[1000mp] Need help - Rx has gone deaf !!

[Steve B]

Hi,

I promised feedback on the above when my Mk 5 went deaf during the contest
last weekend !

Yaesu UK  (excellent service / technicians .... thanks for the info Stu),
found a relay within the atu circuitry was at fault and in turn allowed me
to transmit straight through the front end .... owch !!   (I think it was
Bill who had this exact problem happen with his own rig?)

Fortunately ?  only two diodes and a resistor were damaged, all components
replaced under warranty and the rig will arrive back on Tuesday next week.

The technician even had time to explain the "peculiarity" of the Mk 5 atu
!!!

Apparantly, it can become "trained" to a specific antenna load. When you
select  top-middle-bottom  parts of each band, the atu remembers approx
readings and stores them. That is to say i you use the same antenna(s) each
day .... fine !!!

I have recently returned from abroad having left my two usual antennas
behind. I now have a vertical antenna which was temporarily (read not
ideally) erected specifically for the contest. I guess the atu was not too
keen on the 10m trap being lower than the height of the house guttering and
I could only run around 10watts without the swr increasing out of control -
but as I found to my cost .... it did and  BANG (actually, more of a
fizzle!)

While some of you may argue this point about the atu, I only have the
technicians background knowledge as evidence. But to be honest, I can relate
this is exactly what appears to have happened in my case. So please no
flames  ;-)

I hope this helps some of you - or at least may help you avoid the damage
that occured to mine - though thankfully not that serious.

Finally, not sure if anyone from Yaesu UK reads this reflector but if so
many thanks again for the help and work carried out, not to mention a turn
around in less than a week including a weekend !!

Best wishes and a lot lot happier ....

Steve  ZC4BS / G4KIV