You'd be surprised how far away lightning can disturb things like that
though, it can be so far away you don't hear it and still get it. I had a
problem in the house I used to live in a few years ago where all winter long
we were constantly getting static electricity shocks from things. You'd have
no idea how many cable boxes and other electronics, a couple computers, an
alarm clock, a TV, you wouldn't believe how many electronic devices we
killed in that house in the 15 years there that way. At least 7 cable boxes
met their demise that way. I think I even killed a cable modem that way. It
was bad.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013 3:52 PM
Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
> Steve, I found out why the chip quit. It was an EMP from that
> North Korean missile! No seriously, you are right. It could have
> been some kind of voltage spike but I'm almost positive it wasn't
> lightning. We seldom get thunderstorms here, and though we had a
> few days where the forecast called for chance of thunderstorms,
> I never heard any rumbles or any reports of lightning. 73, Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Steve Dresser <[log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date sent: Sun, 6 Jan 2013 11:18:11 -0500
> Subject: Re: New Vgs-1 chip installed and working
>
> 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
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