[aprssig] MFJ Data Radio

[Rich Mulvey]

Heh, I had one about 15 years ago with the same problem; it was as deaf as
a doornail, so when I opened it up I found probably 75% cold solder joints,
flux blobs everywhere, etc. It was beyond awful.

It was marginally better once I cleaned up the mess of a soldering job, but
never got to anything that I would consider to be reasonable receive
performance.



On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 4:51 PM, Frank Knobbe via aprssig <aprssig at tapr.org>
wrote:

> On Wed, 2016-03-16 at 12:59 -0500, Al Wolfe via aprssig wrote:
> > Richard et al,
> >     This one is on 144.39 so had hoped to use it for APRS. Service
> monitor
> > says transmit power is nearly 5 watts, but on receive it takes a couple
> of
> > microvolts to see anything out of the noise. Maybe I'm expecting too
> much.
>
>
> I have a 8621A. When I first received it, it was near deaf. Or totally
> deaf, don't remember. I had sent it back to MFJ (lazy, no time, was
> brand new and I expected more) and it arrived back on my door step in
> the same deaf condition. So I took a look at it myself.
>
> Basically, the solder job was crap. I resoldered everything. What fixed
> the problem was the solder joints on the crystal itself. Since the
> ground is on large area of copper, that solder joint just needed some
> extra TLC. Once it was soldered properly, the radio worked like a charm.
>
> Take a look at your solder joint, especially in areas where cold joints
> can happen easily. Check the joints of the crystal. (I still recommend
> spending a bit extra time to resolder every joint).
>
> Hope that helps,
> Frank
>
>
>
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-- 
rich at mulveyfamily.com
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