UHF voice transmission fades
Submitted: Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 07:45
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Willem
My Uniden 100 has taken a severe pounding over the past two years over billions of corrugations.
Now when I use it, the transmission fades over the airwaves after a few seconds. This is for outgoing and incoming messages.
I have cleaned the microphone and checked all the co-axial connections.
Any ideas?
Reply By: Mike Harding - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 07:52
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 07:52
Very possible it is one of the electrolytic capacitors inside the radio - as it affects both Rx and Tx I would look at the power supply area first. These caps. dry out over time and are a common fault in much electronic kit after 5 years or so especially equipment which is not used regularly.
If you can find someone who is handy with a soldering iron and can identify electronic components it wouldn't cost much to replace a few caps. If he can check them on an ESR meter, even better.
Mike Harding
AnswerID:
199956
Follow Up By: Willem - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 07:59
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 07:59
Thanks Mike. I have a mate who knows a little bit about electronics so we will pull it apart and have alook.
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Reply By: Dion - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 08:20
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 08:20
replace the whole unit with a GME or ICOM UHF.
AnswerID:
199962
Follow Up By: Member - Davoe (Nullagine) - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 11:50
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 11:50
I agree most of the
mine and exploration vehicles i have driven are fitted with GME and you dont get a harsher time than being permanantly covered in an inch of fine dust and shaken the crap out of occross the pit floors. The few vehicles we have had fitted with uniden have all had problems
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Reply By: mike w (WA) - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 10:26
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 10:26
I had a similair problem in the past.
I thought it was the microphone, tested it on another radio and it was fine. Turned out to be the elevated feed on my antenna. The core wire had broken below the solder joint in the centre of the base. It was held on only by a couple of strands, so was not getting its full potential. Resoldered and presto, it worked.
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Willem - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 21:53
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 21:53
Thanks Mike....I will have a look tomorrow.
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Reply By: Brett_B - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 13:37
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 13:37
A while ago my UH 100 gave up (out of warranty)
I rang Uniden they didn't want to discuss the failure over the phone, they said just send it to us.
I send the unit to
Sydney for inspection
2 week later it is returned via mail to the local
post office with a nil $ invoice.
I rang Uniden and asked what was wrong with the radio - is it now working/fixed.
The reply - unit cant be repaired, if anything goes wrong with the UH 100 in the area of the main board the board must be replaced it can't be repaired. The cost of the internal board + labour to fit it is apparently close to the cost of a new unit, I asked how much it would cost to repair, they wouldn't tell me - I was told to buy another.
I took there advise and did buy a new UHF - GME TX 3400
Due to a possible mistake on my part (antenna failure) the 3400 failed after 2 years, I rang GME, they were unbelievable, bent over backward to help/discuss/explain fault, unit was fixed at GME's expense within a few days, I didn't have to push/request or grovel I didn't even mention warranty either it just happened.
GME have won me over for sure - anything in my 4x4 is now GME
This doesn't help with your problem, just wanted to tell you my experience :-)
AnswerID:
200022
Follow Up By: Mike Harding - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 14:21
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 14:21
Couple of points:
With elec. tech. labour commonly costed at anything between $70 to $150 per hour it is not economic to repair virtually any low cost mass production item. If there is high level automatic test equipment available... maybe? The companies which will repair this type of equipment do it at a loss - so good on GME for that, but don't, necessarily expect it next time.
A bad antenna should not cause a low power (5W) radio to fail - it should have circuitry which detects an antenna fault and protects itself - my 100W HF / 50W VHF / 20W UHF transmitter is capable of shutting down when seeing a bad SWR and has on a couple of occasions
GME products are fine and as they are an Australian company (I think?) we should support them but, to my certain knowledge, they currently have a product on the market which should not be there in it's current design (I'll say no more) and, in fairness to Uniden, I have had one of their UHF CBs for 12 years and it still works
well, on the 3 occasions a year I use it :)
Mike Harding
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Follow Up By: Sand Man (SA) - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 18:44
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 18:44
Good comments there Mike.
I would also probably buy the Australian made unit if I need to replace
mine now.
I also have a Uniden UH 100 which is probably the same as Willem's and I have had no problems with it over six years of use. What I particularly liked about it at the time of purchase was its simplicity of operation.
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Follow Up By: Member - Davoe (Nullagine) - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 18:59
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 18:59
Mike taking to the manager of Globalpos in Kalgoorlie i was told the reason theuy dont deal with uniden for the exact reason Brett_B mentions- no aftersales backup
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog - Vic - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 19:11
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 19:11
yep GME is a local outfit, we have them here at our doorstep, parts, labour and the know how are readily available. It's a lottery with the imported stuff. Same with motor cars, Ford and holden parts are readily available, you can wait weeks for the other stuff
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Follow Up By: Brett_B - Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 20:57
Friday, Oct 20, 2006 at 20:57
Thanks for those couple of points, always plenty of them to go around here :-)
Tech service costs are high I know I am in the elec after sales service industry.
My point was I would have liked a quote at least from Uniden, the Uniden employee explained (after I called them to find out why they returned the radio to me) that the cost of repair was a little cheaper than a new one so why fix it, how much is a little cheaper $100 or $50, $20 , $10 ? They would not tell me, even after I asked - I would have liked to been able to fully assess my situation with all the facts, cost of new V's repair and move from there, I would have liked the choice myself instead they made the decision for me, they didn't even call me at all - thats not customer service.
I would not expect GME to repair the radio for me FOC again, I didn't expect it the first time :-)
I am not bagging Uniden quality they must have some good stuff, I just didn't like the back-up service I experienced
Brett
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