NCX-1000--- Trouble-Shootings For Repairing Your
Treasure Transceiver NRC's NCX-1000---
What is wrong with your precious NCX-1000?
Well, your transceiver was bought as NOS,
or Brand-new, or as Used, but looks like
brand-new, with a shining front panel and
with a brightest shining enclosure!
There is nothing strange about this phenomenon.
Whether it is shining bright or not, the
transceiver was produced about twenty
years ago, exactly in the early 80's. If
the machine has been turned on from time
to time, then the deterioration will not
be so
serious, but if it has not been on for many
years, some parts of it must have been worn
out even without being used at all,
As a lot of my friends here point out, the
transceivers not being used for a long time
cause various problems!
For instance, its oscillator circuits
may not function properly, and the receiver
portion will not work at all. Or even if
the machine
can receive, its sensitivity will be far
inferior to that of the initial status.
However, the above-mentioned condition is
rare, because most of the NCX-1000's are
sold as good-working machines. So they
were
sold after careful repairs and calibrations
through skilful techniques by experienced
engineers, So most conditions that we may
encouter are some that I am going to mention
in the following;
1) NCX-1000 Does Not Work Properly where
117V AC is not Available:
This is a serious problem in a country like
Japan where the power supply voltage is 100V
or at most 105V AC.
Reception is okay, and works normally, but
when it comes to transmitting with this transceiver,
RECEIVE VERNIER does not work,
and the transmitting frequency and receiving
frequency do not correspond to each other!
Also the output power goes down considerably.
The maximum output power will be around 340
watts measured by Bird 43 power meter.
There is no other way to cope with this problem
than you use a proper Variac to step up your
AC voltage to get 117V AC!!
I have so far purchased a very good step-up
transformer, a brand-new, never-used one,
with a capacity of 12KW, 100-115V/
200-230V Step Up. This kind of transformer
is extremely expensive, and I had to pay
about 400.00 US dollars for it.
If you use this kind of variac, you can solve
your problem of non-working phenomenon of
NCX-1000 with 100V AC power.
The output power goes up to 540 watts, and
the RECEIVE VERNIER just works okay normally!
2) High Power Parts Began to Burn and Emit
Strange odors:
The toughest problem about NCX-1000 is that
it is a very high power rig that needs an
utmost
care about nice matching, and a very
careful approach in repairing or maintaining
its good
condition. Its plate voltage
is about 3500 volts DC, which will kill you
instantly if you touch its
final transmitter plate or Plus B circuit
carelessly.
If the fuses blew off and strange odors
started to come out of NCX-1000, then the
power circuit parts must have been damaged
somewhere. What is the cause of this trouble?
1) Remember that this rig was produced
back in 1980's, about twenty years ago.
whether it is a brand-new
or NOS. some electrolytic condensers must
have gone wrong, must
be leaking, or have
worn out, and have broken down, while
you were happily transmitting
with a fairly high power!!
2) If one of the electrolytic condensers
broke down, it means that power line is almost
short-circuited, and the
expensive 300-500 dollars' worth high voltage
transformer
starts to burn with very
strange smell. I hope that this kind
of bad reaction has
not started yet because
you have turned off the power switch immediately.
Here'sone example; I have purchased
so far three NCX-1000's from Richard Galardi,W1DEJ
Saugas, Massachusetts, most of the NOS or brand-new
NCX-1000's have come from him,
no rigs were like that.
However, I purchased two
other rigs from other sources, one from SM5HUA,
Peter Laur,
the other from JH1WCD,
Professor Ishikawa of Gumma Univ. who had
bought it when staying
in USA as student, from
W1DEJ, R. Galardi.
Now the points:
1) Excessive heating up of the Power
transformer in a small book-shelf: Enough
air-flow is
necessary
for this kind of high power rig!!
Peter Laur had bought his NCX-1000 from Radiofinder,
Joel Thurtell, completely restored by Galardi
again,
but as he kept it in a
small-sized book-shelf because of his radio
room space, the transformer
has become too hot, and
the transformer started to burn, and began
to emit bad odor!!
He turned it off, but
too late! The expensive high power
transformer was dead!
I advised him to replace
the transformer and use his rig again, but
he was not going to
repair his NCX-1000 paying
500.00 US dollars for a replacement transformer.
So I accepted his
offer of selling his broken
rig to me for 400.00 US dollars, so I accepted
his offer and
paid 400.00 US dollars
plus shipping from Sweden for over 350.00
dollars by courier express.
As I had a replacement
transformer given to me from Richard Galardi,
I replaced it by a
brand-new transformer,
and it has started to work again, and I got
it calibrated by my good
friend here JA3OEJ, graudate
of electronics communication college.
Richard Galardi has hundreds
of replacement parts brand-new at his storehouse
in Boston,
but needless to say, not
low in price! 500.00 US dollars
Also Dr. Peter Patten,W0EWQ, in
St. Paul Minnesota, suggests the
following
company in Texas can sell NCX-1000
transformer for 225.00 US dollars.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Dahl company, Price is $225 plus
shipping
http://www.pwdahl.com/dahlcatalog/ham_catalog_complete.PDF
Catalog entry is
NATIONAL NCX-1000 POWER
PLATE, DRIVER PLATE & SCREEN VOLTAGES
CORE) EI-175 X 2.5
STYLE #) 02 E-I LAMINATED CORE
PR) 117/234 VAC 60 HZ 1 PH
S1) 1100 VAC @ 0.36A CCS
S2) 0-240-480 VAC @ 0.20A CCS
DM) HT = 4.375 WT = 5.250 DT
= 4.705 MD = 3.625 MW =
4.375
PRICE) $225.00 Plus S&H
FOB El Paso, TX WEIGHT)
17 LBS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) All the power parts were weak;
Professor Ishika
JH1WCD, decided to sell his long-not-used
NCX-1000 to me for a little more than
1000 US dollars ,
so I accepted his offer, and bought his NCX-1000.
His rig came and
I tested it in my radio room, it did receive
signals all right, but
it was not capable
of transmitting signals at all, I got it
tested by JA3OEJ again.
The final tube 8122
was not alive, and it was replaced by a new
one, but again,
the two power fuses
blew off, and he had to check every possible
reasons for this
trouble, the electrolytic
condensers, 450WV DC 80 mfd x 8 had to be
replaced.
Nowadays they are
hard to find, I tried to find everywhere
in the world, and
one company in Canada,
was selling proper condensers for NCX-1000,
and I had to pay
about 100.00 US
dollars for these condensers. Condensers
arrived, and they were
replaced by new
ones, again the fuses blew off and there
were other causes for
causing this kind
of phenomenon. My friend here considered
that a knob condenser
C31 5KV 1000 pf
must be bad, and asked me for that knob condenser.
Luckily enough,
I had one spare
chasis with all the parts assembled only
without transistor circuits
not fitted on, and
I removed that knob capacitor from it,and
my friend replaced the
bad one by a new
one, and then this transceiver came back
to life, and started to
put out full power
of 540 watts into the air!!
Now I have three
good working NCX-1000's in my shack.
I love them and am proud of
having these transceivers,
all of them are ready to work any time I
like.
If you or your friend has any more questions,
please ask me, and I will be able to
answer any of your
questions any time. And also JA3OEJ, will
be here to answer your
questions.
Also you can phone
Mr. Galardi or Professor Peter Patten, W0EWQ,
in Minnesota, USA.
They know NCX-1000
better than I.
To be continued:
* Philip Yoshitaka Shibuya/JA3KEV