Batboard

Just received a used VHF 125 watt Quantar. Upon power up, I get Power on and no module fail on power supply.

Exciter shows all 4 indicators lit, TX lock, PA Full, PA Low, and PA Fail.

EPIC 1 SCM shows only Station On solid, bit then RX2 Active and RX Fail lights flash alternately back and forth.

Wireline shows WL Fail.

Image can be seen here https://photos.app.goo.gl/txsijRMYmBZB1Bbx9

I cannot read the station with RSS and none of the buttons on the SCM have any effect.

Can someone give me an idea where to start with this please? I have pulled and reseated all of the modules and checked for obvious damage with no luck.

Thanks for any tips.

Michael
N1PLH

Is the EEPROM Atmel or Xicor? The original Xicor are very failure prone.

Are you certain the SCM is original and there's been no parts swapping?

Xicor, and I cannot tell for sure, but I believe it is original.

When you ask about the eeprom, do you mean the firmware chips or the codeplug chip? Codeplug has Xircom on it.

Here is the section of the SCM with the chips:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qDGEzeap7knYCh287

I found someone selling all the chips for the firmware upgrades and the plug eeprom but unfortunately, he is out of the country for a few weeks and I need to return this unit within 23 more days if I want a refund.

Would a bad plug eeprom make it so the unit doesn't boot up and I cannot connect to read the station? Right now, the amp fans don't turn on, but if I pull the exciter module out and power up, the fans come on.

Is it worth it to try and find the plug eeprom chip and replace that?

Thanks for the help.

Michael

The code plug EEPROM is the small square PLCC chip mounted in a socket near the front of the card from memory. Kits of unexplained things happen and with anything other than Atmel.

Ordered the EEPROM from Digikey, and it is due to arrive today. I will search around here for the procedure to get that set up. I am hoping that once I replace the chip, I will then be able to connect with the programming software and start alignment. As it is now, I cannot connect to the station.

I don't know if the Quantar is such a station, but some Motorola radios require the code plug IC to contain some information before the station (or radio) will accept them and let you proceed. Things like Spectra mobile radios, R100 repeater radios come to mind. It's easy to replace the chips but without some info being written into them ahead of time, you may not be able to read or write them. If the software offers a way to blank or initialize a station, then it _might_ accept a blank IC.

I know nothing about Quantars but I did stay in a Holiday Inn once.

Bob M.

It's been a while since I've stayed in a Holiday Inn but I don't remember having an issue with Atmel replacements. YMMV.

Put the new EEPROM in and the station responded exactly as it had before. Station On light on steady, and RX2 and RX Fail light flashing alternately. Cannot seem to comunicate with RSS either.

Go on eBay and look for an SCM. What station it came out of frequency wise is not important as they can be programmed for ANY freq range.
Make sure that you are getting an SCM that matches the application that you have. IE don't buy a data station SCM unless you need a data station SCM because they are NOT for voice communications.
The issue with Quantars makes them both easy to work on and hard to buy used. The parts are all modular. Meaning someone can take a cage and put ANY combination of parts in it. Like a VHF R1 PA with a UHF R-2 exciter and an 800 receive board.
Now even creating a mess like that will not stop you from reading the station. But someone shoving a bad SCM into the cage to get it out the door can and does happen.
I know a guy that several years ago bought a Quantar at Dayton that specifically was a parts build and the PA and exciter didn't match. They were both VHF but one was R-1 and the other was R-2. We had to switch the PA in order to get the station on the air.

I ended up replacing the SCM and all was well. I wish I cold have figured out how to fix it though.

Curious, after replacing the chip did you build a new codeplug and try to load it or did you think a blank chip would already have a codeplug on it?

surprised the R1 and R2 exciter and PA didn't interoperate .

Usually an R2 exciter would program down into the 140's and a R2 PA cover down into that range as well.

May have been that the PA was defective and not really a R1 R2 issue

mogman wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 17, 2021 7:56 am

Curious, after replacing the chip did you build a new codeplug and try to load it or did you think a blank chip would already have a codeplug on it?

After I replaced the chip, I still could not connect to the station, so I could not load a plug onto it. At least, not with that station, and it is the only one I had.