Thought I killed my DX-390.

[radio_waves]

Last night I decided to do the 2 mods I've been wanting to do-silence the annoying beep and disable the mute when tuning rapidly. After clipping the wires, I put it back together and put batteries in. The light would come on when I pushed the light button but the radio would not power up when I pushed the power button. And the display was continuously displaying some strange numbers. I thought I killed it and felt like a fool because now I don't have a SW receiver. So I took the batteries out left it overnight and hoped for the best. Started looking for a replacement-the Tecsun PL-600 sure looked nice. Fortunately this morning I put batteries in and it was fine! I like it much better with the mods-much more user friendly. But now there's no excuse to get that nice little PL-600!

 

[ridgescan]

Yeah there is-it wouldn't be the sickest thing to own two SW radios! God Forbid!!
Shoot I actively run 4 communications receivers, a scanner, and two vintage table radios in the course of a week. Now THAT is sick.

 

[Boombox]

I never have done any of the Sangean mods (except adding a mono headphone jack to a PR-D5). The beep, muting, etc. on the Sangean models never bothered me.

Read about some guys modding their DX-398s and DX-440's and eventually frying the microprocessor somehow. Not sure if modding could actually do that, but there always are risks...

What probably happened was a static discharge somehow when you worked inside the radio. Even a tiny one can throw off the brains of the radio. Taking the batteries out and putting them back in resets it. I only had a microprocessor glitch on my DX-375, once. I think it was a static discharge (the DX-375 has built in protection diodes, luckily).

I removed the batteries, put them back in after about 10 minutes... worked fine. That was years ago. Hasn't glitched since, and I use that radio a lot on AM and FM.

Glad to hear your DX-390 is working well.

Next time you take the back off, you may want to consider soldering the back to back diodes from the whip antenna's solder pad to the battery ground, using hookup wire. There's enough room in the back of the radio to cram the wire and diodes and still be able to put the back back on easily.

 

[radio_waves]

Next time you take the back off, you may want to consider soldering the back to back diodes from the whip antenna's solder pad to the battery ground, using hookup wire. There's enough room in the back of the radio to cram the wire and diodes and still be able to put the back back on easily.

Good idea. But maybe I should wait until I have a 2nd SW radio in case I mess it up(I'm not good at modding electronics). I wanna get the Tecsun PL-600 for a 2nd unit.

 

[Boombox]

It's a very easy mod to do. The antenna's solder pad is fairly large, and easy to find. The battery negative solder pad is fairly large and easy to find, also. I just soldered the ends of the diodes together, then soldered a couple hanks of flexible hookup wire to each end, and did it that way. I was able to shove the diodes out of the way, sort of in the corner of the case.

I can understand your wanting to wait. Just be careful during winter when scuffling across a carpet before touching the whip... Don't use an outdoor antenna with the radio unless you have it protected somehow -- either the project posted earlier in this thread or just alligator clip a couple back to back diodes between the antenna and a ground. You'll be fine.

I had my DX-390 for several years and never had any static issues. I just wired my protection diodes in after reading about the issues others had, sort of as a preventive measure.

Getting a backup / 2nd radio is a great idea.

(If I can find a pic of my DX-390's mod I'll post it on this thread sometime soon. Just got to find it....)