[ICOM] The IC-471A Service Mystery

[Dave Wood]

Rich, I restored one of these several years ago.  I used the 271 service
manual and the schematic for the 471.  The 471 uses a ton of the variable
caps that go bad.  Seems if I am remembering correctly that at least 18 of
these needed replacing as they are used throughout the rf sections as the
trimmer caps in addition to the vco's.  You already know the program is in
RAM. I had to use an aftermarket memory board to get the brains back.  I
think I bought the board from the guy in Italy.  It worked great.  Good luck
Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: Rich Dailey (Gmail) [mailto:redailey1 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 12:45 PM
To: ICOM Reflector
Subject: [ICOM] The IC-471A Service Mystery

Well, it's a mystery to me, at least.

I've done repair on various models of Icom rigs on and
off for the last 20 years - mostly 735's, 751(a), 761, and 765's.
Not a business, mind you, although I did have an electronic repair
business up until 2005. I repair my own rigs when I can, and help out others
when asked.

So I buy a 471A for a good price, my first Icom 70cm multimode. 
Knowing it has issues, I purchase intending to investigate the problems
on my own.  Little did I realize that it would be so difficult, if not
impossible,
to find service data for this rig.  I've been told that a service manual was
never
published for this radio. I do have a schematic, a block diagram, and the
owners
manual, but no technical description, no alignment procedures, none of the 
information that I need to carry out a decent diagnosis and repair.

So I ask:

* Does Icom repair this radio?
* Any outside repair shop? How do they do this without the service data?

If there is a shop that can do the repairs (I suspect vco trimmer problems,
not
unlike the 765 issue), please contact me off-list if you can help.

Thanks,
Rich, N8UX
http://home.windstream.net/ferncity/icom.htm