Hi Tom,

OK, you've had several suggestions to check connections, and I would agree.
An old amateur once told me to check everything going into and out of a rig
first.  Not a bad idea, I guess, unless you smell smoke <big smile>.

Something similar to your scenario happened to me recently.  I had
attenuation on RX which would sometimes disappear following a short
transmission.  All ok for a bit, and then more attenuation and high SWR.  I
tracked it down to one of the inputs on the TW-1 SWR meter.  Wiggling
thePL-259 caused the signal strength to vary.

Once unplugged the cable was checked and proved to be fine.  We then took
the lid off the TW-1, looking for a dry joint, and again all was fine.

It was then spotted, under a bright light, there was some tarnishing in the
SO-239 socket itself.  

When you push a PL-259 plug into a SO-239, the pin of the plug is gripped by
the sides of the socket, which are sprung apart by the pin.  If the
springiness of the socket is lost, or the pin of the plug is slightly too
thin, a poor connection is made.  

I reckon there had been some arcing in my SO-239 causing the tarnishing.  

In my case, we scratched through the tarnish, and used a plug with a
slightly wider pin to solved the problem.  I guess The socket might need
replacing if it returns <smile>.  

With this in mind, a good check for anyone would be to unscrew the PL-259 on
a plug and test how well the pin is gripped by the SO-239.  If it is slack,
get it checked.  Also, apart from checking the plug is nice and tight, I
tend to leave connectors alone.  On the basis, lots of plugging and
unplugging may cause unnecessary wear and tear. 

Out of interest, the other SO-239 on the TW-1 was bright and shiny, like
new.

Best wishes, Kelvin Marsh - M0AID

Working to improve accessibility for radio amateurs with disabilities

www.active-elements.org

For accessibility evaluations of amateur equipment and MP3 manuals


-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Tom Behler
Sent: 24 January 2013 01:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Strange TS590 Behavior

Hello everyone.

This quiry is to all of you TS590 owners out there.

Several times now, I have noticed something really strange with my TS590, 
the cause of which I can't exactly pinpoint.  In fact, it happened again 
last night.

I was making some adjustments to my TS590, and suddenly, the receive 
sensitivity of the rig dropped.  In addition, I started getting some very 
weird SWR readings and output power readings as I went through the bands, 
and switched various antennas in and out.

Since I had the ARCP590 software, and all of my memories and settings saved 
for ready reference, I did a full re-set of the rig, hoping it would correct

the problem.

When I was done with the re-set, the rig was still acting very strangely.

So, I simply turned it off, and went to bed.

This morning, I turned the rig back on, and everything was fine, as if 
nothing ever happened.

My theory is that something is tripping some sort of circuit protection 
system in the rig, and that, once the rig is idle, things somehow re-set 
themselves.

Again, I can't say for sure what I was doing that created the problem to 
begin with, but it didn't seem to be anything too significant.

I'm just curious as to whether anyone else has had this sort of thing happen

to them.

Tom Behler: KB8TYJ



-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.2890 / Virus Database: 2638/6037 - Release Date: 01/16/13
Internal Virus Database is out of date.