Lazy Spectra +

[gjhamilton]

Hello all I have an + radio that works perfectly. The only issue is that when switching TG's the radio takes a long time, 30 seconds probably, to start receiving traffic on the channel. You can turn the radio off and back on and it picks it right up. There is only an issue when changing tg's. It has the most recent firmware that you can get for an 4 meg + radio.

 

[kw71]

I only have one AS+ and haven't played much with it. I believe I told it to not tx if the ignition is off. When changing zones or tg the radio stays quiet until I touch that wire to B+. I really don't like doing that with an antenna connected.

 

[gjhamilton]

The radio works fine just takes a really long time to receive when changing tg's.

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[Will]

Leaked, that's right past tense, capacitors in the PLL.

 

[Durandal1224]

Leaked, that's right past tense, capacitors in the PLL.

Huh? Cowthief much?

 

[Magnus]

I think he means that the radio has capacitors in the PLL circuit that have leaked. As in past tense, they have already leaked and done damage.

 

[kw71]

If leaked caps hurt the PLL why wouldn't it OUT RNG or FAIL 001 ?

 

[Alpha]

Maybe it's just a LITTLE off freq, or the compensation waveform is just a LITTLE out of spec. either of which would cause the symptom, but not enough out to make it FAIL outright...

 

[gjhamilton]

Thanks for all the replies.

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[com501]

If you watch the PLL you will see that it is just barely out of lock, (or range) and it will slowly pull in. Not enough to set the FAIL indicator. Just damned annoying. Caps are out of spec, kinda like my knees are now....

 

[standardmissile]

Time to break out the soldering iron, rubbing alcohol, Q-Tips, and breathe in that cat piss aroma of boric acid.

I hate the electrolytics that Motorola uses. They seem to be of worse quality than the ones they put into Boss Stereos, and it takes serious skill to find components S**tier than Teapo or Jamco.

 

[gjhamilton]

Yeah now it will just stop receiving and it will just start again.

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[gjhamilton]

Is it difficult to change the caps out? I am not the best at soldering?

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[Magnus]

Its not horrible but if you are not sure you may want to see if someone here will do it for you. Sometimes there is damage under the caps that needs to be repaired. I'm fairly sure there are several members who are skilled in this area.

Sent from my Droid RAZR

 

[CQDX]

It could be an affiliation issue: If you have the radio set to TX Inhibit and you scroll to a TG that would normally affiliate to the system (as I believe is the case for all systems in an AS+), the radio will send the affiliate command, however since TX Inhibit is on, it won't actually transmit. However, in that 10-15 seconds of time where it would normally be transmitting ISWs, the radio will remain muted. Once it's timed out it will RX just fine. It'll do this every time you change TGs.

 

[gjhamilton]

I am scanning from a conventional channel.

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[CQDX]

Is the system programmed as SmartZone or SmartNet? With my 5k, I find that if I program it as SmartZone it won't always pick up every transmission even when scanning from a conventional channel. Changing it to SmartNet and scan resume time of 1 or 2 seconds I found really made a difference.

 

[gjhamilton]

Smartzone. All radios are programmed same way with no issues. Just this one acting stupid.

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[standardmissile]

It's not that hard to recap these things. I've done about 30 thus far, and only screwed up one. However I was careless and ignored ESD prevention protocols, so I was kinda asking for it.

That said, I used Panasonic brand low ESR radials and found that they are much better performers than what was originally installed. The replacements are pretty kick arse, and I have yet to replace any of them after about 7 years of heavy DXing in the Southwest heat (summers here regularly reach 120 Fahrenheit, with winter being around 70-80). The Motorola stock aluminum electrolytics are rated for 1000 hours at up to 105 Centigrade, but I found that in reality they become unreliable at around 600-700 hours operating time (or 6 years shelf life) and take the unit either out of calibration (gets worse with time) or other nuances such as what you described as "lazy" response times between TG/channels.

 

[Alpha]

The caps are SMT variety but since they are only two leads you can alternately heat the pads and rock the cap back and forth til it's free. Of all the SMT comps, they are some of the easier ones to replace but if you don't feel your soldering skills are up to it, then definitely seek assistance.

The cat piss smell is from the cooking electrolyte spill as it heats up with a soldering iron, but if it's been that way for a while as Magnus said, it's quite possible the cat piss electrolyte has eaten away at the copper traces on the board (just like real cat piss!), so again as Magnus said it may need additional trace repairs on the PCB under where the cap sits. There are also a couple of large electrolytic caps near the audio amp on the command board that cause a "thump" in the audio when the radio is turned on/off when they go bad so they should probably also be replaced too, while you're at it...

They must have gotten a bad batch of them for about a 6mo-1yr period, I haven't narrowed down exactly when it was, but it was toward the end of the analog Spectra production, so the problem is mostly confined to the later analog Spectras, but I have seen some "Spectra-E" and early Astro Spectras with the problem. The newer Astro Spectras and the Astro Spectra Plus'es don't seem to have the problem that I have seen, nor do the really old analog Spectras.