[Kenwood] Passband Relays in TS-430S

[Rob Stampfli via Kenwood]

I've never tried this fix on mine, but haven't had a problem either.
OTOH, I've never heard of anyone claiming that their 430 was damaged
by performing this procedure.

The filters and relays in question are used for both receive and
transmit, and they cover the following ranges:

 1.5  -  2.5 Mhz        /* 160m */
 2.5  -  4.0 Mhz        /*  80m */
 4.0  -  6.5 Mhz        /*  60m */
 6.5  - 10.5 Mhz        /*  40m */
10.5  - 16.0 Mhz        /*  20m */
16.0  - 23.0 Mhz        /*  15m */
23.0  - 30.0 Mhz        /*  10m */

Pushing 100W through these relays usually is sufficient for keeping
them clean.  Note that only the 4.0 - 6.5 Mhz filter has no ham band
that the 430 is capable of transmitting on by default, so this "band"
is the one that usually gets dirty first.  Open your rig up for 60m
and transmit regularly on all the bands (even if only into a dummy
load), and you'll probably never have a problem with your relays
getting dirty.  But put your 430 on the shelf for 10 years, and
you'll likely have to go through a relay cleaning procedure before
you can use it reliably again.

YMMV,
Rob / KD8WK

On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 09:57:34AM -0600, Joe wrote:
> Now I do not know if this method suggested for the 430S would fix
> your radio or not.  Maybe the Pro's here on the list can say?
> 
> I know as simple, and scary sounding as that fix is. for this 430S
> it was incredible!!!  10 Meters was intermittent Like Robert said
> below here, sometimes it worked some times not.  And as an also
> SWLer The 49 Meter bad absolutely did not exist! It was sooo bad
> that not a single carrier  from those  megawatt broadcast stations
> couldn't even be detected in SSB mode it was that deaf.
> 
> But after running that fix, WOW 10 meters works great all the time
> now, and 49 meters has signals that actually peg the meter
> sometimes! What 90 db over S9?
> 
> I'm just worried about scanning with this and the relays constantly
> clunking around.

> On 1/28/2015 8:44 AM, Robert Rode wrote:
> >..Joe, no addition to ur post, however you have brought up a
> >condition exactly the same as my Kenwood TS-140-s,..it goes right
> >out of business when I switch bands, and sometimes tapping on the
> >cabinet will re-activate it,..also when going from transmit to
> >receive,..others say only cure is to replace those relays....just
> >saying,...Robert/W9ESX..
> >
> >On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 8:35 AM, Joe <nss at mwt.net
> ><mailto:nss at mwt.net>> wrote:
> >
> >    OK, I did the 13.8 volt and resistor cleanup on these relays in mu
> >    TS-430S and it made this a whole new radio.
> >
> >    Now they say it's lack of use that causes the corrosion.