Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Seasons Greetings

Despite Covid situation all around the world, i wish all of you a Merry Christmas and healthy 2022.


 

Sunday, November 21, 2021

New in the shack: Icom IC-7700

 After many years of owning a Yaesu FT-2000 a new transceiver arrived at my shack.

The Icom IC-7700 is big and weights approx 25 kilos.

Mine is in very good shape and i’m looking forward to make radio contacts on the hf bands with this new toy.




Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Acom 1000 Display replacement part 2

 Within a week Val of Acom send me the ribbon cable.

I soldered the connector of the cable on the new display and also connect both anode and kathode wires to the little swtich board.

This is the result, bracket, new display and new ribbon cable with blue connector.
Now put everything back in reverse order (or you may clean the inside of the amp before close its cover)
Time to switch on some power and....
Looks great! Simple to replace a broken display on your Acom!



Sunday, February 14, 2021

Acom 1000 display replacement. Part 1

 Several years ago i bought my Acom 1000 from a local ham.

The only flaw was the display; some light bulbs failed but that was no show stopper for operate.

Because i planned to fix this issue i ordered a new display direct at the Icom factory.

These are no common displays also no common price!

A special bracket to hold the new type of display was also ordered as advised by Acom

For some reason the new display arrived directly on the shelf for some years....

But okay now in this Covid period i decided to fix the job.

First a safety warning : DUE TO HIGH VOLTAGES IN SUCH AN AMP, ASSURE THAT YOU WORK SAFE!!!

So convince yourself that the amplifier is safe to work on.

Put band switch on 14 mhz and load and tune on 50.
With a tin hobby knife remove the cover of the 3 knobs, do this very carefull.
Remove the knobs from the front pannel and remove the cover of the amp.
On top and bottom of the front pannel find the screws and take them out.
Gently pull the pannel from the case. Be aware of some connectors on the inside!

So now the first part is done. Remove the connectors from the frontpannel, note that 2 identical connectors  exist so mark them before pulling them out.
Now unscrew the protection cover.

At this point you reached the display. The blue connector connects the display and the white the control knobs of the amplifier.
Unscrew both display and control board and pull both connectors gently!
At this point i had to stop; The display Acom sent me had not the ribbon cable and blue connector.
To desolder the connector from the old display is almost impossible without damage!
That was a mistake from Acom.
So i contact Acom and they send me a new ribbon cable with blue connector.
As soon as i got it i can continue this job.