A few weeks ago there was talk here about where to send a Kenwood for 
repair. Cliff Holland, and his company, Avvid, was mentioned by several 
individuals including me.

My TS570 was losing output, and some of the front panel buttons, including 
the speech button, were not responding without multiple presses.

I changed patch cords, tried two different dummy loads, and the output was 
still sitting at 75 watts on cw with the power setting cranked wide open.

Two weeks ago, I boxed up that rig, and sent it to Cliff.

Late last Friday evening I received an e-mail from him that said, "I can't 
find anything wrong. The output is at 103 watts, and all the buttons are 
working fine. Have you by chanced checked the ...?"

Well, of course, he named the one thing I had not checked.

Sure enough, when I switched the ... over to my other 570, it began behaving 
like the one I had sent to Avvid.

He gave the rig a good checkup, and only charged me the minimum shop charge 
stated on his website, plus the shipping to return it to me.

He even put the package in the mail the same day I told him that his 
payment, a personal check, had been mailed to him. I'm sure the box and the 
envelope crossed paths somewhere on Interstate 20.

The culprit that began this whole adventure, the one thing I never once 
thought to look for, was a dirty connection between one of the DC power 
cable leads and the power supply!


Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs