[Kenwood] TS-850SAT Woes

[Chris Kepus]

I fired up my 850 tonight only to be greeted with some strange behaviors and
odors.  Last used on CW on SKN, it performed perfectly.  Anyway, tonight was
waaaay different.  I tried to get going on SSB but noticed that the rig was
not making normal power (as shown on my power meter) and more perplexing,
showed a rapid drop off in power on key down for several seconds.  After a
couple of futile attempts to remedy this problem by "restarting" the rig by
setting up essentially from scratch, I gave up and headed for Google and
QTH.net.  Plus there was a faint odor of smoking electronics that wasn't
present prior to turning the 850 on.  

 

In this list's January archives, I read through the messages in a thread
about a very similar sounding problem in a TS-430S.  In one of the
referenced links in this thread, the link began, "Intermittent Drop in Power
Output, Erratic ALC behaviour, SSB distortion:  Unless your TS430 has been
in a store room since it was manufactured, you have an appointment with the
vias (PCB through-hole connections) and soldered joints around the PA final
transistors."  

 

Does anyone know if the 850S final boards are susceptible to this same
problem?  The symptoms of a drop in power and erratic ALC behavior were
present (didn't monitor for SSB distortion as I shut it down). 

 

Any and all comments will be appreciated.  I subscribe using the Digest
method of "reading the mail" which means I may not respond as quickly as you
might expect unless you reply directly to me.  I do respond to all replies. 

 

Thanks es 73,

Chris

W7JPG