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[KC5FHV]

I had an interesting thing happen to me this morning.  I was driving into work and ragchewing on a local repeater when suddenly in the middle of a transmission my radio beeped once and turned itself off.  It then refuses to turn back on.  I have a Radio Shack HTX-242 with a 5/8th wave mag mounted to the roof.  The radio is plugged into the cigarette lighter adapter, I checked it to see if I had a blown fuse but it still works so I checked the inline fuses and they aren't blown either.  The only thing that has changed lately is yesterday I took the mag mount down to go through a car wash, but I put it back in the same spot it was in.  The SWR before the car wash was 1.7:1.  Could it have changed drastically enough to burn out the radio?  I am really at a loss.  If anyone knows what may have happened and if you have any solutions please let me know.  I just bought this radio about 2 months ago and I am *not* prepared to go purchase another.  Please reply here if you have any ideas.

Thanks and 73,

Chris Rutledge
KC5FHV

[N2MG]

Well, it doesn't sound to me like an antenna or transmitter problem.  While it's possible (depending on the design) that a "bad" antenna load could permanently damage the radio's transmitter, I think it's very unlikely that it could damage the radio such that it won't turn on.

I'd carefully check to see if actual DC voltage makes it to the radio (don't just look at the fuses, MEASURE it!). Does anything else work when using the cigarette plug?  Perhaps the radio has an internal fuse?

Good luck.

[KC5FHV]

Well it turns out that its a faulty fuse inside the cigarette lighter adapter.  I had forgotten about that one.  Solution: Wire it right to the battery.  Thanks to everyone and to the great folks at eham.net for letting me take up space.  By the way, ya'll can erase this topic since I didn't need an elmer, just a clue.  Ha Ha !!

Thanks and 73,

Chris Rutledge
KC5FHV

[W2KWN]

Hi Randy -

  I'm writing this because I suspect that your HT-242 is doing something that my earlier HT-202 (R/S 2m HT) tends to do when it goes belly-up. In its operating manual (pg 36) It describes its "Error Codes".  My experience has been that these error codes are accompanied by beeps:  One beep for"Er1", internal RAM error; and, two beeps for PLL unlock error, "Er2".

   Try this:  Since you heard only one beep, it might be that you're experiencing Er1 and you can fix it by:

   1.  Reset the transceiver by turning it off, then holding down F+D while you turn it on again.  This clears and reinitializes memory.  The manual also goes on to say that if your transceiver frequently displays this error (Er1), have the lithium backup battery replaced, since that is probably the source of your problem.

  If you choose to do that, you might keep in mind that Radio Shack recalled the HTX-242 shortly after it entered the market.  The reason:  it was easy to alter its tuning so that it could receive cellular phone frequencies, and not because there was an inherent flaw in the unit.  But, if you let Radio Shack get their hands on it, you might never see it again and all the fluffy offers wouldn't be worth the HT's loss. It's probably something you could do for yourself, or by someone who's adept with that sort of repair.

   If you were so unlucky as to have missed one of two beeps when the HT-242 went belly up, then you're sort of S.O.L.  That's a "PLL Unlock Error" (Er2).  Er2 indicates that the transceiver's PLL section has unlocked and fixing it is something that only a specialized shop can handle. The operating manual says bring it back to Radio Shack, and , well, you know what that means.

  I don't know if all this helps, Randy, but here's to you, wishing you all the luck.  Look for me regularly on ICQ as 9067361 and maybe we can chew this over.

Cheers,

Red Erickson - W2KWN