Has anyone modified and published a "how-to" to modify the ICE
system for better performance?
I have a friend who has two ICE 419A's. I help him maintain his
station, so I have a LOT of experience with them. As far as
band-to-band isolation, the filters seem to be adequate for the
job, but I'm sure others have a lot better specs.
the main problem is reliability. there are two problems:
1. the signal path travels through 12 relay contacts, 10 of which
have the relays in the normally closed (relaxed) state. This
design makes the filters subject to signal dropouts on receive.
The only solution that I know of for this problem is to cut the
plastic tops off all 6 relays, and use Deox-it and a burnishing
tool to clean all 12 of the normally-closed contacts before every
contest. I tried electrically cleaning the contacts with DC
voltage, but it didn't work reliably.
2. Overheating of the capacitors on 10 and 15 Meters. These are
the caps that go to ground on the radio side of each band filter.
The problem can be reduced by using three or four CDV16 caps in
each leg. I have the spec sheet on the original design, and I am
attaching it here. The reflector will probably strip it off, but
at least w5wz should get it. If you have a low-drive amp, the
caps are ok. If you use 100 watts , they will fail, especially
on RTTY.
I wouldn't recommend buying this unit, but if you already own
them, these procedures will help.
Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, AZ
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