[amsat-bb] Re: AO-27's Signal as of Late

[Luc Leblanc]

On 16 Feb 2008 at 16:50, John Marranca, Jr wrote:

> Happy Saturday, everybody!
> 
> Before I pull out a ladder, and climb to the roof of my garage to check for
> any antenna problems, is it just me...or is AO-27's signal degrading?
> 
> It seems to be in much worse condition than a few months ago.
> 
> 
> John KB2HSH
> 
> 
As related to your issues John My FT-847 start developing a curious problem on the VHF chassis SO-239 connector. Since about one year i got 
a half power on the TX meter while a SWR in line meter was showing a perfect 1.1 swr level on various antennas, Even reducing the power 
level the max output remains at about 25 watts at the max power level setting.

As the problem was intermittent i was able to solved it when playing with various coax jumper and i concluded that my jumpers cable where 
faulty. As soon as i start to plug and unplugged a coax cable with their PL-259 the problem start to reappear half power and degrading 
reception.

Last week i was attaching my 2.4ghz downconverter to check the AO-51 S band pass and here it goes again half power from the rig and 
degraded reception. A bit tired to squeeze the PL-259 with pliers i made a brand new jumper cable and i recheck it about 10 times on a 
dummy load and he was perfect. I try it on the Yaesu but i still get the same problem and on any antenna plugged in the SO-239 i got the 
same problem. As i have now a steady problem i open up the Yaesu and when i take out  the UHF chassis connector he fell off the chassis the 
center connector pin was only making contact to the printed circuit board pin mechanically but the "VERY LIGHT" Yaesu solder was broken. I 
say lIght because the other one next to it was perfect and i just hope the two other are as good as this one.

End of a long period of frustrations and gremlins playing havoc overnight ... I even keep the rig on overnight when i want to work 
something important the next morning!!

Just hope this can help reducing the unnecessary stress on someone else
P.S. Don't blame your soldering/connectors poor skills too quickly they are much better than you may think!

Luc Leblanc VE2DWE
Skype VE2DWE
www.qsl.net/ve2dwe
WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLIT