I have performed the MARS Mod to some of my radios and still cannot for the life of me figure out what I did wrong. I have been working on this for a month and it has been driving me batty, well more so than normal.
On my Icom IC-7300 I removed both D422 and D416 as directed but no joy.
On my Icom IC-705 I removed the two diodes on the board (after quite a bit of disassembly!) and still no joy.
I also removed several other diodes on the 7300 and 705 to see if perhaps the websites listed the wrong ones but got a few weird display artifacts on both radios and on the 7300 some odd burning smell coming from the radio when I transmit. Eventually the 7300 stopped working altogether, it will no longer power on, the 705 seems to receive and transmit but with the weird screen display.
So I went out and bought another 7300 and another 705 to see if perhaps I hit the bad board lottery and got 2 defective radios. I needed to replace the 7300 anyway as my original does not work any longer and Icom won’t repair it. I did the same modifications to the new radios and now the new 705 won’t even turn on, the new 7300 works as before the mod but the MARS mod doesn’t seem to work.
So next I tried firmware versions. Of the 2 remaining (semi) functional radios I was able to update the firmware on the 705 but not the 7300. Still no joy however.
I am now starting to suspect that perhaps it is my antenna system. I have several different antennas available, but none seem to do the trick.
Can anyone please explain exactly how I am supposed to be able to contact Mars? It appears the mods do not seem to work as advertised? The only response I have been able to get is April Fools, and that came from some guy on Venus.
On my Icom IC-7300 I removed both D422 and D416 as directed but no joy.
On my Icom IC-705 I removed the two diodes on the board (after quite a bit of disassembly!) and still no joy.
I also removed several other diodes on the 7300 and 705 to see if perhaps the websites listed the wrong ones but got a few weird display artifacts on both radios and on the 7300 some odd burning smell coming from the radio when I transmit. Eventually the 7300 stopped working altogether, it will no longer power on, the 705 seems to receive and transmit but with the weird screen display.
So I went out and bought another 7300 and another 705 to see if perhaps I hit the bad board lottery and got 2 defective radios. I needed to replace the 7300 anyway as my original does not work any longer and Icom won’t repair it. I did the same modifications to the new radios and now the new 705 won’t even turn on, the new 7300 works as before the mod but the MARS mod doesn’t seem to work.
So next I tried firmware versions. Of the 2 remaining (semi) functional radios I was able to update the firmware on the 705 but not the 7300. Still no joy however.
I am now starting to suspect that perhaps it is my antenna system. I have several different antennas available, but none seem to do the trick.
Can anyone please explain exactly how I am supposed to be able to contact Mars? It appears the mods do not seem to work as advertised? The only response I have been able to get is April Fools, and that came from some guy on Venus.
