[Kenwood] TS-850SAT Woes - long post for archives

[Chris Kepus]

What a great list!! :-) 
Thanks to all who responded to my message.  If my 850 is listening, four of
you predicted the culprit to be the DC-DC converter and one thought the ALC
unit to be the bad guy.  The repair effort will have to wait three or four
weeks but when I finally get into it, I will feed back the solution or will
be asking for more help. 

In the meantime, here are the responses that came directly to me packaged
together so they are documented for other archive readers.. Some really good
links are suggested, also.
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The strange and stinky smell is burning electrolytic capacitor juice.
C1 on the Car unit has leaked and is shorting the TXB line. If you keep 
keying it you will damage the Tx/Rx board in the IF unit.
Clif Holland KA5IPF www.avvid.com
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Hi Chris..
Sounds to me like your ALC board is smoked. That's a small vertical
"daughter board".sitting up on the front LHS, between the front panel and
the VCO board.  The ALC board has been one of the more troublesome areas of
the the 850. You should find lots of info on the subject on the usual
Kenwood enthusiasts websites.  Good luck, and don't panic.. Those ALC boards
are cheap..  Vy 73  John EI7BA
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Chris,
Sounds like a possible problem with the DC-DC board. Check out this site for
a little more info. 
http://n6tr.jzap.com/850repair.html
The board can be purchased at Pacific Parts and it's only $10.50 +
shipping($11.00 to the east coast). Its number is X59-1100-00. I just
purchased one for my 850 a couple weeks ago and it's not very big.  Ed KU4BP
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that sounds more like the dc-dc converter....small board, simple to change,
had to do it twice on one of my 850, I have two of them, and never had
trouble with the finals....try www.qsl.net/k0bx for a good 850 page, look
for the ALC/TX link  WW3S
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Howdy Chris,
It sounds like you are having the typical DC-DC board failure.
This is the multi-vibrater that makes the Neg -6Vdc for the ALC circuit.
The 850 is notorious for this board failing do to a Kenwood design error.
There are 2ea 22k resistors that should have been 18K ohms.
What this causes is the multi-vibrator to start to oscillate whenever the
supply voltage to this board drops below 12 volts.
What you see is this, in CW the power will go up and down along with the ALC
going up and down.
the power kind of bounces up and down.
I have also seen the choke open up on the output of the -6vdc DC-DC board.
Run a search on the web for ALC problems with the TS-850 and you will see
the mod for the resistor change.
Also check your main DC voltage to be sure it is up to 13.8 volts or so.
One other thing I have experienced is that the DC Supply chord sometimes
goes bad.  The contacts on some power chords seem to develop resistance.
Check the Voltage while transmitting at the Power Supply, then at the rig to
check this. You will see a big voltage drop if this is the case, not to
mention the power chord will get very hot.
Take Care, Mike Voodoo-LABS http://www.voodoo-labs.com
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