[K4RY] K4RY IGate Status

[John Klingelhoeffer]

Kyle;  


Attached are the schematics and service data for the DR-110.  Would you and the other student club members do some basic troubleshooting on the radio before I look at it to make sure that voltage regulators and such are okay before I take time to dig deeper?  Are the voltage regulators working?  Are the illumination bulbs getting voltage?  Are there any shorted electrolytic capacitors?  Many of the early Alinco's had backlit, clear on black LCD's that required backlighting in order to see anything.  If the bulbs have burned out, you may not notice that the segments are indeed lit and operating.  I've had to repair several Alinco's for this malady and it isn't a trivial effort.  


Lightning could have been the culprit, but since you hear noise, most likely not.  Lightning more often than not results in a fully zapped radio that does absolutely nothing.  The antenna for this radio is a lot lower than anything in the surroundings, and is DC grounded, too.  


In Alinco's line of VHF radios, this is one of the oldest, hence documentation is sparse.  There is a service manual for the DR-112 which is similar, but not identical to, the DR-110.  If there isn't something easy and obvious that you find (and that should probably be the case if it is very dead) then it most likely isn't economically repairable.  I'll wait on the earlier mentioned transfer until I hear what you folks have found from internal power supply voltage and bulb checks.   


I'd agree with Kris' comment that a crystal controlled commercial mobile radio might be a better choice if a new radio is needed.  I purchase and am familiar with Motorola Maxar 80 (not 50) and Moxy radios, which can be had on Ebay for $20 or so and add $20 worth of crystals from Bomar to put them on the right frequency.  See:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Motorola-MAXAR-Two-Way-Radio-Model-D33TRA3000AK-with-microphone-/140844035594?pt=2_Way_Radios_FRS&hash=item20caf56e0a   That is what I am going to use on the APRS digipeater up in Clay County, soon.  


There are also a LOT of commercial radios coming out of service right now due to the FCC narrowbanding rule so even new ones, if they can be programmed, should be better than the Alinco.  If they are multichannel, they are sort of a waste compared to the single channel crystal controlled radios.  But, if the price is right (free with all cables, control heads and free programming) that sort of trumps the others.  Otherwise, they can be a lot of trouble trying to get the accessories and programming done, and generally are not worth the trouble for a single channel radio.  


73


John...
WB4LNM


-----Original Message-----

From: Kyle Owen <kylevowen at gmail.com>
To: k4ry <k4ry at eng.auburn.edu>
Sent: Tue, Sep 4, 2012 1:36 pm
Subject: [K4RY] K4RY IGate Status


Hi all,

It appears our dear Alinco 110 has finally died. Although it still makes noise, the display is completely toast, rendering it unusable. When we first got into the room, it wasn't even making a sound after unplugging the speaker cable in the back connecting it to the KPC-2. After leaving it on for a few minutes, it suddenly produced static through its speaker, and connecting it back to the antenna resulted in some slightly stronger static. Unfortunately, it no longer seems tuned to 144.39 MHz, so it cannot be used for the IGate at this point. A new radio will likely need to be purchased. I am unsure the cause of the LCD failure, but my suspicion is that if lightning hit it, more than just the LCD would be dead.

Temporarily, I have connected the dual band IC-207 to the KPC-2, and we are back to receiving RF. Check out aprs.fi if you'd like to see what kind of traffic we're hearing.

Thanks to Chris for helping out!

73,

Kyle

 
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