Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020
I’m working to get things rolling again on eBay, so I took pics of two VHF rigs to list to sell. Won’t bring a bunch of cash, but they will be leaving here, so that’s a good thing.
TEMPO 2020 UPDATE. Tonight I decided to take time and check out the parts Tempo 2020 I recently purchased. I had assumed the radio was just good for parts, and figured I would be able to part the radio out and recoup my investment (since I only really needed the top cover of the radio case).
I hooked up the power and antenna and flipped the switch. The radio came to life (as I expected, given the fact that the radio was sold as kinda/sorta working). However, there was no sound. Zippo. Zilch. Nada.
I tried different bands, adjusted the adjustments to no avail. No audio.
But wait — didn’t I see the S-meter just deflect? Yes I did! I plugged in a pair of headphones, and ta-da! Audio! I checked 80 and 40 meters, and found stations on both bands. The receiver actually works as well as the other Tempo 2020 I’m running.
The only problem that’s evident is the presence of a “catch” in the rotation of the Preselector. The control “catches” at one point in its rotation, and this could be due to a cracked nylon gear.
The Preselector is way out of sync with the other Tempo 2020 I’m operating, so that could be evidence that of a cracked sproket or sprockets. The only way to really diagnose this is to remove the case and then remove the front of the radio.
As far as operation of the rig on transmit, the radio will tune up, but I’m only getting about half power output — about 50 watts. This could be due to soft tubes, or more evidence of the cracked sprockets.
There are 8 sprockets operated on a chain drive system that sync the aforementioned controls. The original sprockets are secured on the shafts by set screws, and they tend to crack at the set screw or screws, which allows them to slip. I’m really curious about this radio, and frankly, I’m more interested in getting it working 100 percent rather than parting out a good radio.
I probably need to go ahead and order the sprockets and install them; I have two other Tempo 2020, and it wouldn’t surprise me if both of them have one or more cracked sprockets.
I need to troubleshoot the reason the built-in speaker isn’t working as well. That could be as simple as a dirty headphone jack, but I’m unlikely to be THAT lucky, hi hi!
73 es CUL … de KY4Z … SK … SK …. (dit dit ) ….