Unhappy DX-70TH

Ive come home to find that for some reason my PC has logged me out of everything! Ive just had a battle to recover access to this blog! I do hate it when the computer thinks for itself!

Having regained control of the machine, and got access again to my accounts, I was able to see that one of my user groups had a reply to my query about the Tx power settings on my Alinco DX-70TH.

Over the last few days I had noticed a drop in power, to almost half. With a suspicion that the internal power select switch was iffy, I found out the schematics, and put a post on the DX-70 user group asking if anyone else had come across this issue

The switch in question can be seen at the top of the main PCB, just below and left of that big cable tie. Testing all the bands showed a range of power from as low as 30w up to 80w, and generally getting lower the higher the band. In the end it was another members suggestion that he goes up and down the band switch to clear the fault, that resolved the issue for me. It would seem then that its a relay issue. For now, I have full power back!

Ive also been doing some digging about for Clansman audio connectors. I have bids on a couple on ebay, but a rummage through some long forgotten junk at work brought up a new old stock Racal cable with a pair of these 7-pin right angle plugs on!

The cable was about 20m long! Its not now, because as the picture above shows, part of it is already a 5m long 'break-out' cable! These right angle plugs are not really intended for the Clansman PRC-320, and only just fit (they are wider than the usual straight type) but the angle is away from the radio so they are perfectly usable.

I have also had a reply to my post asking for a coding partner - someone to look after the software side of the project. I have yet to reply to him though, something I will do tomorrow! (hope he's not lost interest!). This delay is due to a bitch of a week at work and being essentially knackered on getting home at night! My apologies to him already if he's reading this blog! Ive not forgotten!

Also this weekend, I really must sort the HF antenna mount on the car!

After all, might as well do project work - theres no propagation! Heres todays solar disk -