One of the first things I learned in electronics school is that solid state
devices especially CMOS devices can be damaged by handling them without
properly grounding your work area as well as yourself. Often the damage can
be done and not show up for weeks to months unless the static discharge
totally killed the device from the get go.
Why do you think these devices are packaged in antistatic packaging? You
MUST continue the protection during all handling including the instillation
process. Now, boys and girls, do you all do this?
Things are different now compared to the good-old vacuum tube days.
73
Howard #3
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
> Kind of disappointing too, the least they can do is go spectacularly with
> much noise, a good show, and a horrific smell like my TS-930 did when the
> power supply let go or the TS-530 I got from someone in trade for
> something
> a few years ago. I wasn't going to even keep the 530 I just wanted to test
> it and make sure it worked before I turned around and sold it, I got just
> as
> much for it blown up as I would have working so it wasn't a huge loss but
> it
> took a week to get rid of the smell, the 930 was even worse.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Matthew Chao" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013 12:27 PM
> Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
>
>
>> Absolutely agree. Many electronics die quietly - no sparks, noise,
>> or zaps. They just don't work when you want them to.--Matthew Chao,
>> N1IBB.
>>
>> At 11:18 AM 1/6/2013, you wrote:
>>>Jim,
>>>
>>>All kidding aside, one of the worst nightmares for anyone dealing with
>>>solid-state equipment today is the lightning hit. I don't mean the kind
>>>where smoke and flame comes out of the equipment and sets the building on
>>>fire, but the kind where apparently nothing happens. A friend of mine
>>>who's
>>>the chief engineer at a TV station in Connecticut used to complain
>>>constantly that about two weeks after even the most minor electrical
>>>storm
>>>some piece of equipment would fail, usually in a manner that was
>>>difficult
>>>to troubleshoot and fix. While I can't say for certain that your speech
>>>chip is that kind of failure, my point is that it doesn't take much to
>>>send
>>>a chip south, and it may have been something as simple as a static pulse,
>>>or
>>>a voltage spike. One nice thing about tube-type equipment was that you
>>>could beat on it all day and it wouldn't fail. Unfortunately,
>>>solid-state
>>>stuff is much less forgiving.
>>>
>>>Steve
>>>
>>>----- Original Message -----
>>>From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]>
>>>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>>Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2013 03:26
>>>Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
>>>
>>>
>>> > Hi Steve, of course you are right. It's just plain weird when
>>> > something like that happens so unexpectedly. I thought it could
>>> > be because my rig had been subjected to some more temperature
>>> > extremes than earlier but who knows. I think it has to do with
>>> > the lunar cycle as others have intimated here. Smile, Jim WA6EKS
>>> >
>>> > ----- Original Message -----
>>> > From: Steve Dresser <[log in to unmask]
>>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>>> > Date sent: Fri, 4 Jan 2013 22:22:09 -0500
>>> > Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
>>> >
>>> > Of course. We're so used to almost perfectly working electronic
>>> > components
>>> > that rarely, if ever, fail. In the days of discrete components,
>>> > things
>>> > failed all the time, usually stuff like capacitors (which,
>>> > incidentally, are
>>> > still the weakest link in any electronic device), or resistors
>>> > which had
>>> > this nasty habit of changing value. And don't forget good old
>>> > tubes, which
>>> > had to be replaced on a regular basis. Listen to some of the
>>> > guys on AM,
>>> > and you'll know all about component failure.
>>> >
>>> > Steve
>>> >
>>> > ----- Original Message -----
>>> > From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]
>>> > To: <[log in to unmask]
>>> > Sent: Friday, January 04, 2013 15:16
>>> > Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Hi Steve, right you are, but it's pretty disconcerting when it
>>> > happens.
>>> > 73,
>>> > Jim WA6EKS
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > -----Original Message-----
>>> > From: Steve Dresser
>>> > Sent: Friday, January 04, 2013 12:05 PM
>>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>>> > Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
>>> >
>>> > Jim,
>>> >
>>> > Maybe some stray voltage hit the chip and destroyed it, or maybe
>>> > it was
>>> > just
>>> > defective and failed for some other unexplained reason. We're
>>> > not used to
>>> > seeing component failure much these days, but it certainly can
>>> > still
>>> > happen,
>>> > as you discovered.
>>> >
>>> > Steve
>>> >
>>> > ----- Original Message -----
>>> > From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]
>>> > To: <[log in to unmask]
>>> > Sent: Friday, January 04, 2013 14:54
>>> > Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Hi Darren, I called Kenwood this morning and got ahold of Leo
>>> > who
>>> > does amateur tech support. He had no idea why the original chip
>>> > quit after working fine for over two years, and wasn't
>>> > interested
>>> > in checking out the old chip to see what might have happened to
>>> > it. I'm just relieved that the chip fixed the problem and that
>>> > I
>>> > didn't have to send the rig in for a check up. At $75 per hour,
>>> > that could get very eenxpensive in a hurry. Jim WA6EKS
>>> >
>>> > ----- Original Message -----
>>> > From: KK4AHX Darren Duff <[log in to unmask]
>>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>>> > Date sent: Fri, 4 Jan 2013 13:30:44 -0500
>>> > Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
>>> >
>>> > Hi.
>>> >
>>> > Great to hear you got your rig up and talking again. I would
>>> > like to know
>>> > what the folks over at kenwood tell you. I am really enjoying
>>> > my
>>> > tmv71a as
>>> > well.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > 73.
>>> > Darren Duff.
>>> > amateur radio station KK4AHX.
>>> >
>>> > Vice President,
>>> > Cherokee Amateur Radio Society.
>>> > http://www.cherokeehams.com
>>> >
>>> > Cherokee County ARES.
>>> > http://www.cherokee-ares.org
>>> >
>>> > -----Original Message-----
>>> > From: For blind ham radio operators
>>> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>>> > On Behalf Of Jim Gammon
>>> > Sent: Friday, January 04, 2013 12:38 PM
>>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>>> > Subject: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
>>> >
>>> > Hi list, just wanted to give you a foblow up about the Vgs-1
>>> > chip. I got a
>>> > new one from HRO yesterday, installed it and the rig started
>>> > talking again.
>>> > Now I think I will take the old chip, dip it some salsa and eat
>>> > it. No, on
>>> > second thought if I did that, I may stop talking just like it
>>> > did! Sorry to
>>> > Bob who I sent a similar message to last night thinking it would
>>> > go to the
>>> > list. I plan to call Kenwood and ask them there thoughts about
>>> > why a chip
>>> > would just quit after working fine for more than two years. Jim
>>> > WA6EKS
>>> >
|
