hello. my fl2100b stopped working last week. when i turn on the amp the internal relay box clicks on simultaneously . plate voltage is good the dc meter jumps to .1 and stays there. its very very clean new old stock amazing when i got it it had ZERO hours on it. i still love it very much and really dont want to send it through the mail. im real handy and i think i can repair it in house. any and all input will be greatly appreciated. thank you very much- Peter- W2PPJ
Sounds like you have a short in the antenna relay switching line. Did you use an interface when you hooked it up to your radio? What are you using for a radio to drive it? For now, disconnect the relay connections completely from the back of the amp then turn the amp back on and see if the idle current reading and relay noise goes away. It should. That confirms a short in the antenna relay switching circuit. Could be damage to the switching circuit in the radio.
That says the T/R relay is pulling in at power ON, putting the amplifier into transmit mode. According to the schematic diagram... (click for bigly image) ... if the jumper on the rear (between the E and RY terminals) has been removed and your rig's T/R control output is connected, you should be able to toggle the "OPER/STBY" switch to STBY, and the amplifier won't go into transmit mode. Simply stated... If the amplifier goes into transmit mode w/ the switch in the STBY position, there's a problem inside the amplifier. If the amplifier doesn't go into transmit mode w/ the switch in the STBY position, the problem is outside the amplifier.
The FL-2100B doesn't have a kickback protection diode across its relay, so a big spike can take out the keying transistor in many modern solid state transceivers. When that happens, the keying transistor shorts and the amp is permanently keyed. Common problem, could be avoided by adding one diode.
thank you so much guys for such speedy replies. my rig is a ft-757gx my interface is a frb757. the amp is going into transmit mode in the stby position. i have always driven the amp with 80 watts or less. its not really a noise i just hear the internal relay click on and stay on . i removed that jumper on the rear when i purchased the amp and found the frb757 interface. thank you so much for the help guys !! -peter-
That's what the instruction manual says. It also says the FRB757 (that W2PPJ says he's using) will handle up to 250V & 2.5A. Then, the amplifier has an internal problem.
Ok. where do i start looking and what is my next move. i removed the bottem cover looked all around the relay wires leading to and from the relay i dont see anything burnt, broken , diconnected. im just a carpenter/mechanic im not a pro at this at all but i think im up for the task.