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Unfortunately, I must report the change of power supply did not correct my issues I had experienced with my Yaesu FT-950.  I blogged yesterday about the chain of events  which took place over the weekend and my intentions of trying another power supply in the event my main unit is going defective.  I had prepared myself for the worse case scenario and unfortunately that is what is going to happen. 

I have boxed up my FT-950 in the original box (thankfully I keep these things) and will ship it out today.  In an earlier telephone conversation with the Yaesu amateur service dept. I should expect a 10 day (or less) turnaround.  As for repair costs, Yaesu charges $35.00 just to look at the radio and then $70.00 per hour labor.   I’ll keep you posted.

I would like to just thank those who reached out to me via email and posted comments with suggestions of things to try.  I’m fairly confident I’ve exhausted all options I’m capable of performing (or feel comfortable performing) on the 950 and all results remain the same.  Something is preventing the 950 from operating at full power on 10 – 20 meters and zero power output on 30 – 160 meters. 

Meanwhile, the 2014 QSO a day challenge does continue.  I still have access to other HF rigs and will do my best to limp along working mostly digital modes and a few SSB QSO’s here and there.  Based on the expected turnaround time from Yaesu, my 950 should be back in the shack well before I’m scheduled to operate W1AW/Ø the week of 21 May.

Until next time…

73 de KDØBIK

Having some issues with my Yaesu FT-950. On Friday I noticed the 950 had a high SWR reading on 40m. Tried tuning and it wouldn’t correct the issue. I went back to 20m and over the weekend worked almost 200 SSB contacts without issue and was receiving solid signal reports on my audio all weekend long. Last night I tried working W1AW/5 on 40m and again couldn’t get the 950 to tune.

I decided to connect the 950 to a dummy load and check it out. I used my LDG AT-600ProII and the analog meter in bypass mode to record the following measurements with the FT-950 in CW mode and sending a continuous carrier.

10m – flat SWR and 50w fwd power
12m – flat SWR and 35w fwd power
15m – flat SWR and 25w fwd power
17m – flat SWR and 15w fwd power
20m – flat SWR and 10w fwd power
30m – flat SWR and 0w fwd power
40m – flat SWR and 0w fwd power
80m – flat SWR and 0w fwd power
160m – flat SWR and 0w fwd power

About 15 minutes later I repeated the tests, which produced different results as noted below:

10m – 35w
12m – 20w
15m – 15w
17m – 10w
20m – 5w
30m – 0
40 – 0
80 – 0
160 – 0

I’m a bit perplexed as to what is going on. I’m going to try another power supply tonight, but I have a feeling the 950 will need to take a trip to California and spend some time in the Yaesu hospital. I’ve also performed a full factory reset, but still getting the same results. Anyone else have any other bright ideas?

If the 950 does need to take a trip to California, I’m hoping Yaesu can turn it around in time to have it back for my stint operating W1AW/Ø.

Until next time…

73 de KDØBIK