Many years ago, my friend W8ICN told me of a cure for the invisible corrosion on Micor pins that they had developed at Detroit Edison. I couldn't remember what it was, so I dropped him an email about it. Here is his reply.
Dan Hancock N8DJP
We used a mixture of Squibb mineral oil and isopropol alcohol, about a 1:3 ratio, 1 part mineral oil and 3 parts alcohol. With the boards unplugged, coat the pins and sockets using a small artist brush. The alcohol evaporates quickly leaving a fine coat of oil on the pins which inhibits corrosion. Works well. Do not scrape the pins otherwise you will be removing the plating causing even bigger problems. Of course if the pins are corroded to start with, gently clean off the gunk before applying the oil and alcohol.
Dan
Daniel Hancock wrote:
Read the messages below.What was the "magic solution" you guys at Edison used to help with this probelm? It was a mixture of two things....mineral oil and something maybe???Message: 18
Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 21:42:21 -0700
From: Mike Morris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Micor mobile repeater - no audio?
At 07:00 PM 6/4/05, you wrote:
>Hey gang,
>
>I've got a "Repeater Builder" UHF micor converted mobile
repeater running
>great for several years.. Last week sometime it stopped
passing audio..
>dtmf, etc... I can key it fine from places like usual,
but it doesn't
>seem to pass any audio.. Would this be more of a
controller issue or
>possibly something awry with my micor? Its running a
CAT250
>controller. Comments appreciated ofcourse.
>
>Rod
>NJ
First clean the inter-board pins.
Power it off, remove all the screws that mount the boards
that plug into the center board, and unplug them halfway,
then plug them back in several times i.e. "stroke" the
male pins in and out of the female connectors (and get
your mind out of the gutter). I've seen several Micors
develop weird problems that were temporarily "fixed"
that way. The fix lasts 6 months to a year, and I've
yet to come up with a cure other than soldering them
all, which - while the problem is fixed - makes the
radio unrepairable in the future. The problem seems
to occur much less often in mobiles, but does occur.
Same problem happens to Mitreks, but Moto came
up with a fix for that ... replacement connectors with
different metallurgy in the plating of the contact pins.
Mike WA6ILQ
[This message contained attachments]
Discover Yahoo!
Get on-the-go sports scores, stock quotes, news & more. Check it out!
Yahoo! Groups Links
- To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
