TK-863G-1 Deaf

[Shadow-D]

I have a TK-863G-1 I bought in the bay a while back and it is totally deaf. It won't even receive a signal from a radio right next to it. I know the radio is programmed correctly as I have another 863G in use with the same programming. I have the service manual but the more I read it, the more I get confused. Has anyone else run into this problem and what did you do to fix it? I'd just buy a "new" rx board off the bay again but I'm concerned because I have no idea why it went deaf in the first place.

Thanks
Darrin

 

[mmckenna]

Without a service monitor, and the knowledge to properly use it, there's little point in messing with it. Even if you bought another RF board, without the correct tools to align it, you'd likely be back in the same place you are now.

Buying used radios off e-bay can be a real crap shoot. You never know what the previous owner did to it. Without testing, there's no way to guess what the issue is.

 

[WB9YBM]

I have a TK-863G-1 I bought in the bay a while back and it is totally deaf. It won't even receive a signal from a radio right next to it. I know the radio is programmed correctly as I have another 863G in use with the same programming. I have the service manual but the more I read it, the more I get confused. Has anyone else run into this problem and what did you do to fix it? I'd just buy a "new" rx board off the bay again but I'm concerned because I have no idea why it went deaf in the first place.

Thanks
Darrin

I'm not sure how your test bench is set up, making this a bit more challenging. If you had an oscilloscope, I'd suggest starting at or near the antenna and keep going downstream with the probe until the signal vanishes and that's where the fault is. Alternatively I've heard people wire up some type of RF rectifier & audio amp arrangement and using that as a probe the same way the 'scope gets used (since I've always used a 'scope, I never tracked down a circuit I described--maybe someone else reading this might have an idea...)

 

[derekjmu]

After using these radios for 10+ years, I can confirm that this is a known issue with the TK-863 model. I've had to replace three of these, one just in the last month. What frequency are you trying to receive?

 

[Shadow-D]

After using these radios for 10+ years, I can confirm that this is a known issue with the TK-863 model. I've had to replace three of these, one just in the last month. What frequency are you trying to receive?

Local Ham and GMRS frequencies.

 

[derekjmu]

We were using them to receive 441 MHz ham frequencies. Radio band-split is 450-490 MHz; the radio initially tuned down to 441 MHz with no problem. After several years some of the units went deaf. We have been replacing them with the TK-8360 model, which seem to work well. The 8360 is 450-520 MHz. Time will tell if we'll see the same issue.