I received a phone call today from Kuni, the owner of Comtek ham radio service out in Washington state, who told me that the front panel for my Icom IC-746PRO that was on backorder arrived last week and the new panel is installed and looks like new.
The other problem — regarding what I perceived as a receiver problem — he was unable to duplicate. He's used the rig for more than 3 weeks straight on 75 and 20 meters, and its performed flawlessly. I'm not sure exactly what I was hearing now, but he's checked it 8 ways to Sunday and everything checks out fine.
The place I was noticing the problem was on 75, on a frequency that's just below one where some guys send some SSTV. Could I have heard some trash from digital images spilling over as QRM that set off my “oops, I screwed up!” alarm??
Anyway, the repairs are complete. I owe him $42 plus an hour's labor for the front panel, plus return shipping. He's not charging me for the time he used the rig trying to hear the problem I thought I heard — a nice break for me.
The question now is where will I put the rig? I filled the spot the Icom sat with my Hallicrafters FPM-300. I don't want to push the Halli off the desk quite yet, its still a fun rig to play with. I still have time to ponder that decision. 73 … de KY4Z … dit dit