Friday, January 14, 2011

Take me to your master.........NOW!!!!!!!

It was time to sit down with a cup of Earl gray tea and read my latest CQ magazine.  A time I look forward to each month. With all the gear that is coming out these days and the options, menus and programing that is packed into such compact rigs things can go wrong and fast. A day of pleasurable and trouble free operating can for no reason turn sour when the rig is next turned on. For some reason a radio can go from normal to abnormal operation.....no fault of the radio and most of the time an inadvertent button pushing or accidental combo of buttons was somehow selected.   Or.....as I have done purchased used gear and it just does not seem to operate properly  and no matter how much you read the owners manual and the buttons you push and release, push hold and release or the dreaded fat finger three button hold and release move..... Oh yes they make these buttons very very tiny and very very close together and to add insult to our dexterity  do it ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!  As for me the timing is just not there and as I maneuver around the rig I just dig the hole deeper. This month CQ Magazine came to the rescue, there was a very good writeup entitled Testing Testing regarding this very thing.  Very simply put "cut your losses and do a master reset" it's the last thing I think to do. At the time when it does cross my mind I push it aside as I don't want to loose the memories, the preset scans and so on.......... but after doing your best to resolve the issue brothers and sisters it's better than loosing your mind DO THE MASTER RESET !!

9 comments:

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hello Mike, yes indeed a problem. Hi. Last week I did something wrong with the hidden menu in my FT817. For the first time I did a master reset. Everything is just fine again. 73 Paul

VE9KK said...

Hi Paul, for some reason my stubborn "I can solve it" pokes it ugly head when it comes to solving radio issues. In the long run a reset is the better solution if things seem to be getting worse....along less gray hair.

Anonymous said...

One reason I haven't sold my OHR100A 20 meter QRP transceiver...no hidden menus, no multi-pushing of tiny buttons. But I also have done a master reset on my beloved FT-817 and sure solves a lot of problems. 73 Dick N2UGB

Paul M0PCZ said...

Hi Mike, I think you might be talking about Yaesu radios, I have never owned one, but the likes of the 857, from what I have seen of them at my radio club look like a menu nightmare, the Kenwood I use somehow seemed easy to use, even straight out of the box.

Keep your hair on, 73 Paul.

John AE5X said...

The same is true of cameras!

VE9KK said...

Yes Dick the master reset sure does solve lots of troubles and saves time for valuable operating time.
Paul the FT-857 that I had for some years did go through many resets. It sure is a menu mazed radio for sure.
John I spoke my wife regarding the camera master resets and she gave me a resounding "oh Yahhhh".

G4NKX said...

Good Morning/Pm Mike:
It's something I've not embarked on (Yet) !
But I have had some "funnies" crop up using my FT450 here (Where's so and so gone?) oh - I left the menu button open. . . should it do that ?
Most problems attributed to user malfunctions ;-)

73 Peter

VE9KK said...

Hello Peter yes user malfunction seems to be most if not all reasons to go for a reset.

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello Mike, never had to reset my Icom IC-706MK2G. Don't know yet for the FT-817 just own one, till now no reset was needed. But had to reset my HT Alinco DJ-5G after a dove hit my antenna on the highway. I guess that it has something to do with static which was built up on the antenna input. So....user malfunction is not always the reason. 73, Bas