Little Help with kenwood 241

[hokiewheeler]

I've got an old Kenwood tm 241 2 meter mobile rig that has basically gone unused for about the last 10 to 11 years. I hooked it up the other day and it works, but the controls don't work right. The dtmf buttons are totally done and the vfo knob, up down and front panel keys don't always work correctly. Sometimes they do other jobs than what they are supposed to. This radio's never been mobile or beat up. It was in my shack. I'm just wondering if anybody has some idea what I could look at to get it working right?

 

[fineshot1]

I've got an old Kenwood tm 241 2 meter mobile rig that has basically gone unused for about the last 10 to 11 years. I hooked it up the other day and it works, but the controls don't work right. The dtmf buttons are totally done and the vfo knob, up down and front panel keys don't always work correctly. Sometimes they do other jobs than what they are supposed to. This radio's never been mobile or beat up. It was in my shack. I'm just wondering if anybody has some idea what I could look at to get it working right?

It sounds like your best bet is to keep working these buttons in/out and hope you can work out
the bugs(so to speak). Its most likely some minor corrosion has set in after being idle & unused
for so many years. Its not a good idea to use any spray type solutions being that you would have
to spray into the front panel of the radio which houses the microprocessor & display electronics.

Good luck & post back your results...

 

[hokiewheeler]

Well the radio is wearing in some. I notice if I even touch the vfo though, it changes, same for the volume control. If I put pressure on the knob, it can totally cut out or get louder. It's almost like the solder joints are loose but I don't see why this should be. There's never been any impact to the front panel. Also, sometimes it jumps, say you tune up from channel 2 it can jump to channel 12 or you tune up and it goes down. It is getting better though. Blowing the cobwebs out I guess. I have some wicked tx hum that wasn't there before. My coax hasn't degraded, I have very low swr and it's putting out good. There is some delay when you key down and it starts to tx.