GE Delta SX w/ S950 Head HELP

[cmckenna]

Greetings all,

My first post here and I am hoping someone can help me out. I have a GE Delta SX with a S950 control head that is having an annoying issue.

Everything on the radio is working except the ability to change channels. I have about 7 different frequencies programmed in this radio and if I have it on scan it will receive on all of them. I just can not change the channel. Anytime i try it always goes right back to channel 1.

I have rung out the control cable at both ends and have no open wires, have reseated any connectors, chips etc that I can but still no joy. Not sure where to go from here in the troubleshooting.

Any help is appreciated !

 

[jim202]

Greetings all,

My first post here and I am hoping someone can help me out. I have a GE Delta SX with a S950 control head that is having an annoying issue.

Everything on the radio is working except the ability to change channels. I have about 7 different frequencies programmed in this radio and if I have it on scan it will receive on all of them. I just can not change the channel. Anytime i try it always goes right back to channel 1.

I have rung out the control cable at both ends and have no open wires, have reseated any connectors, chips etc that I can but still no joy. Not sure where to go from here in the troubleshooting.

Any help is appreciated !

I am not sure why the head always goes back to channel 1. You didn't say it does it on it's own or if you press a button.

Maybe un related, but there is a design issue with those heads. After some use, they seem to develop a solder crack on the joints between the mother board and the vertical board that the front buttons are mounted on. Mine would be the channel up / down or the volume buttons. Those were the ones that I used the most. Evidently the constant pressing flexes the front board just enough that the joints will fracture.

I have had to fix my heads a number of times. Finally gave up and ran some small wires to jumper the joint. It is hard to get a soldering iron into the space where the fracture occurs. So I would find a couple of spots on the boards and just run the wires to bypass the bad joints. Once I did that, never had to worry about it failing again.

You just need a copy of the service manual for the head you have. That way you can see the circuit and the board traces that you need to work with. It will take longer to locate the points you can use to attach the wire ends that anything else. Both the S950 and the S990 heads had this problem.

 

[cmckenna]

Thanks Jim. I was thinking along those lines.

What happens is when I press the button, the channel number will change but as soon as I release the button it goes right back to channel 1. Hope that helps clarify it a little more

 

[mm]

It could be that the lower left bottom button is stuck making contact but then again maybe not.

As I remember this is the home channel select that reverts to channel ONE on some radios but I don't remember if it is programmable like this with the delta radios as I'm going from memory on my RANGR which is using the sister S990 head.

You can take the front bezel off and remove the key for this button and see if this fixes it and if it does then cleaning the contacts on the head may fix this issue.

 

[cmckenna]

Thanks for the replies so far. I am still trudging away. I have checked all the buttons and they operate properly (not stuck), I have also redone all of the solder pads making up the "t-joint" between the button/display board and the main board and still the same symptoms.

Press the channel button and it changes till I release it and goes right back to channel 1

Keep the suggestions coming. I know I will get this figured out