I own three RRC1258MkII paired units remotely controlling a Kenwood TS480SAT, a Yaesu FT-857 and a Yaesu FT8900. Setup was very easy and they have all been working perfectly since day one. I cannot say enough good things about these devices, without exception they're the best product out there if you want the look and feel of having the distant radio sitting on the desk in front of you.
Unconditional praise aside, all three control heads have exhibited the same occasional two problems:
Rarely (as in very rarely) when the radio is turned on (via its control head) some portion of the LCD screen does not populate.
On the TD480 it's usually the LCD meter face (background scale, etc) but the arc/bar graph still functions. Turning off the rig and back on via the control head's power button always clears the problem.
On the FT857 sometimes the upper right corner voltage display only shows the last digit, and sometimes the label of the left vertical meter bar graph is missing. Again, turning off the rig and back on via the control head's power button clears the problem.
On the FT8900 (again VERY rarely) a small section of the LCD won't fill in, but just as with the others, power cycling the radio via its power button on the control clears the anomaly.
This every now and then failure of the LCD to fully populate is a minor thing, it happens very rarely and is easily resolved usually with one power cycle of the radio via the power button on the control head. Sometimes I had to do this twice but one cycle usually fixes things. I've never had to cycle the DC power to the RRC units on either end.
The second problem is more troubling: Every now and then, and with much greater frequency than the LCD problem mentioned above. Approximately 10% of the time when I power off the radio (via its power button) there is a very loud speaker pop as the head shuts down. Loud enough to suspect sooner or later it may damage the speaker. I'm now using external speakers in all three configurations (okay - two of them must use one, but I've added one to the TS480 setup) just in case the pop causes the speaker coil to go open.
Anyone else experiencing this problem? I expect so as it's happens occasionally on all three setups of mine and that's across three different transceivers.
The question is whether or not this is a documented problem and is there a fix beyond installing clamping diodes across the speakers? All my units are running the latest firmware but they all still generate a loud pop on the speaker about 1 in every 10 powering off of the radios.
Any wisdom, advice or solutions offered would be greatly appreciated!
73,
Pat, VE3PMK
