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Reviews For: Electronic Equipment Servicing - WA4GEG

Category: Amateur Radio Equipment Repair

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Review Summary For : Electronic Equipment Servicing - WA4GEG
Reviews: 130MSRP:
Description:
160~6 meter Yaesu SSB/CW Transceiver Repair
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.HamRadioBug.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001305
K4LMP Rating: 2018-08-06
FT-1000MP Serviced Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Byron did a wonderful job on my FT-1000MP. He repaired the power supply, did the LED backlight conversion, made a few other repairs, and did a complete alignment. It works as good as new, and was only out for repair a little over a week.

I am very pleased with his work, he is very professional, and does high quality work. I would send my beloved MP back to him in a heartbeat!
KB9ENI Rating: 2018-03-16
Great Job Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I just used Byron and he did a great job. I had a mic issue and he tuned up some other things too. Very satisfied with his service

Mark Muckensturm
KB9ENI
KL7EZ Rating: 2017-09-26
EXCELLENT SERVICE – EXCELLENT RESULTS Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Mr. Campbell recently provided exceptional service on two of my FT-1000MP MKV Transceivers. I requested both rigs to have the comprehensive alignment, a backlight LED upgrade kit and I-F sampling buffer board installation (for a pan-adapter connection). The LED addition is crisp and clear. The pan-adapter is an excellent addition to the MKV. Both rigs returned back to me within a few short weeks and working great. He carefully packaged each transceiver and was received at my home in awesome condition. The process was painless as I closely followed his shipping requirements. Byron promptly and thoroughly answered all my questions via email. His fee is also very reasonable. I will not hesitate to send my MKV(s) back to WA4GEG if future service is needed. I definitely recommend Byron’s MKV electronic professional service.

Scott (KL7EZ)
W3ULS Rating: 2017-07-19
Recommend the LED Mod Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used WA4GEG's excellent service several times. The latest was for a used MARK V I recently purchased. It got a new LED display, a key click mod, and a thorough going-over. The rig sounds terrific.

I highly recommend the new LED display. The Mark V's display is now crisp, clear and bright. Better than when it was new.

73,

John, W3ULS

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Earlier 5-star review posted by W3ULS on 2011-05-04

My Mark V Field was serviced and returned by Byron Campbell in what seemed like no time. It was the first servicing since its purchase in 2004, and the transceiver looks and performs like new. (Byron also installed at my request the INRAD roofing filter mod.) Just another satisfied customer.

I continue to believe that if one can resist the lure of the LCD displays and DSP functions common to the new rigs, that the Mark V Field with the INRAD mod can hold its own quite nicely in terms of overall performance. In addition, its appearance and its ergonomics IMHO cannot be beat. Us Yaesu fans are lucky to have a quality service facility for our Mark Vs, given that Yaesu itself is no longer supporting these fine radios.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by W3ULS on 2004-10-07

Byron just finished installing an INRAD CW filter board for my FT-920. At my request, he also installed a couple of capacitors to help isolate the board and minimize signal leakage. (Why didn't Yaesu do this?)

The FT-920 works great, and Byron's service was prompt and professional. Highly recommended.
KF4RWA Rating: 2017-05-03
Power iss Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have an FT1000Mp with internal power supply. After pushing the power button the rig can take from five minutes to two hours before it comes on. byron fixed power supply,dsp a-unit board,-9vdc supply,pigtail at the relay board, my contour and N.R stop working he fixed that too, alignment and adjustment to restore full specs the 1000mp work like NEW price was not bad.
W0BKR Rating: 2016-12-02
Great Repair Source! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Won't go into all the details but my Field had experienced a direct lightning strike via the DC power input. When the radio would power ON, all icons, I mean every display icon would illuminate, no receive, no transmit. Picked up another used Field almost right away. Sent the damaged one to Byron, he repaired it! Control board had been damaged that other techs said you might as well trash the radio. Byron works magic. Radio works fine, sounds fine, and I highly recommend him for any FT-1000.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by N9CM on 2015-07-30

Note; I haven't gotten my radio back just yet but wanted to share with the crowd the detailed explanation from Byron, WA4GEG, on repairing my 1000Field. I had previously sent it to another tech locally, which usually has provided stellar service but within the past 4 months or so, I noted an anomaly. Since Byron is well versed with the 1000 series, I felt, why not try him and see. Here is his write up on my radio which I assumed had sustained some sort of ESD damage to the IPO circuit, or had an intermittent in that circuit, which I had repaired previously.

I have your transceiver repaired and also went over the alignment of all critical sections to bring the unit up to OEM specs. First, this radio has never been damaged from any form of ESD. The receiver antenna input ESD suppressor (located on the Low Pass Filter board) is in perfect condition.

The four FETs in the receiver front end RF Flat Amp have indeed been replaced, and all surrounding SMT chip resistors have been solder touched up -- as if the tech was looking for an intermittent.

The actual problem was intermittent solid-state on/off control of the Flat Amplifier via failing switching transistors (mini SMT components).
This is a problem I discovered years ago, that the switching transistors had a QC problem at the components manufacturer, where batches of devices would not perform fully to specs.The result is that some devices would not switch the required amount of current even though they are rated up to 100mA, and the switching current requirement is only 70mA in the Mark-V Field's receiver front end. The effect of intermittently failing switching transistors is varying receiver front end gain, and associated variations in S-meter readings, poor and varying receiver sensitivity, and etc. I don't believe the Flat Amp FETs were ever the problem in the first place, and there are hundreds of components between them and the antenna input, which further rules out the ESD damage hypothesis. Most likely the faulty switching transistors stopped acting up during the previous repair, leading the tech to think he/she had solved the problem.

The switching transistors control the FLAT AMP, TUNED AMPS, and IPO. Leaving no stone left unturned, I replaced all four switching transistors with heavy duty 500mA devices. To improve receiver performance further, I applied my gain correction mod. to the receiver's first I-F amplifier (mentioned below), and have completely gong through the alignment. Additional work include testing the SWR measuring bridge detector diodes, calibrating the SWR bridge, and updating the REG Unit's negative 9 volt supply inductors (another marginal
component) with heavy duty inductors to keep the voltage steady as the radio warms up to operating temperature.

After bringing the radio up to full operating condition, going through the alignment, and measuring the receiver sensitivity, I removed the Inrad 70MHz preamplifier mod. and remeasured the receiver sensitivity. The receiver sensitivity actually improved without the Inrad mod. so I've left it out and will be returning it with your radio. BTW, I don't sell those and don't recommend them. They simply have no place in a fully up to spec. FT-1000MP Mark-V or Mark-V Field.

The following explanation was based upon a question I had on menu item 8-4 and was looking for a recommendation:

Operating hint; for best receiver performance and consistent S-meter accuracy band to band, it is recommended to keep menu 8-4 set to FLAT. The TUNED amps. for 160, 80, 40 meters all have about 6dB less gain than the FLAT RF amplifier, with the exception of 10 meters where the TUNED amp. has more gain than the FLAT amp., all of which skew S-meter calibration when there are active. The receiver sensitivity is excellent on 10 meters with the FLAT amp. (menu 8-4 kept set to FLAT). IPO when turned on (illuminated IPO button) results in a consistent -10dB as it turns off the FLAT amp. IPO is handy for 160, 80, 40 meter operation during noisy summer QRN and etc., but reduces S-meter readings by 10dB.

Anyway, all work is covered in detail on your service invoice, but to briefly recap:

* Repaired RF Unit board, receiver front end section

* Applied receiver-main 1st I-F stage gain correction mod.

* Removed Inrad 70-MHz preamp.

* Repaired REG Unit, -9 volt section (was dropping below 8V with heating)

* Tested SWR detector diodes, tightened loose RF grounds, SWR bridge calibration adj.

* Transmitter USB/LSB carrier set point calibration for optimum audio quality.

* Transmitter band to band gain level correction / calibration.

* Alignment run-through including overall performance optimizing adjustments.

The shipping is like $50-60 insured and packed so the actual repair was right around $200 or so. That is quite a write up for $200.

W8CAR Rating: 2016-06-27
excellent service Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had lightning damage at my station and thought my 1000MP was a goner. Sent it to Byron for evaluation and he was able to fix it and did an alignment. Total time about 2 weeks including shipping. Good communication via email. I would highly recommend his professional and excellent service to anyone who owns one of these fine radios. Easily a 5+ rating.
K5KEN Rating: 2016-06-10
Outstanding! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
What more is there to say here that hasn't been all ready said!
Byron, is a great gentleman to work with. I asked and received nothing but informative emails in regards to my radio, all work was completed as requested. I highly recommend him for any and all work needed to the FT1000MP's.
Thanks Byron
K1NY Rating: 2016-04-29
Absolutely the best Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I sent my 1000mp to Byron when some relays were not functioning properly. He found a crack in a board and solved that perfectly. Also aligned and did al l the mods to bring it up to date. He found a bad if coil during alignment. Talk about thorough!
He is a gentleman, a pro and an expert. A pleasure to deal with with. My 1000MP never sounded so good.
In all my years in ham radio, I never met anyone this professional and trustworthy.
Very pleased.
8P6SH Rating: 2015-07-04
FT1kmpMK5 works fantastic Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Great service is so rare these days I thought I'd better give a quick review of my experience with Byron doing a couple repairs on a MK5 and a MK5field.

Byron's service was absolutely exceptional. He provided a date to ship and when he commenced work on the units he emailed to let me know what the likely cost would be. He went beyond the call of duty to help with complicated shipping arrangements.

Byron was able to detect a couple alignment issues that might have been around for quite some time. In the end the rigs worked better than new. Wow!!! Can't say enough positives about this experience. And then the cost was a shock!! It was much lower than anticipated!! Thanks for a great job Byron!