[Kenwood] TS-430, slow turn-on on lower frequencies?

[Philip, KO6BB]

Hi All,

About a week ago a "condition unknown" TS-430 arrived here, a gift from 
friend.  He'd never powered it up but said that the previous owner claimed 
"it had problems, probably bad Finals".  When I first powered it up (after 
cleaning it etc.) I found out that it had NO display, no operation and a 
steady tone in the speaker (sounded like a steady CW sidetone).  That 
problem was traced to bad solder connections (all three) on the 7805 Voltage 
regulator.  Soldering those brought the radio to life and it seems to 
perform well with ONE exception.   Visual examination showed that somebody 
had indeed been in the "final" compartment but no problems were traced to 
that area of the unit, thank goodness!!

Now, when first powered up it takes a few moments for the lower frequencies 
(somewhere below 7MHz) to come to life.  IF I tune in a steady signal on the 
BCB band (or a steady strong beacon like FCH on 344KC), or even WWV on 5MHz 
etc. it takes a moment for the station to come in, and it will take long 
slow fade-in's and fade-out's (like something looking for a "lock").  It is 
very obvious if you put a 75M frequency in one memory and a 40M frequency in 
another and switch back and forth.  40M comes up immediately, the 75M signal 
has a delay.   After the set is on for awhile this quirk disappears and 
operation seems normal.

AT FIRST I suspected that one or more VCOs were probably out of adjustment, 
so I went through the service manual and adjusted ALL the VCO's.  All were 
'close', but I tweaked them in even closer.  This had no effect on the 
anomaly.

Ideas?

73 de Phil,  KO6BB
DX begins at the noise floor!

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