FAIL 001

[kmoe]

I have a high power W9 VHF Astro Spectra that will display "FAIL 001" after it has been on for a little bit. The radio will transmit and receive just fine before the FAIL code and after a power cycle. Today after it occurred, the radio powered itself off and back on. I immediately tx/rx and it worked just fine. I was thinking at first it was temperature related with the reference oscillator but I now think it may be the command board. I know this FAIL code deals with the Synthesizer with a cause of the VCO, reference oscillator, command board, or RF board. Any ideas? Thank you.

[ASTRO_25]

Any frequencies in the radio programmed out of band, or close to out of band?

[alex]

Check all your power connections, antenna connections, and remove any accessories that might be attached to the radio.

Additionally, go through each personality and check to ensure that the bandsplit the radio covers matches what the innerds of the radio. (Adding on to ASTRO_25's advice)

You might have a radio with different guts than brains.

-Alex

[Microwave Mike]

Yea. VCO problems. Looks like when it comes up to temp. It loses lock.

You might think of a flat rate from mother mo. I don't see too many VCO's on the used market. I think that the V version was in one band, unlike the different Uhf's.
The above advise is a good place to start. You may also program in different simplex frequencies to find where the bad edges are, both rx and tx.

Good luck

MM

[kmoe]

Thanks for the ideas......the freqency range of what's in the radio now are from 151 MHz to 170 MHz so everything is in band.

[kmoe]

The service manual says there are two sub-ranges of the Astro Spectra R2 (146-174) radio which are 146.000-166.150 & 166.150-174.000....so after checking the voltages on the VCO as we changed channels it has been determined that going above the 166.150 range causes the FAIL 001 code. Would this need a new VCO board or something else? Thanks.