[Kenwood] TS-850 Erratic Power OUT the saga continues

[NR1DX]

I have reported on the reflector a couple of times about this particular 
850's erratic power out on first turning the unit on. I'm Still tracing it 
down. The symptoms are this, for anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds after the 
unit is first powered on the output power is very and I mean very erratic. 
This is not the typical twitch you get when you have a bad DC/DC converter. 
However I did try an new DC/DC and changed the electrolytic caps associated 
with  the DC/DC all to no avail.


More recently I traced the problem back to Local Osc  LO3 on the Carrier 
unit. LO3 is very erratic for about 10 to 30 seconds. At first power up LO3 
has low output of about -15dbm and rises erratically to +3dm after about 20 
seconds. It does not appear to be heat related as I have emptied a can of 
"COOL-IT" into the both the Carrier unit and the PLL board with very 
minimal affect. I have this nagging impression that it is more like a 
electrolytic cap "forming".

Anyone out there seen this phenomena and know where to look next?



Dave
NR1DX
nr1dx@arrl.net

"A man who picks a cat up by the tail learns a lesson he can learn no other 
way" .... Mark Twain