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Icom F221S Poor Receive Sensitivity

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tekheavy

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I recently sold a customer of mine 10 working Icom F221S UHF mobiles. 2 months later he said a bunch of them weren't working right. He gave me 5 of the radios back, all of which now have very poor receive sensitity. About 1K microvolts. They transmit fine. Any idea what may have happened and what to look for? Thanks in advance.
 

mmckenna

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What was the install like?
If the antennas were too close to another transmitting antenna, it's possible to get so much RF into the receive side of the radio that it'll burn out components and do exactly what you are seeing.
The fact that they worked when you installed them (you did test them, right?) and then 2 months later they are doing this would suggest something like high RF overloading.
 

jeatock

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I am (slowly) going through a fleet of F1821's I sold back in 2008. Most are fine, but a few are stone deaf (-90db vs -120db). I have seen the same isue with other older chassis.

Simple software alignment takes 15 minutes has made them all happy campers.
 

tekheavy

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I am (slowly) going through a fleet of F1821's I sold back in 2008. Most are fine, but a few are stone deaf (-90db vs -120db). I have seen the same isue with other older chassis.

Simple software alignment takes 15 minutes has made them all happy campers.

Yeah, I tried aligning mine. No dice. Even tried tuning the VCO to no avail.
 

12dbsinad

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Willing to bet it's a defective ceramic filter. Very common on those (they had a bad run of them that affected many brands) and does exactly what you describe
 

tekheavy

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Willing to bet it's a defective ceramic filter. Very common on those (they had a bad run of them that affected many brands) and does exactly what you describe

Looks like you may be right. I tested 2 radios so far and both had bad filters. Gonna order a bunch of them tomorrow. Thanks for your help.
 
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