I too, wonder why I’ve been seeing a rash of bad CPUs in ham radio equipment.
Like Ed, mentioned, I have dozens of CPU devices that are decades old and still
going strong. Why are we seeing such a high failure rate? Has me puzzled. The
Omni VI, the Orion II both seem to suffer from becoming brain dead.
I like to repair old radios. That’s become harder to do now since almost
everything has gone computer controlled and the use of surface mount
components. I can deal with those. It’s the dragon ball ICs that I can’t do
anything with. It’s beyond my pay scale.
Take the Icom 7300. It’s more computer than radio. Other than the transistors
in the PA, there’s little to repair. I think fixing a 7300 is going to be like
fixing your home computer—put in a new a mother board.
Mike Bryce WB8VGE
prosolar@sssnet.com
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you never know if they are
genuine”
—Abraham Lincoln
> On Dec 17, 2016, at 11:44 AM, Al Gulseth <wb5jnc@centurytel.net> wrote:
>
> Therein lies the rub. It has reached the point where the purchase of any
> recent production (recent being the past couple of decades) technology item,
> including automobiles, probably needs to be viewed as "disposable" from the
> likelyhood of the item eventually becoming a parts donor or going to
> recycling due to parts availability and repairability. Case in point: a "car
> guy" neighbor of mine says he's seen certain models of ten year +/- old
> luxury vehicles going for salvage value at auctions due to high
> troubleshooting and repair costs related to the dozens of computer modules in
> the vehicle. It's ironic that in many cases it's easier to keep the old
> Tritons, early Omnis, etc. on the air than it is the newer stuff. That's the
> advantage of having the rig's "CPU" be the one between the op's ears.
>
> 73, Al
>
> On Sat December 17 2016 9:19:24 am Ed lawson wrote:
>> On Fri, 16 Dec 2016 17:43:46 -0600
>>
>>> Hope it’s not the CPU though...
>>
>> That is my greatest fear. I've never had a CPU go bad in other
>> consumer products, why do they seem a problem area in some ham gear?
>>
>> Perhaps it is due to the fact ham gear is used for years. After all,
>> how many people are still using a 486 based computer. That seems the
>> rub, a good radio is a good radio essentially forever while other gear
>> with CPUs become functionally obsolete within a few years. Just seems
>> a terrible waste to have a nice radio become a brick upon the failure
>> of a part.
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