#111

[@mikefinn2101]

Peter you're the best, and this is one of the best videos I have seen. No one else has ever made a detailed video like you have, Great Super Job. All Hams owe you a billion Thanks, forever in debt and grateful to you. You bless people with knowledge no else will do. so happy there are people like you in this world. Thanks

[@larryk4mu240]

Hi Peter, This is one of the best videos. It teaches trouble shooting, how to think about the problem, how to choose which path that “may” be the best, and it shows what happens in real life. Excellent. 73

[@TRXLab]

Wow thanks for the kind works Larry, I'm always glad to hear that my work is appreciated! Thanks for watching 73

[@Beretta96Dan]

I don't know about your QTH, but I'd bet that radio would be on eBay here in the states in no time at all! And I doubt he/she would mention your repair. Thanks for the video, Peter. I really enjoy watching your troubleshooting skills.

[@TRXLab]

Well I think similar things would happen all over the planet...Thanks for watching and comment 73

[@harmtuntler8555]

Thanks Peter very informative I have a 910h also with tx problem on uhf and vhf i think the fault is 2sk2975 driver which controls both frequency 23cm works fine , i also tried icom and they said the same thing about service etc anyway very good video has helped me too thank you cheers Harm

[@TheRadioShop]

Hi Peter. Great troubleshooting skills on this one. Very well done my friend. Just got home for the first time today by land vehicle. All the flood water is gone and roads are clear. So much cleaning to do here. Was taking a break and watched your video :-)Take care my friend!

[@TRXLab]

Hi Buddy, I'm honestly happy that you are back home and I hope that it is "only"(and that can already painful enough) cleaning and not too much damage you have to mange! Take care my friend!! Wish I could help you somehow..

[@charlieoscar09]

Well done Peter....It really hacks me off about Icom...I have heard so many stories about them not wanting to do customer repairs and it really puts me off purchasing their sets.Kenwood good Yaesu good It seems all Icom want to do is force the customer to re-purchase.Cheers for taking the time to do this for us.

[@TRXLab]

Thanks for comment! There are really things we don't understand... 73

[@cardboardboxification]

charlieoscar09 i

[@1OFGODSOWN]

charlieoscar09 YAESU & Kenwood sell plenty of GARBAGE so I will keep my shack full of ICOM gear.I have owned plenty of Garbage built by YAESU & Kenwood.

[@robertcalkjr.8325]

Thanks Peter. Yeah, those intermittent faults are the worst for sure.

[@TRXLab]

For sure Robert intermittent faults are nightmares, Thanks for watching 73

[@hdmalpas]

Intermittent faults can drive you nuts Peter, nice to show that it can not always be corrected and found for sure. I was glad to see that you did a reflow on the IC, I bet that may have done the job, time will tell.

[@TRXLab]

Yeah you are right Howard intermittent faults are the most worse you can have and it is tre that sometimes this kind of faults stay hidden... Thanks for stepping in 73

[@hancecrawford]

Intermittent faults can be a pain to locate, but the reflow certainly seemed to cure the mystery fault as mystery faults can lead you a merry dance well done again peter :)

[@TRXLab]

Yeah intermittent faults are a pain...Thanks for stepping by. 73

[@13EL121]

Ein wahrer Alptraum. Icom Reparaturen scheinen zu deinen Lieblingsaufgaben zu zählen lieber Peter. Ich bewundere jedes mal deine Geduld und deine Fachkenntnis. Hut ab und 73, Ralf

[@TRXLab]

Hall Ralf, ja das sind wirklich Alptraum Fehler, aber Icom Reparaturen gehören in vielerlei Hinsicht sicher nicht zu meinen Lieblingsaufgaben hihi. Danke für Dein Feed-Back 73

[@iw0hex]

Great Peter !!! Thanks for this lesson, you are right, intermittent cases are worst !!! But let me us about this repair, very very nice. Thanks a lot, 73s de IW0HEX Pasquale.

[@TRXLab]

Thanks for stepping by Pasquale. Have a good time 73

[@drewsmith6066]

knows his stuff this guy..great job again

[@TRXLab]

Thank you Drew! 73

[@technos123]

Peter great video. Both entertaining and educational. Thanks Robert.

[@TRXLab]

Thank you Robert! 73

[@DonDegidio]

Hi Peter, You sure earned your pay with this radio. I hope the re-flow will solve the problem for the owner. WB3BJU

[@TRXLab]

Thank you Donald! Hope that the problem is solved too.. 73

[@CarNRadio1]

I have a radio with the same problem on my bench. Great info.

[@PapasDino]

I have the same 910H that has all the upgrades to include the high-stability oscillator you see on the PLL board along with the 1.2GHz module. Were you able to determine why the SHF module became so hot as that doesn't seem to be normal; perhaps the high heat is what caused a micro fracture along one of the DDS IC pins. TNX for the operation lay down, I made some notes and put them into my 910H binder for future reference. 73 - Dino KL0S

[@TRXLab]

Hi Dino, yeah the high stability oscillator is installed too, didn't mention it in the video...Well I would not say the SHF module is too hot but it has it's temperature and considering that it is fully covering the main board I doubt the the airflow is optimal.. All really foreboding to a micro crack on the pcb and the temperature around the DDS IC is quite hight and additional to all the PLL IC gets that hot that you can't touch it but that is known and normal for this IC. Thanks for stepping by 73

[@PapasDino]

A little surprising with the complaints in other comments about Icom service; I had my 910H repaired (bad driver transistor in the UHF PA chain) by the Icom Service Center in Michigan here in the U.S. and they repaired it in a timely manner, but I'm sure many may have very different experiences.

[@TRXLab]

I'm not sure if it is true but by all I have heard there seems to be a huge difference between the service in North America and Europe

[@1OFGODSOWN]

Dino Papas ICOM Service is AWESOME and has even repaired a radio for me for FREE that was out of warranty and they paid the return shipping as well.I’ll take that kind of service any time.

[@dennisqwertyuiop]

thank you for video,, as always Peter your the best tech out there

[@TRXLab]

Thanks you Dennis your words are a honour!

[@sigmundgoettler2320]

Very like the issue is in the IC itself. I have the same behavior by bond wire faults, the IC works when touching with one probe and the error disappers. This is temerature independing.

[@alessandrozax]

Thank you for your experience shared with us...seems that ICOM have that kind of problem in some radios, or this owner have a little bit of bad luck, i hope that you have solved this problem at 100%. '73 ^_^

[@TRXLab]

Thank you Alessandro! 73

[@cat637d]

I believe I would remove the shield on the secondary PLL and do a direct comparison of the supply voltage on pin 44. That should clear up the discrepancy on the print compared to the actual article.

[@TRXLab]

Hi, yes that will be the next step if the fault is not under control so we will see. Thanks for watching and comment 73

[@sergejgorbunov5514]

I used to have the same trouble when fixed ic-910 with model number about 2000, i.e. it was rather old. My problem was on front panel board. As I managed to figure it out, the chip leg lost constant contact with the plate. In my case the problem had resulted to display twinkling. After weldering all got fine! In your situation I'm sure was smth like that.

[@TRXLab]

A very good Sergej thanks for feed-back and for reporting this problem! 73

[@sergejgorbunov5514]

Welcome, de ua3tjc 73!!!

[@1OFGODSOWN]

I would suggest Soldering over Welding in radios. LOL 😆

[@1OFGODSOWN]

I just guessed that something in there was causing that.I love my ICOM 910H.

[@Billblom]

did you hear back from the owner about the reflow??? any additional problems? I would have headed to the cold spray...Clearly that didn't help.

[@ham4ham71]

In looking at the schematic and IC position where it matches the upper side it does appear pin 44 should be VDD. It also has a bypass cap to ground exactly where you would expect one to be. IC chips can do very rare and intermittent behavior when one of the power pins is left open and it shouldn't be. It also looks that if it is VDD it maybe missing the 100p on that side where the others have it The PCB drawing in the service manual also shows a common VDD tie between pin 11 and 44 and 6 like the schematic does Pin 43 is the clock out to the connector isn't it? Not surprising if that VDD is open and shouldn't be that would be the power pin allowing bad things to happen. If it were mine I would tie 44 to VDD and try to place a 100p piggyback on top of the 0.01 and might even assume it would never happen again. This looks like a PCB layout design error they found after a few hundred radios started coming back in the original warranty period on an early revision. My best guess says the original pin 44 wasn't marked VDD in the original PCB layout. Does the service manual and schematic have the revision marked compared to your test subject?

[@TRXLab]

Hi John, yes I agree but what I don't understand is the fact that we don't have many similar problems in the field. This radio is already 10 years old and thus we should have seen it many times before. And even if this fault has been identified by Icom very early and a revision has been done very quickly so that not many radios with this problem are on the market why did Icom not a modification to this particular board and quit all problems for the future?? I mean this radio has been 3 time in service within 10 years?? Is it possible that ICOM don't know this problem?? Thanks for comment and watching 73

[@L.o.u.i.s..]

Did it fix the problem?

[@joepereira3421]

Thanks again Peter, pin 44 schematic has me perplexed perhaps a error ?

[@TRXLab]

Hi Joe, yes me too...And unfortunately I can't find a data sheet for the IC.. Thanks for watching 73

[@TKomoski]

I like your approach to the problem Peter, you isolated the fault in half buy disconnecting the PLL board from the PA. Nice job when watching I was thinking cold solder joint. Not the case then internal chip fault at certain temperature range. Have you taken a external temperature of the chip itself and compared it to the other chip. One other possibility is in the PCB layers itself, having an internal layer fault do to thermal expansion. Is there any high heat component under the board in that area causing the fault. Well I hope you catch it Peter for the sake of the customer and for the ICOM service reps. Great video as always look forward to the next one. Cheers

[@TRXLab]

Thank you Tom! Yeah it is possible that there is an internal problem on the pcb layer.We will see.. Thanks for stepping by 73

[@jonka1]

The high heat component is the very high frequency option unit as discussed earlier.

[@dalebrooks2396]

Thanks for the video Peter; I would think ICOM should have made good on this unit by solving the problem one way or the other.

[@TRXLab]

Hi Dale I can't more agree! Thanks for watching 73

[@glaros0]

Great analysis Peter, I really enjoyed your video. Which supplier do you trust for your cable adapters and connectors used in your test lab? I recently had several SMA to UHF connectors that were causing me trouble on my measurements and I now want to replace them. Thanks, 73, Kostas.

[@glaros0]

Another reason I've never bought any ICOM so far is that their technical department can't fix their own radios! There was also another video before with the same problem happening on a different ICOM. Also, for some weird reason I've noticed that ICOM radios have too many ribbon tapes around, which are very sensitive to faults and nearly impossible to replace or repair if something goes wrong.

[@TRXLab]

Hi Kostas, well for HF you can use cheaper adapters but when it comes to VHF and higher I trust in HP/ Keysight, R&S, Rosenberger and such..Hope that helps 73

[@glaros0]

Many thanks for this Peter, 73.

[@stargazer7644]

What technique did you use to reflow the IC? Did you just touch each pin with a soldering iron, or did you use a hot air gun? Did you add solder, or just reheat?

[@TRXLab]

In cases like this I do it pin by pin under my microscope as sometime you can see which pin makes problems with this technique. I use Flux and new solder as well. 73

[@grantfullen9559]

Good Job tracing down the area. It is odd that after you probed around and headed up the chip it is working.

[@TRXLab]

Thank you Grant 73

[@radioman6489]

Peter, where are you located? Thanks

[@TRXLab]

Germany

[@radioman6489]

@@TRXLab well if I had one of them to be repaired, the cost from the US would cost to much. lol hi hi. Looks like your a great repair person. Keep up the great work.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

1st IF :=10.695mhz 2nd IF:=455khz LO:=10.240mhz if no 455KHZ then the LO is bad can you get 10.240mhz from one of the pins on the synthesizer chip and use that to drive both mixers?

[@williammiller9818]

Hi, I have one of these in need of repair. Do you have an address where I may contact you about repairs?

[@rapsod1911]

Why do you need to replace whole board if you can use piece of thin wire?

[@TRXLab]

Yes that would be the right approach if I would know which junction is intermittent open...but you can't dee it even not with a microscope as it might be inside the layer.. 73

[@gigicraioveanu1309]

Hi Peter I saw you are doing very good job in fixing Icoms, I need also a repair job for mine, can I ask you for your help?Thank you. 73 Gigi YO7NE

[@TRXLab]

Thanks Gigi. Sorry no capacity in the moment....73

[@gigicraioveanu1309]

@@TRXLab Thank you, I'll wait .Tnx 73

[@paublusamericanus292]

icom got a black eye from this particular job. bad boys really. good try, and I have the feeling you fixed it now, hopefully, but will not know for a year. jeez. if not a board, then the ic. jeez.

[@TRXLab]

Yeah radio is working fine...Thanks for watching 73

[@1OFGODSOWN]

Any radio can fail.The odds of all of them being 100% operational is pretty small but thanks for the laugh Mr.Perfect. LOL 😂

[@13kimen]

Thanks for your informations but can you translate in french FR8QN REUNION ISLAND

[@TRXLab]

Hi Frederic, thanks for your feed-back but as much I would like I'm nit able to translate it into French..., sorry 73

[@zeproo]

I go for Kenwood.

[@TRXLab]

Kenwood have nice radios! Thanks for comment 73

[@SWRadioConcepts]

No Kenwood has ever broken! Oh wait, Peter has several Kenwood repair videos posted :/

[@1OFGODSOWN]

Good for you.I will keep using my ICOM radios including my ICOM 910H.

[@Dratchev241]

Icom i bet stopped making the pcb 6 months before they discontinued the model, that way when a problem like this shows up, they just say can't fix, go spend $4,000 on a new IC-9100

[@TRXLab]

It is a kind of odd isn't it?? Thanks for watching 73

[@Dratchev241]

TRX Bench yeah, instead of supporting the older rigs they have sold, they rather you trashcan the broke one and dump money in new.

[@robertcalkjr.8325]

Planned obsolescence...

[@1OFGODSOWN]

No difference from ALL other brands.I’ll keep my 910H & other ICOM gear over any other brand any day.

[@1112223333111]

6 months...that'd be the last Icom I buy

[@TRXLab]

Yeah 6 month is a number isn't it. Thanks for watching 73

[@1OFGODSOWN]

ᗒ╬ᗕ1112223333111ᗒ╬ᗕ anything can fail no matter what it is if man makes it.ICOM has been far more dependable than any other brand & I will continue buying and using them as long as they don’t have a touch screen.