[Motorola] Flaming FHTRU

[Paul Signorelli]

I had my old FHTRU out for a battery check and power check the other day, July 2016.I was adjusting the squelch control, (some FHTRU's have a squelch control in the battery compartment),When all of a sudden Smoke & Fire came billowing out.When was the last time you had Smoke and Fire coming out of your HT?I found burned marks on the 1 Meg Pot and took it out.It was an open version (not sealed) and I found carbon crumbshad migrated out of the Pot and shorted to the case ground.The carbon stator had deposited some conductive material at the edge and the 50V battery gladly ate it up.The Pot was still OK but I replaced it with a sealed AB Type J.It was bigger so I had to trim the bracket for it to fit.This control never gets used so the carbon crumbs were probably not scrapped up by the wiper.Just one of those old reliability failures for the book.Paul   w0rw