[1000mp] FT-1000MP back ground hiss. CW Cap Mod--LONG!

Thu, 2 May 2002 12:06:45 -0500

Nor mine...not even close...only does the distortion bit when it's on.  When
off it has zero effect...73/dx
steve, k8wk
***************
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Wolbert, K6XX <[email protected]>
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, May 02, 2002 11:54 AM
Subject: RE: [1000mp] FT-1000MP back ground hiss. CW Cap Mod--LONG!


>Garry,
>
>Have you ever noticed the noise blanker thing? (Where it has to be fully
CCW
>to avoid distortion). W8JI keeps jabbering about it, but I do NOT see it
>here; others have publicly disagreed with him, but he persists. It does not
>occur in my (1996) MP.
>
>73 de Bob, K6XX
>[email protected]
>www.k6xx.com
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [email protected]
>[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Garry Shapiro
>Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 12:29 AM
>To: FT1000MP
>Subject: RE: [1000mp] FT-1000MP back ground hiss. CW Cap Mod--LONG!
>
>
>
>>
>> The IF hiss in the audio was the only disappointing thing about the MP
>> when I first bought the radio.  INRAD's front end mod, along with the
>> capacitor mod, reduced the hiss to where I no longer notice it and I'm
>> very pleased with the radio now.
>>
>> 73, de Earl, K6SE
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>
>I gotta tell you, Earl, that I am less pleased---several things about my MP
>are really annoying.
>
>I won't count the IF hiss, because that was brought to my attention
>immediately. I participated in some A/B testing with two MP's owned by
N6TV,
>one with and one without the mod, concluded that the mod was worthwhile,
and
>installed it soon after purchasing my radio.
>
>The most annoying thing to me now is the occasional loss of RX gain I
>experience when transitioning from TX to RX. I first noticed it when using
>my radio at 3B9R. It was most noticeable on CW, due to the higher number of
>RX/TX/RX transitions. In every case, the next cycle restores normality, but
>the problem recurs after anywhere from 10 to 100 or more cycles, more or
>less. In other words, it is intermittent. It may also occur after
>bandchanges. This can be pretty distracting in a tough pileup.
>
>I sent my radio to Yaesu when it was still under warranty. Despite a
>detailed description of the problem, the tech claimed not to be able to
>reproduce it. Yes, it was erratic, but he said he cycled the radio
>"thousands" of times, and we discussed it on the telephone several times,
to
>absolutely no result. He eventually replaced the logical items--relays and
>related components in the front end--and sent it back, and it seemed to
work
>better after that--at least until after the warranty expired. Now it does
it
>again. Yaesu said they were unaware of this problem in any other radio, but
>several participants in this reflector have piped up that they experience
>the same problem.
>
>At the time, I told Yaesu's tech that, if it recurred, I would consider to
>still be a warranty repair, as they had not successfully  fixed it. Of
>course, I was dreaming with that. And, with the long current turnaround,
>especially for out-of-warranty repair, and the potentially huge cost, I am
>unlikely ever to send the radio back to Yaesu. A few months ago, I sent a
>long email to K7JA, seeking clarification of that issue, but he did not see
>fit to reply. That was disappointing, since I know Chip, and, in fact, sat
>next to him on an airplane coming back from Dayton in '99, I believe, and
we
>discussed the MP and FT1KD at length. That conversation had persuaded me to
>buy my MP. His nonresponse is the second thing that ticked me off.
>
>The third irritant was the clarifier frequency jumps. They only occur when
>the clarifier knob is turned at moderate to fast rate. That problem is
>apparently common and well-known, and has been recently discussed at length
>here. So I tend not to use the clarifier.
>
>The fourth irritant was optoencoder noise from the B VFO knob, which
appears
>in my headphones. It's not loud, and is only noticeable on a very quiet
>band. It's probably due to lead placement. But the Yaesu tech could not
>reproduce it, even though it is NOT intermittent, but reproducible at will.
>Thank Marconi it is at very low level, and generally inaudible at my noise
>levels, so I have mentally tuned it out.
>
>Number five is key clicks. It is down the list because, for quite a while,
I
>was blissfully unaware that I had them. Now, of course, I know that we (MP
>owners) all have clicks, and I can even pretty much tell, especially on
160,
>who in the pileup is a Yaesu owner, and vice versa. It annoys me that I
will
>have to take the radio apart and rewire the filters to cure it, mostly
>because my eyesight is failing, and working on small components has become
>damned near impossible for me. But I plan to do it this summer, probably
>with some help from friends.
>
>The sixth irritant is that, occasionally, the DSP goes nuts. It seems to
>occur most readily with the outer DSP knob--the noise contour---full CW.
The
>radio must be power-cycled to get rid of it. Ditto a motorboating lockup
>that occurs occasionally when turning the MEM/VFO knob--it must not be
>completely debounced. I guess that is number seven. The saving grace with 6
>and 7 is that they occur infrequently.
>
>OTOH, although my display is somewhat dim upon intitial power-up, it is not
>as dramatic as some have described, and it does not bother me. I guess I am
>lucky with that one.
>
>As for the keyer, it may well screw up. I don't know, because I don't use
>it. I don't use it because, as a contester, I key both from a paddle and a
>computer, and, in the MP, one can only do that by paralleling the two
keying
>sources, and that means bypassing the keyer. (Yes, I know I can send
>manually from the keyboard, but I prefer my paddle.) It would have been
easy
>to avoid or fix that problem by combining the two key jacks on the output
>side of the keyer. But that was not done. That's number 8.
>
>Similarly, W8JI's revelation about the noise blanker needing not only to be
>OFF but full CCW to avoid distortion from strong signals nearby is just
>amazing. That's number 9.
>
>Modern transceivers are complicated, and, as an engineer for forty years
and
>a ham first licensed 46 years ago, I know damned well that no design is
>perfect, and that s__t happens. But I also know that mistakes can be
>corrected, and that Yaesu has not corrected any of these problems, despite
>the graying of the radio. Worse, it has allowed them to propagate into the
>Mk V. I understand the economic reasons for that, but there is no moral
>justification for it. Especially the damned key clicks.
>
>Garry, NI6T
>
>_______________________________________________
>List Moderator: Richard Lubash N1VXW
>1000mp mailing list
>[email protected]
>To Change Options or Unsubscribe:
>http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/1000mp
>
>_______________________________________________
>List Moderator: Richard Lubash N1VXW
>1000mp mailing list
>[email protected]
>To Change Options or Unsubscribe:
>http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/1000mp
>
>