Notes on IBS-1 Band Decoders

27 March 2011

Band decoder at Station 2 failed, stuck on 40 meters. See E-mail to K8ND:

OK, I am now totally baffled. Here is what a correctly functioning IBS1 does:

160 A1
80 A2
40 A3
30 Er
20 A5
17 Er
15 A7
12 Er
10 A9.

If you unplug the cable going to the relay panel, it still changes bands correctly but you get "Er" on every band, presumably because it is smart enough to know that there is not a relay at the other end.

Now, what is happening is that the Stn 2 IBS 1 displays only 40 A3 with the radio powered up. When you change bands on the radio, it stays at 40 A3. If you turn the radio off, you get 6 A9. I tried a different XCVR at Station 2 and get exactly the same thing, except that with the radio on it is stuck on 30 Er regardless of what band is selected on the radio.

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I moved the Stn 2 IBS 1 to Stn 1 and it works perfectly (!). If I hit the "Special Select" button it changes bands OK but you get "Er" on every band. Power it off and back on, and then the IBS 1 works perfectly again. Move the IBS 1 back to Stn 2 and I get the same thing -- stuck on 40 A3 regardless of which band is selected. Changing radios does not cure the problem.

So then I swapped the filter blocks between Stations 1 and 2, but that changed nothing -- still get the same behaviors.

Last thing I did is check the DC voltage on the Stn 2 Rigrunner and it is OK at 14 volts.

So I am totally baffled. One thing certain is that we need to order another IBS 1 and accompanying RS-232 cable and power cord pronto, so wwe have backup.

Any ideas? Is there a way to do a master reset on this?

I am out of time -- I have tons more to fix when I should be on the towers working on rust. I won't be back here for six months.

HHHeeelllppppp?! What a fuc--d up retirement I'm having.

I'll study the manuals now.

     TU de Geoff

After much experimentation. discovered that FT-2000 (1) and FT-1000 (6) will not work with the IBS-1 at Station 2. Other radios are fine. I proved to myself that it is not a DC supply problem, nor a cabling problem. Definitely IBS-1 at Station 2 is flaky and needs to be replaced. For now, it is back at Station 2 with a different FT-1000.