Re: [drakelist] Question about "acting up" TR-7
Bill, I use Caig Labs "Deoxit D5" exclusively, and many others will recommend it for boatanchor switches and metal/metal contact points, such as relay contacts and tube sockets. You can get it at Antique Radio Supply in Tempe, AZ and many other places. The only caveat is to avoid spraying too much on switch wafers that can soak it up; the added capacitance won't affect most circuits but will sometimes upset crystal oscillators. The idea is to put it on the metal, not the wafer. However, I usually spray with impunity and get away with it. Deoxit does an excellent job removing the crud and oxidation, and won't hurt anything under the chassis (but never spray it near a plastic dial, because markings are often very fragile). Others have special favorite cleaners, but Deoxit has proved itself to me. Glad your TR7 is back on the air! They are wonderful radios and deserve to be carefully maintained. 73, Rocco N6KN - Original Message - From: "Bill Todd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 4:43 AM Subject: [drakelist] Question about "acting up" TR-7 > > -Original Message- > From: "Rocco Lardiere"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Bill Todd"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Fri Sep 05 17:26:36 PDT 2003 > Subject: Re: [drakelist] Question about "acting up" TR-7 > > > > > > >Bill, > > > >The phase lock loop seems to be not locking on any band. You might begin by > >checking the power supply voltages inside the TR7 to see if the DC/DC > >converters are working properly. If not, the dial drifts all over the place > >to random freqs. > > > > > > Rocco, N6KN, and some others invited me to try the following with my ailing TR-7. > > "There are lots of other things to check. Often, carefully removing, > cleaning, and reseating the circuit cards can cure problems. Follow the > instructions in the service manual. Some cards, such as the digital display > card, are tricky to remove, but you need to do it to gain acess to the cards > below it. Its a real learning experience." > > He, and others were right on the button. I borrowed a can of "M.G.Chemicals Electrosolve Contact Cleaner" from a local TV repair shop this afternoon and after cleaning the bandswitches again and taking off the main board (on the top of the rig), and carefully removing and then reseating all the boards that I could get to move, the rig worked just fine. > > I gotta tell ya - it is difficult to buy a can of contact cleaner that does not also contain a lubricating agent. Rat Shack offers a cleaner for just under $9.00 but it also contains a lubricant of some kind. Anyway, I am glad I stopped by this TV repair shop on my lunch hour and the owner allowed me to borrow his can. > > I told him that I would bring in some horizontal sweep tubes that I have laying around in payment for the "rental". Fair exchange if you ask me (lol). > > Bill-N7MFB > > > ___ > Check-out GO.com > GO get your free GO E-Mail account with expanded storage of 6 MB! > http://mail.go.com > > > -- > Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - subscribe drakelist in body > Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body > Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message > Brought to you courtesy of TLCHost.net http://www.tlchost.net/ > -- > -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - subscribe drakelist in body Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Brought to you courtesy of TLCHost.net http://www.tlchost.net/ --
[drakelist] Question about "acting up" TR-7
-Original Message- From: "Rocco Lardiere"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Bill Todd"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri Sep 05 17:26:36 PDT 2003 Subject: Re: [drakelist] Question about "acting up" TR-7 > > >Bill, > >The phase lock loop seems to be not locking on any band. You might begin by >checking the power supply voltages inside the TR7 to see if the DC/DC >converters are working properly. If not, the dial drifts all over the place >to random freqs. > >There are lots of other things to check. Often, carefully removing, >cleaning, and reseating the circuit cards can cure problems. Follow the >instructions in the service manual. Some cards, such as the digital display >card, are tricky to remove, but you need to do it to gain acess to the cards >below it. Its a real learning experience. I went through all of this to >make my TR7A work - but it is very reliable now. > Rocco, N6KN, and some others invited me to try the following with my ailing TR-7. "There are lots of other things to check. Often, carefully removing, cleaning, and reseating the circuit cards can cure problems. Follow the instructions in the service manual. Some cards, such as the digital display card, are tricky to remove, but you need to do it to gain acess to the cards below it. Its a real learning experience." He, and others were right on the button. I borrowed a can of "M.G.Chemicals Electrosolve Contact Cleaner" from a local TV repair shop this afternoon and after cleaning the bandswitches again and taking off the main board (on the top of the rig), and carefully removing and then reseating all the boards that I could get to move, the rig worked just fine. I gotta tell ya - it is difficult to buy a can of contact cleaner that does not also contain a lubricating agent. Rat Shack offers a cleaner for just under $9.00 but it also contains a lubricant of some kind. Anyway, I am glad I stopped by this TV repair shop on my lunch hour and the owner allowed me to borrow his can. I told him that I would bring in some horizontal sweep tubes that I have laying around in payment for the "rental". Fair exchange if you ask me (lol). Bill-N7MFB ___ Check-out GO.com GO get your free GO E-Mail account with expanded storage of 6 MB! http://mail.go.com -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - subscribe drakelist in body Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Brought to you courtesy of TLCHost.net http://www.tlchost.net/ --
[drakelist] Question about "acting up" TR-7
Hello group - I am new to this list, but I have been a fan of Drake gear for a long time (Swan gear too, for that matter). Currently, I have a Drake TR-7 that has been acting up, and not being all that technical (sorry to say), I don't know where to start trying to troubleshoot this rig. Lately, I cannot get my rig to work on any ham frequency. Right now, for example, I have the bandswitch set to 3.5 and the dial says I am on 17935.0. At other times, it reads in the 18000. range. This is the case from 1.5 to 14 MHz. When I switch to 15 meters however, the frequency changes to 33343.0, and it remains the same on the 28.5 setting. I thought I might have extremely dirty bandswitches but I have cleaned them many times and it seemed to help a little at first. Then, if I left the rig turned on for a couple of hours, it would eventually work on 40 and 20 meters, but not on 80 meters. At this point, it makes no difference at all. Just as I am typing this message, the rig suddenly started to work again on 40 meters, and I could tune the rig just fine, but when I switched to 80 meters to see if it worked, nadda, so I went back to 40 meters and the rig again gave me the old 17 MHz freq garbage. My hunch is that there is something that needs cleaning other than the bandswitches, but perhaps I am wrong. Any suggestions from the list? Thanks a lot - Bill-N7MFB ___ Check-out GO.com GO get your free GO E-Mail account with expanded storage of 6 MB! http://mail.go.com -- Submissions:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - subscribe drakelist in body Unsubscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body Hopelessly Lost:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message Brought to you courtesy of TLCHost.net http://www.tlchost.net/ --
