[Kenwood] TS-530 problem

Sat Nov 8 11:24:43 EST 2008

Hi John,
If there's a burnt smell to the radio after this popping and crackling happened then most likely a resistor or two have smoke, maybe under the final amplifier PC board. You will have to turn the radio upside down after removing the top and bottom covers.
If it were a capacitor that exploded the popping sound would be a lot louder and when you removed the covers you would clearly see the "mess" made by the exploded capacitor. I could be wrong but I doubt it was a capacitor that failed, especially since you didn't mention whether the fuse blew. In many cases, not all, exploding capacitors tend to blow the fuse.
My first recommendation is to remove both covers and look under the final amplifier circuit board. Use care when handling the 530 with the covers off. There are a couple of 1 watt resistors which are the final tube cathode resistors that could have overheated and burnt causing the crackling and popping sounds you heard. These resistors act as fuses in the final tube cathode circuit. If these resistors are burnt, replace them with the "same" wattage, 1 watt. Additionally, "IF" these resistor are burnt I highly recommend having the final tubes (6146Bs) checked for shorts.
Since I don't have the radio in front of me, I can only assume what the crackling and popping sound came from since you said the capacitors look good and not exploded.
Let us know what you see under the final amplifier PC board.
73
Mike
W5RKL
--- On Sat, 11/8/08, John Miller <n1umjjohn at gmail.com> wrote:
From: John Miller <n1umjjohn at gmail.com>
Subject: [Kenwood] TS-530 problem
To: kenwood at mailman.qth.net
Date: Saturday, November 8, 2008, 7:37 AM
Hi all, I have a question.
Doing someone a favor, I acquired a Kenwood TS-530S. I was checking it out to
see how well it worked, about 2 minutes after turning it on came like a relay
sound which is unexplained, I heard the one about the vox being on and I can say
it wasn't and there was no mic or key plugged in to the radio. Anyway, about
15 seconds after that relay type sound, it's still receiving, but then came
a snap, lout 60 cycle hum out of the speaker I believe, and increasingly loud
snapping, crackling and popping form the radio in the about 5-10 seconds it took
me to get to the plug which was slightly warm. Smells like a capacitor or the
like, I find nothing overly obvious just very quickly pulling the top cover off,
but does anyone have any idea what I might check, and more importantly, is it
worth my while to fix it? I was thinking filter caps, which look new, but there
is no obvious sign of them being blown. As I said, I'm hoping the person
will take it back but no word in 3 days and I'm not playing games, I'll
either hear from him in the next few days or I won't, after that I'll
either fix it and decide what to do with it, probably unload it on eBay, or part
it out and unload it. I was going to check it out for a weekend or 2 and sell it
anyway since I don't have room for it and like my TS-830 a lot better.
Heater was on, supposedly the radio ran fine last weekend for a little while. I
don't feel like, or have time to tear this thing all apart to see what's
up, I'd like an idea what to look for if anyone has anything. I'm only
sure it's nothing I did.
John Miller N1UMJ
AIM and yahoo messenger: N1UMJ Skype: n1umjjohn
myspace: http://www.myspace.com/n1umj 
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