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