FT208R info needed

[k8ceb]

FT208R looking for Info!
I have an old Yaesu ft208R handi talki. Yesterday I was able to see a frequency display, key the HT and see the - or the + shift when keying. Later when I turned on the HT I now don't have a display of any kind showing in the display window. The 10.8v @ 700mah Nickel Cadmium battery is fully charged and is showing 12.18 vdc.
Is there a way to reset the unit by pressing one of the keypad buttons while turning the unit on? I can't find anything in the operating book I have about losing the freq display and how to reset it. The unit does turn on, you can turn the squelch counterclockwise and the green light shows and you get white noise. However when trying to transmit the red transmit light only blinks while pressing the ptt button or when using the external speaker microphone. At times if you hold down one of the keypad buttons while turning the unit on and keying the unit the transmit red light stays on until I release the pad button. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance from anyone with information concerning this problem.

I had originally posted this same request in the "Questions and Answer" section. Maybe this is the better place for it? :confused:

[NN4RH]

There is something called "Fox Tango" users group on Yahoo (I don't have the link at hand) that can probably help you with this early 1980's vintage HT.

[n8yx]

There is something called "Fox Tango" users group on Yahoo (I don't have the link at hand) that can probably help you with this early 1980's vintage HT.

Fox-Tango Website (www.foxtango.org)

[W6GQ]

Here is some stuff I found, maybe not what you need?

DEAD : Check small wire ended fuse mounted on the main PCB at the bottom below the PLL.

NO RX OR TX (POSSIBLY INTERMITTENT) : Check xtal X201 in the PLL unit.

OFF FREQUENCY TX : The FM TX frequency can be realigned with T205. Whenever this fault has occurred in the past it has proved neccessary to change X203 (16.9MHz).

DISPLAY FAULTS : As with the FT290, the rubber connecting strip on the LCD unit may need cleaning. If Q302 goes faulty, it can draw excessive current, dragging down the supply volts to the display, causing the display to be faint.

AUDIO FEEDBACK ON RX : The VCO in the PLL is susceptible to vibration. The standard cure is to add melted wax to this area of the PLL.

144-148MHz OPERATION : To open up the unit for operation up to 148MHz, short together pins 28 and 29 on the microprocessor. These pins can be identified as follows. Open the front of the case, and place the unit on the bench the correct way up. The 'cut off' corner of the micro should be at the bottom left corner. On the right hand side of the micro there are 10 pins, in two groups of 5. Pins 28+29 are the bottom two pins in the top group - i.e. the fourth and fifth pins down from the top.

SPURIOUS RESPONSE ON 145.775MHz : Two mods have been published for this, both involving fitting a capacitor from pin 14 of Q206 down to ground. Experience shows a value of 180-220pF should be used, and alignment of the VCO MUST be checked, especially if the unit has been modified for 148MHz operation.

[k8ceb]

I want to thank all of you folks for your responses. Hopefully I will be able to get the problem with the unit fixed. Thanks again. :)

[VE2ITZ]

I know that on the FT207-R, the screen sometimes remains with an "E" (Probably stands for "Error")

What i found out was the following:

If you turn the "TX Split" switch all the way clockwise while it is on, then you shut it down, and then turn it back on, it will clear everything including the memory but it will bring back the correct frequency and display.

Something really weird happened once actually:

The transceiver went into "weird mode" and i was able to tune up to 149 mhz according to the display. While this happened, i could listen to some sort of conference room somewhere around a building!

It seemed that someone was setting a conference room and were using some sort conference monitor system to speak to each other near my work. Since i work downtown, there are many office buildings around.

Weird stuff.

These handie talkies can do really weird things!

:eek: