 
>BCB band (or a steady strong beacon like FCH on 344KC), or even WWV on 5MHz 
>etc. it takes a moment for the station to come in, and it will take long 
>slow fade-in's and fade-out's (like something looking for a "lock"). It is 
>very obvious if you put a 75M frequency in one memory and a 40M frequency in 
>another and switch back and forth. 40M comes up immediately, the 75M signal 
>has a delay. After the set is on for awhile this quirk disappears and 
>operation seems normal.
>>AT FIRST I suspected that one or more VCOs were probably out of adjustment, 
>so I went through the service manual and adjusted ALL the VCO's. All were 
>'close', but I tweaked them in even closer. This had no effect on the 
>anomaly.
>>Ideas?
May be the infamous band filter relays. Take a 12 volt, 60 ma or so
lamp and feed one side with 12 volts, the other side to the SO239
center. Use the "1 MHZ Step" and cycle the "Band" through its ranges
several times. This "cleans" the relays. Good hunting!
-- 
Eddie, WB4MLE