Radio took a ESD hit?

[Cruiseomatic]

On the way home from work yesterday morning, My PC68 Elite would know when my antenna stinger swayed front to back resulting in changes in noise level and later on began to hum like someone was humming into a radio close by but meter went dead flat backwards, All the face lighting went out only leaving meter and channel indicator on, Would TX on any mode and still had RX audio on internal speaker while in PA mode. However, It had RX and WX audio when in WX mode. Acted like mode switch did nothing. And it may of been the operator, But a signal would cut in and out or drop off and come back quickly on the meter with no squelch a few minutes later when it was doing this but others came in fine. Face lighting is all LED and is supplied from the 12V+ rail to my knowledge and has no PS unit. Pulled radio out of the truck and brought it in to pop the hood. Nothing out of the ordinary except I found the bottom two screws holes to be stripped so they can't be tightened good now. Not seeing any burnt or damaged components, (Through hole type, No SMD) I put the hood back on and back in the truck. Works fine now like nothing ever happened. All mechanical controls, No CPU or digital controls.

The antenna is a little will mag mount with stock stinger so no corona ball just bent tip from hitting things. Wondering if my old Cobra 29 BTWXNWST took a hit with this antenna as well because the receiver would randomly keep going deaf despite multiple repairs. It may of made a similar sound or did something similar I just never payed attention.

Thinking it was gone, Turned it back on tonight heading to work. Nope, Still changes in noise with stinger movement. Just shut the radio off and unplugged it.

Side note: I'm no conspiracy theorist by any means, But we have a storm running through now and it has 3 sets of haarp rings in it. Barely noticeable in radar but they're there. Wondering if that might have something to do with it also.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Obviously there is a problem with the antenna if the RX cuts in and out with movement of the stinger. As for the lights out etc it could be a loose connection that was "fixed" temporarily while opening and closing the radio. It may simply be a bad ground on the circuit board to the chassis. I won't even comment on the "haarp rings" on the radar. In any event the radio did NOT get hit with an ESD. If it did it would not still be working. An ESD causes component failure not component "it works now but it didn't earlier".

 

[Cruiseomatic]

So all these issues showed up at once suddenly?

 

[Tallman]

It can. ESD will knock you out for bit because the processor chip can lock up. If you are thinking EMP then your truck would have died as well.
Captain Kilowatt is very seldom wrong. It's your antenna.

 

[Cruiseomatic]

Not EMP, Lol. This was in a '04 6.0 Powerstroke. Key up a handheld and it takes the PCM out, Lol. No, This radio doesn't have a processor chip that controls it. Maybe the DSC does, But thats it. But humming and meter falls to "Off" position and the mode issue? Something is/was up with it. I just don't see how all that could happen at once randomly for no reason then wait a while and power it back up and its fine. No, I know the difference in EMP and ESD.
Now I will agree, The rising and falling noise floor would be antenna related issue. The rest, I'm not to sure on.

 

[Tallman]

Have you checked your swr?
I had one antenna and the stinger would oscillate and sounded like the u joints were failing. Drove me crazy trying find the cause the noise.

 

[Cruiseomatic]

They're great for a mag mount. 1.3 on 1 and 1.4-5 on 40. This is/was a progressive rise and fall before the "failure". After though was the fast paced rise and drop like "picket-fencing" and I was parked at the house.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Radio warms up and things expand slightly and go bad. Radio gets shut down and cools off then works normal. Happens a lot. It still could have been related to that AND the problem you have with the antenna.

 

[Cruiseomatic]

I thought about a warm up issue also. Left it on for 4 hours last night while I was at work before I got off. Not a single problem the whole time. And yes, My job allows me to be in my truck while working. But I'm not driving it so I was able to monitor the radio's behavior.

 

[Cruiseomatic]

But I've been wanting to rebuild this and another little will for a while now. The noise floor issue I will agree with on that. As this antenna is pushing 9 years old now and never been rebuilt or "serviced". Bought another in '13 because I was so impressed with my current and that was a mistake.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I thought about a warm up issue also. Left it on for 4 hours last night while I was at work before I got off. Not a single problem the whole time. And yes, My job allows me to be in my truck while working. But I'm not driving it so I was able to monitor the radio's behavior.

It could be a tiny intermittent issue that got resolved when you took the cover off. If it was a bad ground it could have been temporarily fixed just by flexing the board a little bit while taking the cover off. The problem may or may not return. I serviced commercial broadcast gear for 22 years and switched careers about 12 years ago but still dabble in it a bit and trust me I have seen more than my fair share of heat related intermittent problems as well as poor ground connections that magically repaired themselves. As for ESD, when i hear that term I think of exactly what it means, electro-static discharge. In my field this always resulted in fried components that are static sensitive like FET's or IC. Even servicing some gear required it to be placed on an anti-static mat and you wore an anti-static wristband that was tethered to the anti-static mat which was grounded to drain off any static while handling the gear. True ESD is damaging without recovery.

 

[RatsoW8]

If all else fails those radios are starting out on ebay for about $13.

 

[Road Squawker]

If all else fails ....

... and use exactly 18 feet of coax, wound in a coil,....

 

[StrangeBrew]

... and use exactly 18 feet of coax, wound in a coil,....

A choke like that should be able to protect you from a good 4 or 5 sets of haarp rings.

 

[Tallman]

It could be a tiny intermittent issue that got resolved when you took the cover off. If it was a bad ground it could have been temporarily fixed just by flexing the board a little bit while taking the cover off. The problem may or may not return. I serviced commercial broadcast gear for 22 years and switched careers about 12 years ago but still dabble in it a bit and trust me I have seen more than my fair share of heat related intermittent problems as well as poor ground connections that magically repaired themselves. As for ESD, when i hear that term I think of exactly what it means, electro-static discharge. In my field this always resulted in fried components that are static sensitive like FET's or IC. Even servicing some gear required it to be placed on an anti-static mat and you wore an anti-static wristband that was tethered to the anti-static mat which was grounded to drain off any static while handling the gear. True ESD is damaging without recovery.

Having worked in the military end of manufacturing I am extremely familiar with all of the processes surrounding ESD and sensitive electronics. Component failure is rare as long as the parts were properly handled from start to finish.
Before you even will feel a static discharge it has to reach about 750 volts.
That is many times the operating voltage of most solid state devices.
Parts that are not mounted on a PCB are the one at the most risk of damage.
Some of the circuits I worked on were tested with arcs from a hand held Tesla coil and they had FET's like the IRF150 installed.
During one "Dog and Pony show" the customer whipped out the hand held Tesla coil and proceeded to arc the entire PCB while it was operating. No problem at all.