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

Thu, 2 May 2002 14:52:31 -0400

It certainly happens in both my 1997 and 1998 vintage MPs.

Most noticable in contest conditions, of course, with many strong
signals in proximity.

 Jeff Maass       [email protected]     Located near Columbus Ohio
         USPSA # L-1192       NROI/CRO    Amateur Radio K8ND
    Maass' IPSC Resources Page:  http://home.columbus.rr.com/jmaass
Circleville USPSA/IPSC: http://home.columbus.rr.com/jmaass/pcsiipsc.htm

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Bob Wolbert, K6XX
> Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 12:43 PM
> To: [email protected]
> 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
>
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