On Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:29:36 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:31:52 +0000 (UTC), Meat Plow
wrote:

Yaesu VX-5R tri-band hand held. Momentary contact power on/off button.

I have the same radio. Mine is the somewhat later v1.1.

Recently I have to push several
times on this rubber on/off button to get the radio to come on.

Yep. I had the same problem about a year ago. When I opened the radio,
I found wet and greasy goo around most of the keypad buttons. My guess
is a mixture to condensed bad breath and exuded rubber plasticizer
molded into the rubber. I cleaned up the mess with alcohol and it's
been fine ever since.

But it
always takes just one touch to turn it off.

Debounce circuit? I do have to hold the on/off a bit longer to turn it
on than to turn it off. My guess is about a full second to turn it on,
and just a tap to turn it off.

And the radio works fine
otherwise including all the other buttons. Just have to play around
pressing the button maybe three/four/five times. Sometimes it powers on
when pressed once! But always shuts off with just one easy push. This
indicates to me that it's not a problem with button contact but rather a
microprocessor problem.

Good logic, but without knowing the exact failure mechanism, it might be
problematic. If this is a deteriorating situation, where it worked
normally in the distant past, I would tend to suspect that something has
deteriorated rather than failed.

If not, there's the possibility of firmware problems, which a total
reset and reload from the programming software might fix. I had some
problems with VX-5 Commander:
http://www.kc8unj.com
and ended up buying the official Yaesu software (by RT Systems)
http://www.rtsystemsinc.com

Discuss.

Methinks a frizbee is cheaper than throwing a discus around.

Heh. I have the VX-5 software from RT and the data cable. So a reset then
reload might not be a bad idea. I've also had grounding problems with
this radio. Makes the audio howl when you turn it up past 50% on 70
centimeters. Main component board depends on lands around screw holes and
the aluminum chassis is part of the ground. An occasional loose/tight of
the chassis screws seems to cure it for a year or so.

Other than this, the radio has worked well, the batter has held up
remarkably and the audio is robust. I also have a dual band FT-60. Rock
solid radio, very loud audio with little distortion. Bought it back in
2006 from AES. They had a special on the radio and drop charger that I
couldn't resist. I bought a Diamond SRH320A antenna for it. I've worked
repeaters 50 miles away outdoors on 2 meters with that HT.



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