ICOM - IC-R71A - help it's dead
D. D. Chukurov 21324
Nothing else comes up. Fuse is O.K.. Somoene told me there is a
battery in these receivers and when it goes bad the radio has to
go back to dealer for reprograming of EEPROM. Is that right? Could
that be the problem? What would you suggest?
Dan C.
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-- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me --
D. D. Chukurov d...@nyquist.bellcore.com
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Steve Byan
D. Chukurov 21324) wrote:
>
> The radio died on me - there is no sound coming out of at all.
> Nothing else comes up. Fuse is O.K.. Somoene told me there is a
> battery in these receivers and when it goes bad the radio has to
> go back to dealer for reprograming of EEPROM. Is that right? Could
> that be the problem? What would you suggest?
Seems unlikely - the computer in the R71 has no control over the audio
amplifier. You would at least hear some hiss out of the amplifier even if
the computer's memory went south.
Sounds more like a problem in the power supply; perhaps the series-pass
transistor gave up the ghost. Perhaps you or a friend could test the power
supply for output, using the schematic in the owners manual.
Failing that, have it checked out by an ICOM technician.
Steve Byan internet: st...@hicomb.hi.com
Hitachi Computer Products (America), Inc.
1601 Trapelo Road phone: (617) 890-0444
Waltham, MA 02154 FAX: (617) 890-4998
John W. Albert
>
>
You may have a dead memory battery. Some Icom radios will
fail because it loses a "look up" table that's stored in RAM.
Willco Electronics sells a No Fail memory that replaces the OEM
board. It also increases the radio's memory to 1024 and changes
the tuning range from 10kHz to 30MHz.
Their address is P.O. Box 788, New Lenox, IL 60451
---
Jack Albert WA9FVP Fellow Radio Hacker
Tele (708) 378-6201
Tellabs Operations, Inc. FAX (708) 378-6721
1000 Remington Blvd. j...@tellabs.com
Bolingbrook, IL 60440
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THE BOWTIE FILTER
Dave Rogers
|> The radio died on me - there is no sound coming out of at all.
|> Nothing else comes up. Fuse is O.K.. Somoene told me there is a
|> battery in these receivers and when it goes bad the radio has to
|> go back to dealer for reprograming of EEPROM. Is that right? Could
|> that be the problem? What would you suggest?
|>
This also happened to my R71. When the lithium battery dies after about
five years the whole receiver dies. When the memory dies you can't even
turn the receiver on any more. Icom has had a technote out on this for
some time. You need to send it in to get the battery replaced and the
PROM reprogramed. This is a superior Japanese design technique that
they learned from GM :-)
I replaced mine with a third party PROM which does not have this problem
a few years ago. I can't remember the name of the company off hand but
they used to advertise in MT. I'll look up the address for the company
and post a followup.
===============================================================================
Dave Rogers Internet: da...@rsd.dl.nec.com
M & R Software, Inc. CIS: 76672,2455
If you can't see the sky from where you work it's time to change jobs.
ken brookner
: In article <CJMFC...@walter.bellcore.com>, ddc@nyquist..bellcore.com (D.
: D. Chukurov 21324) wrote:
: >
: > The radio died on me - there is no sound coming out of at all.
: > Nothing else comes up. Fuse is O.K.. Somoene told me there is a
: > battery in these receivers and when it goes bad the radio has to
: > go back to dealer for reprograming of EEPROM. Is that right? Could
: > that be the problem? What would you suggest?
mine does this all the time. really frustrating. if it's the same
problem that i have -- give it a sharp whop on the top. it'll come back
to life.
every now and then when i'm really bored, i'll go open up the 71 and see
if i can find the intermittent connection that causes this. i haven't
found it yet.
ken brookner, n5lpi
Don.Steelman
alive by the battery. When it goes, the radio cannot reset itself so
nothing comes up. Since the batteries last about 5 years, the average
life of the rcvr, Icom didn''t worry too much about it. Now, five years
after the r71's release, they do. Mine is still operational, but I count
the hours till it crashes. You'd thinkthey would have issued a retrofit
eprom but no such luck. Let me know what you find out on this one via
e-mail or here, I have a personal stake in your findings hi hi.
I have debated with myself what i'd do when my r71 gives up the
ghost, and I really don't know. Maybe I'll just be a good little consumer
and get a new one, or maybe i'll ship the thing back toJapan for a fix,
but I think that decission is one i'll have to make pretty soon now.
Don Steelman
Mark Fraser
of memory (gee - I just invented a new acronym path Inev.. Coll.. Of Mem..
for ICOM) is a board by WILLCO, sometimes known as Jack Albert, who will
likely read this thread by tomorrow.
He makes a board that not only replaces the troublesome circuitry, but
expands the thing to 1000 (?) memory locations, permits tuning
down to DC (instead of the current cellar of 100khz) and adds some
other good stuff. The board has been out for quite a few months
now, so should be stable (debugged completely). /Worth a good look.
Cheers / mark
Mark Gregory Salyzyn
>alive by the battery. When it goes, the radio cannot reset itself so
>nothing comes up.
You can replace the battery `live' (Power On) if you have an isolated tip
soldering iron. My radio has not aged enough, but N5OFF/Thomas Marcotte did
this on his 751.
If you are truly leary, you have options of building your own programmer/reader
for the unit (I used a microprocessor to read/write my '751's memory, but a
set of dip switches and buffered lights could be done if you are microprocessor
challenged ...), ICOM can reprogram it for you, and some dealers will be able
to change the battery and either retain the program, or re-program it.
>Since the batteries last about 5 years, the average life of the rcvr, Icom
>didn''t worry too much about it.
First off, it has a 10 year life, second, why should ICOM worry about it, so
you lose the radio while you fall victim to a standard procedure to replace
the battery and/or and reprograme the memory, why would this be a big deal?
In addition, re-programming the unit *can* be an opportunity to extend the
frequency range of operation up to 39MHz and alter other characteristics, do
you have a problem with this gold mine of opportunity, or did you want a
Kenwood with a 3 year lifespan and a VCO that doesn't stay in lock because of
the phenolic PC board cracking it's coils ...
>You'd thinkthey would have issued a retrofit
>eprom but no such luck. Let me know what you find out on this one via
>e-mail or here, I have a personal stake in your findings hi hi.
There are aftermarket RAM extension modules that you may be interested in,
Contact N5OFF at tf...@chevron.com or n5...@w5ddl.aara.org and ask him what
he feels about it (QST just rejected his article about one of these add-ons
suitable for R71/R751 series of rigs).
Ciao, 73 de VE6MGS/Mark -sk-
Larry DiGioia
>problem that i have -- give it a sharp whop on the top. it'll come back
>to life.
>every now and then when i'm really bored, i'll go open up the 71 and see
>if i can find the intermittent connection that causes this. i haven't
>found it yet.
>ken brookner, n5lpi
problem. Had it apart MANY times, even replaced all the caps in the power
supply. Then I discovered the "whack" method... mine prefers to be whacked
on the SIDE, by the way...
||Larry||
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* Larry A. DiGioia STUDIO - D Productions *
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* lar...@delphi.com 412-243-5888 *
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Larry DiGioia
>alive by the battery. When it goes, the radio cannot reset itself so
>nothing comes up. Since the batteries last about 5 years, the average
>life of the rcvr, Icom didn''t worry too much about it. Now, five years
>after the r71's release, they do. Mine is still operational, but I count
>the hours till it crashes. You'd thinkthey would have issued a retrofit
>eprom but no such luck. Let me know what you find out on this one via
>e-mail or here, I have a personal stake in your findings hi hi.
makes 8 years... and my battery isn't gone yet. Just the power supply (see
previous post...)