Harry,
You said your audio is bad; transmitted or received? Perhaps your
speaker has failed - headphones should verify that. And try a few
more attempts to get contacts. Even loud signals sometimes won't hear you.
Finally if you are going to use an external tuner you will have to
find some way to assure resonance other than peaking the
receiver. Noise bridges still seem to be a viable and available
alternative. And sadly if your TS120 needs work it may be impossible
to find a service provider who would be interested in the
job. Proprietary parts are probably extinct. A knowledgeable
tinkerer would probably be the final resort. I sold a TS940 some
years ago after having it repaired because some of the boards which
were prone to failure were becoming difficult to find.
On the plus side; the TS480 probably has SWR protection and would
drop power if it were working in to a bad antanna, so you sould be
safer with it. Abnd its internal tuner might be a logical
alternative until you can find a more reliable way to use the MFJ tuner.
Hope some of this helpsw.
Pat, K9JAUAt 08:04 PM 8/14/2012, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>Well folks, how do I begin this?
>As you all know, I bought a used kenwood 120, and it was working =
>absolutely great!
>I was using the snake antenna, and it was great on 20, and 15 meters!
>So, after dinner, I said, "well Trippy, fire that rig up and have a nice =
>after dinner QSO!"
>So, I fired it up, and responded to a station in hungry, who copied me =
>just fine.
>Then, here's where all heck broke loose.
>I then, went up to the phone band, and, I responded to a cq there, a km4 =
>station, and the moment I keyed up the microphone, I heard a poof kind =
>of noise, and the rig shut off. So, I shut off the power supply.
>Then, I thought, "well, let's turn it back on and see what happens."
>So, I turned the power supply back on, no problem with that, and then, I =
>turned the rig on, and it receives fine.
>However, to the left of those 3 knobs on the top of the rig, there is a =
>grading kind of thing, just like a speaker feels, and it smells a bit =
>like burn smell.
>So, I tryed to go back to 2 cqs on 20 cw, and they were loud, and nobody =
>heard me.
>Folks, I don't know what to do from here.
>The hams in this town are clickish, and don't talk to me, or want to =
>have anything to do with me, as I told Bob, k8lr, on the phone, weeks =
>ago, when we talked about my antenna situation.
>Now I have another rig and power supply, but folks I am scared to death =
>to hook it up.
>The last thing I need, is to lose another rig!
>Anyone have an idea what I could be dealing with?
>All I know is, my audio was so good before tonight, and now it's =
>horrible, absolutely aweful.
>I just wonder if I blew something!
>It's just so depressing!
>Everytime I try to get on hf, it's like, it's not ment to be.
>I'm at a complete loss, just totally lost, right now!
>I've never had this problem in 35 years of hamming. Never blew anything =
>up on any rig, at all.
>take care,
>73,
>Trippy, who just wants to have my hobby back and enjoy it, and I mean, =
>really enjoy it
|