DB20-G radio oddities

[UncleYoda]

[The cutesy title is a play on the brand name.]  Just had an unnerving occurrence where no sound was coming out of either earphones or the radio speaker (receive LED and signal meter did indicate it was receiving).  I tried all the relevant settings I could think of to no avail.  After giving it up for broken, I tried turning SUB back on and switched to B -- boom!, sound blaring out.  Switched back to A and sound there too.  And it worked with earphones too.  Doesn't make sense but I'm glad it started working again (no signals to test with right now).

The other odd thing I've noticed is the red TX LEDs will come on briefly at random times when I'm not touching the radio.  No pattern to it that I can discern so far.  And the mic is hanging up where the PTT button is not touching anything.

[amaff]

Might be a dodgy connection from the mic cable? those RJ-45 connectors aren't the strongest things in the world. If you jiggle the connector at the radio does it happen? I've noticed it do weird things if I disconnect or connect the mic or programming cable while the radio's on.

[Borage257]

My At-779UV does the red blinking light thing too. I just jiggle the mic cord and it resolves. Haven't had the audio issue described.

[WRTX957]

I've had a AT-779UV in my car for over 3 years now with no blinking light or mic issues. I know of one person's radio that developed an intermittent PTT button after a couple of years, but a squirt of contact cleaner fixed the issue. I agree with the other post that most likely the RJ-45 connection is loose or dirty. I would suggest that those with mic problems try cleaning the PTT switch and RJ-45 jack with some contact cleaner. 

[SteveShannon]

25 minutes ago, WRTX957 said:

I've had a AT-779UV in my car for over 3 years now with no blinking light or mic issues. I know of one person's radio that developed an intermittent PTT button after a couple of years, but a squirt of contact cleaner fixed the issue. I agree with the other post that most likely the RJ-45 connection is loose or dirty. I would suggest that those with mic problems try cleaning the PTT switch and RJ-45 jack with some contact cleaner. 

I have two DB-20g radios and the transmitted audio on one radio occasionally becomes low. A simple unplugging and replacing the RJ45 returns the audio to normal.

I also have a friend who liked my db20g radios and bought one for himself.  His remains unsquelched sometimes after he unkeys.  He has to hit the PTT again to get the radio to return to squelch.

[WRXB215]

The only problem I've had with my 779 so far is that it locked up once several months ago. Once I disconnected the power and reconnected it, it was just fine. Hasn't happened since. I've been using this radio for about 2 years if I remember correctly.

[WRUU653]

43 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

I also have a friend who liked my db20g radios and bought one for himself.  His remains unsquelched sometimes after he unkeys.  He has to hit the PTT again to get the radio to return to squelch.

I have the 779 and occasionally the squelch will stay open from another radios transmission. Same fix of hitting the PTT button will clear it.

[SteveShannon]

12 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:

I have the 779 and occasionally the squelch will stay open from another radios transmission. Same fix of hitting the PTT button will clear it.

So now I have to say I have two friends who have that issue.

[amaff]

32 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:

I have the 779 and occasionally the squelch will stay open from another radios transmission. Same fix of hitting the PTT button will clear it.

I asked about this after we got back from Yellowstone last year because I had the ranger / park service repeaters programmed in and, for some reason, with ONLY those stations (and not all the time), mine would do this. Still no idea wtf that was about.

[Davichko5650]

2 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

So now I have to say I have two friends who have that issue.

I had it, but bumped upt the SQL to about 7. But them miss out on lower S meter signals coming in.

[WRUU653]

2 hours ago, amaff said:

I asked about this after we got back from Yellowstone last year because I had the ranger / park service repeaters programmed in and, for some reason, with ONLY those stations (and not all the time), mine would do this. Still no idea wtf that was about.

Mine is the same. It’s not everything but I noticed it on some fire frequencies recently as we had a big fire here and we were next to an evacuation zone so I was scanning those. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it but I didn’t have any tones set so maybe that played into it. 

[WRUU653]

One other thing I have noticed is I pick up RF noise from the programming cable that came with the radio if it’s left plugged into the computer with the other end not connected to anything. It’s enough to cause radios on my desk to stop scanning and hold squelch open on some frequencies and oddly they aren’t even frequencies near each other. Subsequently I always unplug that programming cable. 

The thing is I’m not complaining, I wouldn’t say any shortfalls of the radio really bother me. It was cheap, it works good, I get good audio reports, it’s small, plenty memories programmed in it and now chirp is available for it. Is it as good as my Icom 2730? No but it cost less than a hundred bucks. I like it. I got it to put in an ammo can that I could take camping but I haven’t gotten to that project yet and it lives on my desk at the moment.