Skip to main content

First ES 70MHz signals. Good old IC2E 2m handheld.

Today the first ES signals heard at 70MHz strong FM BC in-band from Belarus?
Worked MS GS3PYE/p IO66  from the rare Island of Mull  http://dx.camb-hams.com/    great set-up. 2minutes the QSO was finished lots of reflections.
No DX  this SS ZL3NW was on 1820.6 kHz again but I was busy trying to repair my very old 2M porto.
The Icom IC2E  over 30years old now. Has been working years in my car but suddenly silence.
No Rx or Tx  only noise audio and Squelch works.
My diagnosis:  the TC9122 PLL programmable divider is defective.
To my knowledge this divider must give 5kHz on the output even if there is no frequency lock status . There is input RF  but it's output is at fixed high level.
I can not find anything else wrong.
On Ebay  I found 1 supplier 4$ + 4$shipping  well it's worth a try.
I don't like to dump it I am a bit an old timer not used to dump everything.

But replacing this TC9122 is not easy. The IC2E is produced 30years ago.  In that time it was the most compact hand-held the state of the art.   250 Hfl ??  
Very well designed.  Metal frame that folds open in 2 parts.
And it may be a vintage radio but it takes very low power on standby 18mA. I does not have an CPU and display.
the flex print interconnection was replaced by flatcable  when a thumb-wheel was broken long time ago. In that time I needed no glasses to do this type of work..
Now an IC socket to hold the TC9122 from Hongkong  hopefully with success ...





Besides this I purchased a modern Chinese HT the Baofeng UV5R  at the 409shop in Hongkong.
Complete with  extra accu Li-ion programming adapter hand-mike leather case and magnet-car antenna  just below 100€





Comments

Archive

Show more

Popular posts from this blog

2011-01-22 DIAMOND 2m 70cm 1m30 Colinear inside

Having relative poor signals on the local 70cm / 2m channels using this X50 Diamond collinear 70/2  1m antenna at a height of 25m. I needed to investigate what could be wrong. Measuring the cable only 3W is left for the antenna of the 10W 435MHz output from a IC451E The cable is 30m type H100 Z50 10mm outside diameter it is semi air-spaced but has an impossible 4mm² solid CU inner conductor not much air left. I preferred the H43 Z75 cable having lower loss and mechanical better ratio in conductor size. My antenna uses SO239 connector UHF type semi air spaced isolator.  3W should be enough for a comfortable noise free FM signal. But only 27km away at PA0A the signal is weak too weak something must be wrong? I made a simple reference dipole of 2x17cm CU wire. With this dipole the signals where totally worse. So the Diamond does work? I got curious to look inside. Maybe moisture penetration degraded the antenna. This  antenna is rainwater close in its normal vertical mounting posit

SPF5189z Low noise preamp 23cm

 14-4-2018 updated Above the low noise  preamp 50 - 4GHz    ebay  6€ Tested  2 small porto antennas 1 Baofeng UV antenna left   2nd best signal on PI2NOS 2 eBay DIAMONDSRH805S  wide band 144/432/1200  it works for its size as expected 3 piece of wire :   best signal in the setup... Unit under test at workbench. It was stable  50mA  at 5V   few days,  but sudden the current went up to 100mA And i could  no longer adjust it with the negative bias Voltage. The - Voltage went to zero and the SPF input port became low Z. This SPF5189z was broken  no oscillations, no input overload just it broke while i was receiving the PI2NOS 430.125 using a small antenna at the workbench. The specs of  SPF5189z  say it has an internal circuit  regulating the bias current. Replaced . again   with an other of the 5 spare SPF i have. The new one again could be adjusted at 50mA  5V  The current raises to 150mA  when removing the  negative gate voltage. Where is that internal bias cir

BIJZEN mast en ontwerp fouten.

In 2013 heb ik een Bijzen aluminium mast 3 x7m  opgehaald  bij iemand die hem niet mocht plaatsen Gemeente Oss  dat zegt misschien al genoeg.. Pas in 2018 heb ik hem geplaatst had ik veel eerder moeten doen. Mooie mast, mijn xyl vond hem zelfs mooi. Hij is licht, de 3 delen wegen  235kg  het vaste deel 102kg dus het te lieren gedeelte weegt   slechts 133kg + ca 50kg rotor + antennes etc.  De elektrische lier is wel erg zwaar 30kg misschien wel maar die zit onder    Antenne  3ele Steppir  19kG  +  G2500DXC rotor: 3.6kg  + rotorbuis 12 kg  +  kabels 10kg  + 5/7 ele 6m beam. ongeveer 50kg Je moet niet te dichtbij  kijken, dan valt op dat het Aluminium lastwerk heel slordig is gedaan, scherpe bramen aan de lassen waar kabels door kunnen worden beschadigd of haken Er is zeer ! weinig ruimte voor de rotor een YAESU G2500DX past net maar dan ook net  met beetje buigen van  kruisverband. Het Rotor platform kan wel een meter hoger dat geeft meer  buislengte boven het zit nu op 3.5 meter van het