R71A battery
- Thread starter ridgescan
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ridgescan
Member
Yeah Jack out here when I hear those guys in there it's as if they're airing out an old club room
W2NJS
Member
For the record, my listing the Piexx board does not constitute "recommending" the unit. I have one and it works well, period. If the Willco board has more memories and that's what you want or need then by all means buy it and install it. The objective is to keep the radio from dropping dead on you when and if the backup battery fails, that's all.
ridgescan
Member
Thanks for the advice
That is precisely why I started this thread-I am concerned about the well being of this receiver. I am making a move on it this week.
k9rzz
Member
I recommend joining the Yahoo group for the R71a before warming up the soldering iron. Just pulled this message from the group. FWIW:
>just received the RAM/PROM memory board from PIEXX today.
> JP2 is jumpered with a solder-bridge.
> When I ordered the item I stated that it is for an R71A.
> The no-brainer assumption is to remove the solder-bridge, and leave all jumper positions open.
> That is - unless there have been some design changes.
> Anyone know?
> gs
installed it! The board is probably designed to work perfectly with an IC-751 transceiver.
First I removed the solder-bridge "jumper"....
The connector pins in the radio are at such length so that the RAM/PROM board did not push down as far as the original memory board (different style sockets) - and the hole for the screw doesn't align with the internally-threaded standoff.
At first I thought of chopping the connector pins shorter, but scrapped the idea; "no mickey-mousing the radio itself" I told myself.
So, two small flat washers were found, put on the screw which holds the board to the standoff (the board isn't in place yet); a length of hookup wire put between the washers with a turn around the screw, Then the screw with wire tightened to the standoff. The loose end of the wire was put through the memory-boards screw-hole - and then the board was plugged in; the wire soldered on to the grounding copper area around the screw-hole in the board....
To make a long story short -- IT WORKS!
gs
>just received the RAM/PROM memory board from PIEXX today.
> JP2 is jumpered with a solder-bridge.
> When I ordered the item I stated that it is for an R71A.
> The no-brainer assumption is to remove the solder-bridge, and leave all jumper positions open.
> That is - unless there have been some design changes.
> Anyone know?
> gs
installed it! The board is probably designed to work perfectly with an IC-751 transceiver.
First I removed the solder-bridge "jumper"....
The connector pins in the radio are at such length so that the RAM/PROM board did not push down as far as the original memory board (different style sockets) - and the hole for the screw doesn't align with the internally-threaded standoff.
At first I thought of chopping the connector pins shorter, but scrapped the idea; "no mickey-mousing the radio itself" I told myself.
So, two small flat washers were found, put on the screw which holds the board to the standoff (the board isn't in place yet); a length of hookup wire put between the washers with a turn around the screw, Then the screw with wire tightened to the standoff. The loose end of the wire was put through the memory-boards screw-hole - and then the board was plugged in; the wire soldered on to the grounding copper area around the screw-hole in the board....
To make a long story short -- IT WORKS!
gs
scanchs
Member
Still pondering...
Hey ridgescan,
Did ya make up your mind on which board you're going to get? And if so, what made you decide on the one you're getting? I'm going to be making a move in a few weeks and I don't want to end up with a pig in a poke...
ScanCHS
Thanks for the advice
Hey ridgescan,
Did ya make up your mind on which board you're going to get? And if so, what made you decide on the one you're getting? I'm going to be making a move in a few weeks and I don't want to end up with a pig in a poke...
ScanCHS
ridgescan
Member
Hey Scan-haven't done it yet but R71 still very much alive. Running on luck here till I decide
I decided to do the battery swap and made a real bonehead mistake. To swap the battery they say to add a temporary battery to hold the memory while installing the new replacement battery. I chose to use two 1.5V lithium AA batteries in a radio shack battery enclosure. The lithium AA have a much higher capacity and 15 year storage life.
The bonehead problem I had was I soldered the temporary battery to the wrong pin, i had picked the proper solder points but when I picked up the soldering iron and due to the fact my eyes are not as good as they were a few years ago and did not put my reading glasses on, i installed the ground wire on the pin next to the one it was supposed to be on. Now the board is dead.
The board shows the Freqs but will not pull any audio and does funny things.
I ordered a new board from PIEXX and hope it will be here by the end of the week. If all is well, I will then order the two kits from Kiwa and then the recap kit off of Ebay. Hopefully After the kiwa kit all my audio receive issues will go away.
Next time I need to be a little more careful and double check each step with my glasses on....
The bonehead problem I had was I soldered the temporary battery to the wrong pin, i had picked the proper solder points but when I picked up the soldering iron and due to the fact my eyes are not as good as they were a few years ago and did not put my reading glasses on, i installed the ground wire on the pin next to the one it was supposed to be on. Now the board is dead.
The board shows the Freqs but will not pull any audio and does funny things.
I ordered a new board from PIEXX and hope it will be here by the end of the week. If all is well, I will then order the two kits from Kiwa and then the recap kit off of Ebay. Hopefully After the kiwa kit all my audio receive issues will go away.
Next time I need to be a little more careful and double check each step with my glasses on....
Fast1eddie
Member
Gentlemen, thanks for the interesting thread. I too have a R71 and 7000. No way could have I afforded these back in the day on my Army pay.... I knew when the R71's battery began to die because the display would intermittently show random digits or somethimes nothing at all. Receiver functioned normally in all other respects. Kind of a boneheaded move here not knowing the internal lithium takes a charge while operating-don't laugh! Took two AAA cells and after plugging them into a dual holder, removed the lithium and installed these. Works fine, would like to get the aftermarket board and send it in for a bench check, but money is extremely tight here. Bought my R71 from prcguy several years back with no issues. Thanks for the info!
Good DX!
Good DX!
The one I have has some other internal problems and I just added to the problem. It has low audio through all the bands but way worst on the very low band. It has low volume and a bit of what I think is a sensitivity issue as well. The radio has less then 50 hours and was stored for 10 to 15 years. I am the original owner. I just recently pulled it out of storage and that is when I noticed the issues.
I am told it is bad capacitors and plan on replacing them but like you. money is tight with me as well and being out of work for 2 years has not helped. My goal is do the Kiwa kits first and see what happens then get the cap kit that is on E-bay. If I still can not get it to work it will either become a fishing weight or will send it back east to a repair guy. I have not been able to locate one locally. I had A budget of around $200 for the repair but now do to my bonehead move I blew that out of the water.....
Here is an update....
After I did the bone head move and changed the ram battery without wearing my glasses and accidently attaching the temporary battery to the wrong terminal on the ram card. It did lose all the memory and after some heavy thought, I decided to order a new board from Piexx. The board worked perfectly. I then also went through all the connectors in the radio and believe it or not it all started working again at least as good as I can remember it 20+ years ago. But again the audio is as bad as I remember it after buying it then. I guess I was spoiled with my old Hammerlunds audio which was way way better then the Icom ever had.
The Next thing for the radio will be the kiwa mods for the power supply and audio. I also found out about a few other Am improvement modifications that can be done when the RF board is removed that I may try as long as the Kiwa guy says that it will not affect his stuff in any way. Some of the modifications are also done on the main board as well. I am also going to try and find the FM board as well as the optional filter. Then maybe ship it to Piexx or some other tech with the proper gear for a total recalibration as cash becomes available.
I still may try to get an R75 as well before they become unavailable..
One last note, The Piexx board can also be tricked to 1khz as well just like the factory board did....
After I did the bone head move and changed the ram battery without wearing my glasses and accidently attaching the temporary battery to the wrong terminal on the ram card. It did lose all the memory and after some heavy thought, I decided to order a new board from Piexx. The board worked perfectly. I then also went through all the connectors in the radio and believe it or not it all started working again at least as good as I can remember it 20+ years ago. But again the audio is as bad as I remember it after buying it then. I guess I was spoiled with my old Hammerlunds audio which was way way better then the Icom ever had.
The Next thing for the radio will be the kiwa mods for the power supply and audio. I also found out about a few other Am improvement modifications that can be done when the RF board is removed that I may try as long as the Kiwa guy says that it will not affect his stuff in any way. Some of the modifications are also done on the main board as well. I am also going to try and find the FM board as well as the optional filter. Then maybe ship it to Piexx or some other tech with the proper gear for a total recalibration as cash becomes available.
I still may try to get an R75 as well before they become unavailable..
One last note, The Piexx board can also be tricked to 1khz as well just like the factory board did....
mrnavy2
Member
I am having a problem with this unit.
I hope that someone can let me know what is wrong? I am leaning to a Battery problem.
when I push the on button the unit comes on and everything lights up. then Freq Screen shows the following: AM, Sig, VFO A .0 and then a 01 which I know means that is the memoy channel. NO freq is on the screen. Then when I press the button TS 2 times, a Freq shows up on memory channel 1, and when I turn the memory channel all the memory channels show up with the same FREQ. also when I try to enter a Freq from the key board nothing happens, same when I try to spin the dial, nothing shows up and nothing moves.
Anyway, just wondering if u might have a idea what is wrong, or should I bring it in. I am in Ocean Twp, New Jesey, just outside of Asbury Park.
I hope it is nothing serious.. Thanks, Steve....
I hope that someone can let me know what is wrong? I am leaning to a Battery problem.
when I push the on button the unit comes on and everything lights up. then Freq Screen shows the following: AM, Sig, VFO A .0 and then a 01 which I know means that is the memoy channel. NO freq is on the screen. Then when I press the button TS 2 times, a Freq shows up on memory channel 1, and when I turn the memory channel all the memory channels show up with the same FREQ. also when I try to enter a Freq from the key board nothing happens, same when I try to spin the dial, nothing shows up and nothing moves.
Anyway, just wondering if u might have a idea what is wrong, or should I bring it in. I am in Ocean Twp, New Jesey, just outside of Asbury Park.
I hope it is nothing serious.. Thanks, Steve....
ridgescan
Member
Sounds like the RAM battery Steve-start there-look at this thread starting with the link in post #3, install notes straight from Icom in post#6.
It sounds like she froze into that position as the battery went out. So at least make this the starting point.
BTW all-still running on the same old battery here
It sounds like she froze into that position as the battery went out. So at least make this the starting point.
BTW all-still running on the same old battery here
mrnavy2
Member
Sounds like the RAM battery Steve-start there-look at this thread starting with the link in post #3, install notes straight from Icom in post#6.
It sounds like she froze into that position as the battery went out. So at least make this the starting point.
BTW all-still running on the same old battery here
I am not sure if it is the same battery. I would think so. I just purchased this unit off ebay. I was thinking about purchasing the ICM-1024. Here is the link for it.. let me know that you think WILLCO ELECTRONICS NO-FAIL MEMORY FOR ICOM RADIOS That's sound like a plug and play unit. thanks Steve..
k9rzz
Member
I put one of those WILLCO boards in my radio a couple years ago. It was a snap.
mrnavy2
Member
So the WILLCO board also replaces the battery?
It has a battery too, but if it dies, the radio still works, you just lose the memories. A point about the audio mods. I've done about all of them to R71as over the last 25+ years, on ones I've owned and ones friends have had and the best one of them all involves no changing caps at all. This is the mod I've done on two of them now, mine and a friend's, and it makes a huge difference on AM, to the point I can say I actually like the R71a's AM audio now! The hardest part of the mod is finding the resistors to replace. And taking the R71a apart to do it. Whoever came up with this fix knows what they are doing! I do NOT recommend the cap removal though, it might help with someone who is hard of hearing, but it's very "brittle" sounding.
It involves replacing just 2 resistors. I did the diode on my friend's radio and we couldn't really see much improvement over mine, maybe a tiny bit. I got this off a forum a while back:
Having suffered for years with tiring AM audio on my R71, decided to fix it. These are one of the best radios ever made, well worth hanging on to. The problem appears to be the switching diode D75. The Emitter follower Q26 is enabled for AM reception, the 3 volts or so being used to forward bias D75, thereby passing the audio to IC6a. The current through the diode being only a few hundred microamps is insufficient to turn it on fully, causing the forward dynamic `resistance to be modulated with the audio, causing distortion. The fix is simple. Replace R202, (100k) to 15k, and replace R128 (1K) with a jumper. This increases the current to a more satisfactory.3 mA or so. The results are great, AM audio now not fuzzy and muffled. While you are in there, replace L28 with a germanium diode, anode to ground. This will convert the AM detector to a voltage doubler, gaining a few dB better weak signal performance. The complete removal of C122 (.0047) and C127 (.1) will also further help with the muffled audio, especially with older listeners with higher frequency hearing loss. These simple mods are much easier, and far more effective than just changing the capacitors in the signal path.
It involves replacing just 2 resistors. I did the diode on my friend's radio and we couldn't really see much improvement over mine, maybe a tiny bit. I got this off a forum a while back:
Having suffered for years with tiring AM audio on my R71, decided to fix it. These are one of the best radios ever made, well worth hanging on to. The problem appears to be the switching diode D75. The Emitter follower Q26 is enabled for AM reception, the 3 volts or so being used to forward bias D75, thereby passing the audio to IC6a. The current through the diode being only a few hundred microamps is insufficient to turn it on fully, causing the forward dynamic `resistance to be modulated with the audio, causing distortion. The fix is simple. Replace R202, (100k) to 15k, and replace R128 (1K) with a jumper. This increases the current to a more satisfactory.3 mA or so. The results are great, AM audio now not fuzzy and muffled. While you are in there, replace L28 with a germanium diode, anode to ground. This will convert the AM detector to a voltage doubler, gaining a few dB better weak signal performance. The complete removal of C122 (.0047) and C127 (.1) will also further help with the muffled audio, especially with older listeners with higher frequency hearing loss. These simple mods are much easier, and far more effective than just changing the capacitors in the signal path.
ridgescan
Member
Very cool info RB thanks for sharing it
mrnavy2
Member
Very good n interesting write up .thanks
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