--- In [email protected], Mike Morris WA6ILQ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Assuming you have the controller hooked up properly, > and the station modded properly, I'd assume that if you > have one cracked joint you may have more. > I'd redo EVERY receiver and exciter joint, starting with > Keyed voltages (i.e. Keyed A-). > Yes, it's going to be a very boring hour or two, but put > some good music on the CD or MP3 player in the shop > and get a large mug of your favorite beverage and start > melting solder... > Large 52 oz mug on my very messy bench: > <http://www.repeater-builder.com/wa6ilq/big-mug.jpg> > I picked that up at a 7-11 about 5 years ago... and they > now make a 64oz mug... > > Been there, done that... had to resolder every pin in a > Micor station backplane where that slot was occupied.. > the receiver, exciter, station control card, squelch gate > card, and single-tone card (that slot was being used > to hold a 4-tone Pl decoder card). The station had a > Scom 7K controlling it. > > > Don't make any assumptions until you are sure that the test > bed (i.e.the unified chassis) is solid. Until I did the resoldering > that station was very intermittent. The station was sitting on a > hardwood floor, and you could walk past that station and it > would drop out, or have "rattling" audio, or work normally until > I spent one saturday morning resoldering those slots... > Read the checklist - <http://www.repeater- builder.com/rbtip/checklist.html> > and the line "Locating and fixing the intermittent that only > shows up at 4am on sundays during a full moon"... that > station was the inspiration for that line... > > Mike WA6ILQ
> Hi Mike. First of all, How did you get a picture of my bench???? Actually, my mug is smaller, but my bench also has the optional empty Triscut box. I followed one of the sets of instructions from RBTIP. I thought that it would be easier to use the "no cards except the station control module mod" due to the fact that the docs were there, it was simple, and I was handing this off to another Ham who will have to maintain the thing. I was thinking K.I.S.S. The controller works as it should, things just went downhill when I realized that the output was gone. It was weak even for a dummy load. With regard to the backplane. I am half done with the re-flow. I'll finish the rest later. I found one bad joint at the COS point, I am sure that the others aren't far behind. I am not going to drag this thing a hundred miles to hang it in the rack just to have it take a dump on the hill. Been there. Theres nothing like being on Donner Summit modding a GE MVP Squelch Board with a butane soldering iron in high winds. Well, at least now with the temporary mock-up, I have about 2 watts out of the tripler. Things are looking up. Time for bed. Work comes early. Thanks for the response. 73 de John
