yaesu ft-60r problem after mod

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mattmc91

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so just did the transmit mod i got form KB2LJJ Radio Mods Database and Manuals and my radio now only powers on when it wants to. for instance if i have it on and then turn it off it wont turn back on for maybe an hour or so. no clue what the deal is, two of my buddies have done this to theirs and there was no problems with theirs. any help is appreciated. thanks
 

gewecke

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so just did the transmit mod i got form KB2LJJ Radio Mods Database and Manuals and my radio now only powers on when it wants to. for instance if i have it on and then turn it off it wont turn back on for maybe an hour or so. no clue what the deal is, two of my buddies have done this to theirs and there was no problems with theirs. any help is appreciated. thanks

1. You should have left it alone.

2. Do you have your amateur radio license to use it?
Other than those two thoughts I don't know what else to tell you.

73,
n9zas
 

mmckenna

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With the high density components it is really easy to mess something up. Likely some other component was damaged by too much heat, physical damage, etc.
The old saying "If it isn't broken, don't fix it" applies here. Opening up one of these radios is really risky, modifying it more so.
Sending it in for repair will likely not go well. For one, it will be expensive, two, since you have modified the radio, any sort of warrantee is void. The FCC type certification on the receiver portion is now void also.
Of course the legal issues as well, voided type certification (part 15) on the receiver, not using a properly certified radio on frequencies you may not be authorized to use, doesn't meet requirements for Part 90, GMRS, FRS, MURS, Marine VHF (part 80) etc.
If you are legally licensed, you should be using the correct radio for the job.

None the less, you've learned what many have, they make it look easy in the pictures, but when you open up a radio like this it's really easy to damage it. You might be able to take a close look inside and find something you can fix, but unless you have experience with SMT soldering, this usually leads to more problems. I rarely even attempt to do SMT work, I just don't have the experience, tools or steady hands to do it correctly.

Likely your best move at this point will be to either buy a new FT60 and leave it as is, or do the right thing and get a proper radio for the frequencies you are licensed for, maybe look at one of the Chinese Wonder Radios that they sell so cheap.
 

n5ims

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It's quite possible that you seriously damaged other components when doing the mod. The damage could also have happened when disassembling or reassembling the radio. These tasks are quite delicate and can easily cause damage if you're not well practiced in the repair of sensitive electronics. As your mod page warned ...

Do not attempt if your skills are not up to it. Irreparable damage could occur to the radio.
Mod does not make radio compliant for CAP use; it may also void your warranty.
Do not ever transmit on a frequency you are not licensed for.
This mod is provided for reference only.
Performing this mod will erase all memories and re-set the radio. Perform at your own risk!
 

cabletech

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Sooo you took a perfectly good HAM dual band radio with all the recieve ablity anyone needed, and then you tryed to do some thing that you should not have done.

It was also stated in the mod sheet that if you did not have the experance, tools, knowledge to leave it alone.

SHAME SHAME ON YOU.

It is really to bad that people that do not know what they are doing, do some thing like this.

Has was stated above, send to Yaesu and they may not repair it or it will be very expense.
 

mattmc91

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Well I guess I deserved all the ridicule. Thanks from all for your input I just gotta suck it up and get a new radio
 

pjtnascar

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I will at least give you a thumbs up for attempting the mod. It takes a lot of guts to take apart an HT and try to remove an SMT component. Experimentation: that's the spirit!
 

gewecke

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Well I guess I deserved all the ridicule. Thanks from all for your input I just gotta suck it up and get a new radio

Maybe a license to operate it too, if you don't have one? ;)

73,
n9zas
 

mmckenna

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Well I guess I deserved all the ridicule. Thanks from all for your input I just gotta suck it up and get a new radio

Yeah, well, that sort of goes with the territory. I'd agree, it takes some guts to open up a radio and attempt a mod, so good on you there. If all of us on this site followed all the instructions, we'd all be sitting in perfectly safe little rooms with no sharp instruments, everything would have rounded corners, we wouldn't run with scissors, we'd be scared of the RF radiation from the radio, and we'd probably have long since wet ourselves and be waiting for someone to come and change us.

Truth be told, I'd be willing to be more than half of us have attempted something similar, and any tech worth their weight in junk has attempted a fix that was above their skills, that is just the way it is. If we only did what was safe, approved, and logical, well life would just be pretty darn boring.

Heck, I'm sitting here right now in the garage, drinking a beer, playing with a radio, and typing on the computer. I'm sure the safety police are on their way to lock me up right now.

Sounds like you learned the same lesson many of us have. Things like this come as part of life and it makes us better people in the long run. Heck, If I'd never taken stuff apart when I was a kid I'd be pretty dull right now, but instead I freaked out my mom, and made my dad and grandfather quite proud in the process.

Now, go get yourself a new radio and start playing around with the old FT-60. Who knows, maybe you'll figure out whats wrong and put us all to shame!
 

mattmc91

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Maybe a license to operate it too, if you don't have one? ;)

73,
n9zas

Ok well you dont gotta be a dick about it. Thats twice you were. What a big man you r hiding behind a computer.

Mmckenna thanks for your feed back expiremnting is a great learning experience.
 

KB0VWG

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Good attempt

I used to do mods to the radios when it was as simple as clipping a wire, but these days its a little different so i take my radios to a technician friend that does them for free or almost free.
kb0vwg
wqoi992
 

mmckenna

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I think gewecke was just trying to find a nice way to ask if you have an amateur radio license. There isn't anything illegal about owning a radio, but there are rules about how you transmit with it. If you have one already, then good deal, post your call sign so others know and leave you alone, or not. I'm a ham and I don't post my call sign unless it is relevant to the discussion, and I don't use the "amateur radio" badges on my posts, either. That's just my own personal choice.

Most of us that are ham operators, GMRS license holders, public safety or LMR radio guys all like to see that people are interested in radio, and we really like to see when people are doing it legally. If you have a strong interest in radio, and based on your experience I'd think you might, you might want to check into getting a ham license. It's not hard at all, heck my wife did a cram session and got her license all in one day. It opens up some paths for you down the road. My ham radio license didn't get me my job, but it did help me learn, gain experience and that led to the job.
 

majoco

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If your mates have done the mod and they say it works, I would trot round to their places(s) and compare their mod to yours.

It's very hard to identify SMD devices without a big magnifying glass, and even harder to solder them in without the smallest blob of solder running between the legs of a 40pin IC. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

SMD's don't take kindly to Weller 150Watt solder guns! :roll:
 

robertmac

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If you do something illegal, expect a back lash. We shouldn't all hide our heads in the hole just because someone wants to break all the rules and interfere with licensed users of the radio spectrum. Get a license and a proper radio then!!
 

mattmc91

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I think gewecke was just trying to find a nice way to ask if you have an amateur radio license. There isn't anything illegal about owning a radio, but there are rules about how you transmit with it. If you have one already, then good deal, post your call sign so others know and leave you alone, or not. I'm a ham and I don't post my call sign unless it is relevant to the discussion, and I don't use the "amateur radio" badges on my posts, either. That's just my own personal choice.

Most of us that are ham operators, GMRS license holders, public safety or LMR radio guys all like to see that people are interested in radio, and we really like to see when people are doing it legally. If you have a strong interest in radio, and based on your experience I'd think you might, you might want to check into getting a ham license. It's not hard at all, heck my wife did a cram session and got her license all in one day. It opens up some paths for you down the road. My ham radio license didn't get me my job, but it did help me learn, gain experience and that led to the job.

i am a fire alarm dispatcher on long island, ny so i am licensed and authorized to transmit on those frequencies in which i was trying to do so. the reason i tried to do the mod was to be able to monitor both uhf and vhf freqs beacuse both are used throughout the county here and especially a few of my neighboring departments in which we are frequently called to help in.

i again thank you all for your feedback and help. i dont appreciate the bs. i came here for help because i know there is alot of experience on the site here and there clearly is.

thanks
 

kayn1n32008

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mattmc91 said:
i am a fire alarm dispatcher on long island, ny so i am licensed and authorized to transmit on those frequencies in which i was trying to do so. the reason i tried to do the mod was to be able to monitor both uhf and vhf freqs beacuse both are used throughout the county here and especially a few of my neighboring departments in which we are frequently called to help in.

i again thank you all for your feedback and help. i dont appreciate the bs. i came here for help because i know there is alot of experience on the site here and there clearly is.

thanks

Yes let's cut the BS. You bought a radio that is already capable of monitoring OOB. The ONLY reason to mod it is to have the capability to transmit OOB. Now that narrow banding has come and gone, the FT-60 is only capable of +\- 5KHz deviation. Narrow band systems are +\-2.5KHz deviation. Regardless of whether you are licensed to for the frequencies you want to use the FT-60 on, it is not an accepted transceiver for anything other than amateur use. Moral of the story: get the proper radio for the job. There are multiband rads out there for commercial use. Are they cheap like the FT-60? Nope. Or better yet get one for VHF and one for UHF. You speak of the experience here, well take it for what it is. People telling you that what you are doing is wrong. Accept that and learn from it.
 
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N4KVE

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Back in the day, a mod was necessary to receive out of band. Now, the newer radios already receive ps freq's right out of the box, so no mod is necessary. Like mentioned above, the mod would be to clip the green wire, but those days are gone. That being said, when I need a radio modded, I know my limitations. Sure, I can solder wires etc, but these new radios are so packed with components, I won't take a chance, so I pay a friend who mods radios for a living $20, & it's done right.
 

MTS2000des

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i am a fire alarm dispatcher on long island, ny so i am licensed and authorized to transmit on those frequencies in which i was trying to do so. the reason i tried to do the mod was to be able to monitor both uhf and vhf freqs beacuse both are used throughout the county here and especially a few of my neighboring departments in which we are frequently called to help in.

i again thank you all for your feedback and help. i dont appreciate the bs. i came here for help because i know there is alot of experience on the site here and there clearly is.

thanks

Your license authorizes you to use certain specific equipment that is certified for use on public safety frequencies, aka FCC PART 90. Amateur radio service radios are NOT certified for transmitting outside of the ham bands. Period. End of story. Not public safety, not MURS, not GMRS, not marine band- nothing but the VHF and UHF HAM bands, 144-148 and 420-450MHz, and only by properly licensed amateur radio operators at that.

You place your agencies' licenses at risk using such equipment, especially running wideband- not to mention, the FT-60, like most HAM radios, do not do all tuning steps, so they can't even correctly tune splinter channels like 156.8225. Transmitting somewhere "nearby" can cause some other user interference.

Be a professional. You don't buy a kid's scuba gear set when you enter a structure fire, so why would you buy a ham toy for a duty radio?
 

gewecke

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Ok well you dont gotta be a dick about it. Thats twice you were. What a big man you r hiding behind a computer.

Mmckenna thanks for your feed back expiremnting is a great learning experience.

Nope not being a dick at all, but I don't mince words either. I'm only being honest with you. If you were my neighbor and playing with a radio, I would still give the same advice.
If you like ham radio gear then the license is required, it's as simple as that. :)

73,
n9zas
 
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