/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Well, this is good timing.

I stumbled across a deceased estate if a HAM after spotting some old Z80 era computer gear on the curb and knocking on the door to see if anything else was going, for free or otherwise. The dude's son was cleaning out the joint and let me basically raid the house for anything I might want. His dad's HAM club had already swept through and snagged most of his gear; As far as he was concerned the more I took, the less he had to haul to the dumpster. Ended up helping him haul some real heavy shit out as well for being such a top cunt, but I digress.

Amongst some amazing old test gear, a Datong FL2 Filter box and an unbuilt, 80's era HF transceiver kit from Dick Smith I got pic related. I can set the time on it but as soon as I try to use any radio functions it glitches the fuck out. I need to hard reset it, but it retains time, so that's a start.

When I turn the jog wheel the unit responds by arbitrarily illuminating function LEDs and segments of the frequency display. Pressing function buttons (mounted to the low side RF board) does not change the appropriate indicator lights, meaning the control board seems to be ignoring feedback from the RF board. No static sound with squelch down but I can inject audio and hear it through the speaker so I know the AF stage is good. It has a digital control board upstairs and an RF board downstairs, and I'm guessing based on the symptoms the fault is in digital land. I'm hoping like fuck it's not a corrupted uC or it's game over, I doubt I'd be able to find the binaries to flash a new one. I'm gunna rework the digital board in case it has dry joints, but I'm not sure how much effort I should put in beyond this. Reviews are all over the shop, but it seems like a solid unit to DX on.

> TL;DR; Need to go balls deep into the digital control section of this receiver, is it worth spending my time on?