Thanks!  Makes sense.  I had a similar problem about 5 yrs ago that ICOM repaired.

Another question:  my  AT50 auto tuner, the companion to the TS50 is no longer working.  It takes itself out of the circuit and shuts down.  Problem began about the same time the TS50 output started acting up.

Think it might be the same cause/same problem?

called  them after my IC7600, at 14 months of age and two months past the warranty period,  lost its output during the VHF Contest. The gal said send it in and she would talk to the manager about extending the warranty to cover repairs.  So I spent $75 to FEDEX Ground it to them.  One week later they called with the problem- failure of the RF board - at a cost of $175 for repairs.

I reminded her of what the first lady said when I called, and she said " Oh OK. I can authorize that."  Five days later it arrived in working order and no charge other than my original shipping cost to them.

Problem was  a bad IC chip and two blown diodes.    While I was disappointed to have a total power output failure so soon, I was pleased they covered the repairs and return shipping.

My mobile rig a Kenwood TS50S has erratic power output levels on several bands.  On other bands it appears ok ( full power-nice and steady.)

It was  connected to my  dummy load wattmeter to eliminate any  loose antenna  connections, and to my  in shack power supply to eliminate loose or corroded dc  cable connections.

On  a couple bands the RF power output is zero.  On others it will vary between 15-45w, fluctuating, sometimes fluctuating and holding.  And at other times it may show full power out but only for a few seconds. And on other bands it will provide a steady 100w output. 

Any suggestions?  has anyone experience similar symptoms?

Bob

I got on six for the first time  last summer, after 55 yrs on the air.

Look on ssb and cw.  the ssb calling freq is 50.125 but when the band is open you can hears stateside sigs from 50.125 up to 50.200 and even above.

cw is mostly 50.080-50.099.

I made my first  6M contact using 100w to a 40M vertical - with KP4-Land, on cw.  The main problem when the band is open is the other guy may have half a dozen stns caling him that you cant hear, so be patient.

Guys with a simple ringo ranger antenna  made 250+ qsos during th elast FD, on a lark.

Re: propagatiion:  the band can be dead for periods at a time only to open up to most anywhere on a dime.  So keep looking til you hear something.

Bob

SIX was pretty quiet most of SAT (at least when I listened) but around 9 pm local I worked a LOUD 7 in Reno, followed by a couple of 6's in CA and a 0 in Denver.  All 59 in central OH.  Looks like I missed the bulk of the opening though.

Lesson Learned:  Look  west in the evening even if the band  shows little during the day.

Bob

Or use some flat pvc,  or a "cut in two" half  section of pvc piping screwed into the wood to separate the mast from the wood if that makes you feel more comfortable. Im on the fence  regarding its need.

The static drain is a good idea based on how much precip satic Ive gotten the past year with my  pair of phased verts for 40m.  Its pretty common and annoying.  So draining  500-1000 ohm resistors to a ground rod at each vert makes sense to me. 

  Looks like the local club is sitting this one out, so I will be on 6M cw/ssb  from home with an IC7600 (freshly back fro ICOM after losing its RF board during the ARRL VHF test - fortunately  SUN afternoon and not earlier.)

Am wiring up my  HyGain Tailtwister  ( boy is that a pain!!!)  disconnectable couplings today.  Next comes  taking the 5 el 6M Cushcraft yagi  down and reinstalling it on the rotator. Then putting the c. 15 ft mast back up.

So come the CQ VHF Test I will be running 100w to 5 el at 15 ft with a rotator, for the first time ever on 6M.  I know I wont miss the 100 ft walk  to the mast  to activate the Armstrong system.

So what are YOU planning fot JUL 16-17?

PS  Next FD I believe I will add a 6M station to the  club effort.  Sounds like it might be real fun.

Will be curious what kind of mileage you get.  Better watch the tank.  If th e motor home gets 6 mpg horizontally, and youre climbing that steeply, that sucking sound might be coming from  the fuel tank.  Dont run out.  Hi Hi.

Anybody here planning on doing the CQWW VHF Test in July??  Same set up?

1. A 4:1 or better pully system easily  raises a 35 ft Rohn tower/antennas, with two side guy ropes for stability, and four old guys doing the work.
2. Run pully ropes over a rooftop or through a 2nd floor window tied off to a 2x4x8' board with 3 ft span between  window frames for "leverage".
3. Hoisting light weight masts over about 20 ft long  is a lesson in futility, even with just a 4 el 6m yagi and light wt rotator on top. We   turned two of them into inverted L's!
4.  Preplanning, leadership and experience matter.
5. You never have enough tools:  socket wrenches, sledge hammers, rebars for anchors, the new fangled  portable drills/screwdrivers.
6.  Even rural sites have powerline noise QRM.  Contacting the local utility can get it corrected fairly quickly in some cases.
Listen on the operating frequencies and not just on a car's AM radio.
7. In any organization, the 90-10 rule applies.

35 ft tower and three yagis at portable site  safely disassembled.

Five old guys who  erected the VHF  antennas with much difficulty using a 2:1 pully worked like a well oiled machine this time to lower  the tower/antennas.  A big improvement in safety was  using a 4:1 pully  through the  2nd floor barn window to lower the tower.  Two guys on the 2nd floor worked the pully, and one guy on the ground  stationed on either side of the tower steadied it by means of ropes, all connected at the 22 ft point of the tower.  Knots were tied by an expert sailor.   Took about two hours, mostly  loosening nuts and bolts for the antennas and removing them from the mast.

I report this because of how smoothly it went, and how much more safely it came down, mostly because of the higher mechanical advantage of the 4:1 pully system. 

We are all set for 2012!

Here's a practical question.  How many different stations can you put on the same table and still make contacts with the outer world above the din?

Anybody here cllaim a record?  Ours was a modest two. 

WIK:  I admire the fact that you guys can even get there, not to mention having enough energy left over to mount the station and operate it!

Way to go!

wouldnt the accuracy of your beam heading and pattern distortion  be two critical factors?

Considering the narrow BW of a 14 el yagi,  you could easily miss the dead center beam heading at either end and have no copy.

Three of us operated K8EM ( was changed from WW8OH at the last second)  with a  4 element 6M yagi  exhibiting 10 dB F/B at 35 ft. and 100w.  QTH central Ohio.  The cool part was getting acess to a two story refurbished barn near the top of a long  open hillside so it was our first operation there, and first VHF Test ever.  Three rooms on the 2nd floor,  with bathroom, and a fridge.  No heat yet but thats coming.  Screened windows allowed cross ventilation on a hot muggy Sat but much cooler Sun.

Got the 35 ft tower and yagi up Friday late but the rotator  didnt get functioning til Sat at 1: 50 pm local time.
Then we discovered 59+5 noise from the north.  So much for quiet country conditions.    By turning the beam we cut the noise down to S4, but quite a few calls were in the noise and uncopyable.  Quietest directions were S, SE, SW.
NW to NE directions were a total washout.

Skip favored FL Sat afternoon and TX-MS-OK-KS-CO Sunday morning, with long periods of silence ( errr, power line noise) in the pm, until things ame alive after dinner.  Not much from New England or the Maritimes that we could copy.  Sun morn  and early afternoon saw really nice scattered sigs from CO, ND, SD, NM, CA, WA ranging from 59 to 59+35,  but not much in between and no steady flow or good runs.  Missed a /VP9 who was 57  Sun pm when my finals died but the rx worked just
f ine.

A typical hour was like 4-5 qso within 5 minutes, then 15-20 minutes til the next one, and maybe 13 Q's average per hour.
Needed more ops, less power line noise..