Communications Support Forums
I have a high power Astro Spectra Plus VHF with a W3 HHCH that is behaving strangely.
Summary of Radio:
The vocon is an "A" Rev. (4MB) that was transplanted from a W7 800MHz high power by a friend, transplanted into a Consolette and re-tuned. Worked great for 7 months. I got a pristine W3 VHF Astro Spectra high power drawer (previously mentioned in another post) and transplanted the vocon into it. I changed the head type and re-tuned it to the high power drawer specs. I replaced my mid-power (Once completely refurbished by MexiMoto) W3 Astro Spectra with the HP drawer, and downsized the features, removing trunking, etc. that I would never use - in the interest of making the programming easier. It has an Astro Spectra Plus UCM with DES-XL, DES-OFB, and AES256.
The radio read and wrote with the factory cable a number of times without issue. Worked great! I was able to hear the local SO over 120 miles away (Factory installed preamp). All was well. Output was the full 110 watts with no reflected power into a 1/4 wave rigid roof mount antenna.
I read an article on this site about building a programming cable that uses only a DB-25 into the accessory port and a DB-9 straight into the computer. No workie. I tried reading the radio with my factory programming cable that plugs into the keyloader jack. It no workie, either. Uh, oh; I thought. But, the radio continued to perform without a hitch for several months.
Over the past 3 weeks, I noticed that the backlighting on my W3 was off. "Slip of the button press"; I thought. It happened several times. I pressed the dedicated backlight On / Off button several times but no backlight. I thought that one of the white SMD backlight LED's may be loose. I pressed it a couple more times and the backlighting came back on. I replaced the W3 with an exact duplicate. 1 week, no problems. This week, I noticed the same behavior a couple of times.
In addition to that; I noticed that I was unable to hear the volume (usually set at 6). I ran it up to 12 to hear at what I was used to hearing, volume-wise. A couple of miles down the road, it nearly blew me out of the car. I rocked the volume back down to 6 and it worked at a normal level. Since then; the same scenarios have happened 3-4 times. Not the W3, since I've tried it in the mid-power without issue.
Another REAL oddity: In one of my zones, I have an agency that has 2 channels. With Scan activated in that zone; it works fine and scans everything in that zone, including the 2 frequency agency. But; if I scroll down onto one of the afore mentioned channels, the scan icon disappears and scan ceases. Both channels are assigned to that scan list and enabled in the software. Weird!
I don't know if I somehow damaged the command board trying to read with the home-brew cable, or if I somehow corrupted the codeplug. I can't imagine the latter, since it never tried to read the radio.
Anyone with similar experience(s), or an opinion as to where I should begin the quest of troubleshooting? This type of behavior isn't exactly defined in the DSM, so I' shooting in the dark.
Thanks!
Jim
Summary of Radio:
The vocon is an "A" Rev. (4MB) that was transplanted from a W7 800MHz high power by a friend, transplanted into a Consolette and re-tuned. Worked great for 7 months. I got a pristine W3 VHF Astro Spectra high power drawer (previously mentioned in another post) and transplanted the vocon into it. I changed the head type and re-tuned it to the high power drawer specs. I replaced my mid-power (Once completely refurbished by MexiMoto) W3 Astro Spectra with the HP drawer, and downsized the features, removing trunking, etc. that I would never use - in the interest of making the programming easier. It has an Astro Spectra Plus UCM with DES-XL, DES-OFB, and AES256.
The radio read and wrote with the factory cable a number of times without issue. Worked great! I was able to hear the local SO over 120 miles away (Factory installed preamp). All was well. Output was the full 110 watts with no reflected power into a 1/4 wave rigid roof mount antenna.
I read an article on this site about building a programming cable that uses only a DB-25 into the accessory port and a DB-9 straight into the computer. No workie. I tried reading the radio with my factory programming cable that plugs into the keyloader jack. It no workie, either. Uh, oh; I thought. But, the radio continued to perform without a hitch for several months.
Over the past 3 weeks, I noticed that the backlighting on my W3 was off. "Slip of the button press"; I thought. It happened several times. I pressed the dedicated backlight On / Off button several times but no backlight. I thought that one of the white SMD backlight LED's may be loose. I pressed it a couple more times and the backlighting came back on. I replaced the W3 with an exact duplicate. 1 week, no problems. This week, I noticed the same behavior a couple of times.
In addition to that; I noticed that I was unable to hear the volume (usually set at 6). I ran it up to 12 to hear at what I was used to hearing, volume-wise. A couple of miles down the road, it nearly blew me out of the car. I rocked the volume back down to 6 and it worked at a normal level. Since then; the same scenarios have happened 3-4 times. Not the W3, since I've tried it in the mid-power without issue.
Another REAL oddity: In one of my zones, I have an agency that has 2 channels. With Scan activated in that zone; it works fine and scans everything in that zone, including the 2 frequency agency. But; if I scroll down onto one of the afore mentioned channels, the scan icon disappears and scan ceases. Both channels are assigned to that scan list and enabled in the software. Weird!
I don't know if I somehow damaged the command board trying to read with the home-brew cable, or if I somehow corrupted the codeplug. I can't imagine the latter, since it never tried to read the radio.
Anyone with similar experience(s), or an opinion as to where I should begin the quest of troubleshooting? This type of behavior isn't exactly defined in the DSM, so I' shooting in the dark.
Thanks!
Jim