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Dead W2A

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2002 10:00 am
by MicorRT
I have an Icom W2A. I recently bought a new battery 7.2v 1000mah the radio was working fine... One morning after pulling the portable out of the charger the radio wouldn't power up. I discovered that the battery was dead. I charger the battery seperate from the radio then put battery back on immedately the red tx indicator lit and nothing else. It acts completely dead. I have removed and replaced the lithium battery inside and also checked the fuse inside the portable. Any ideas?

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2002 1:49 pm
by willbartlett
Seen this happen at least twice. Unfortunately, It requires a cpu replacement, and I have been told that even that is not a foolproof fix. With Most Icom radios, you will get a DOA symptom when the Lithium battery goes, restoreable by removing the dead battery, shorting the contacts, and replacing the battery/reset uP. This is not the same problem. I have 2 parts units in the shed with the same problem. If you happen to have another w2a, they make a great source of parts, other than that, it's probably a wheel chock. Call Icom tech support in Bellvue, they may have a new fix, but last time I checked, this is what I was told. Sorry, :cry: :beer:

Will

Dead W2A

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2002 12:18 am
by MicorRT
I was afraid of that. Thank you for the input... I had tried disconnecting the lithium batt and shorting the terminals for a reset... just not too familiar with the inner workings on Icoms. Thanks again.... My little Icom :angel:

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2002 8:22 am
by MicorRT
Here is a Reply that I recieved about this problem... I'm going to post it here for anyone else that has this radio.

"The W2A is a nice radio. I owned two of them and a 2SRA which is about identical but has 2M and general receive. Then after I got the BC-72A charger on e-bay the W2A just up and died.

If you desolder the regulator it is strange(at least it was to me) that it relies on two case solder joints to transfer the heat away from the device (5 solder points). It makes desoldering the old regulator a pain. I started to remove mine figuring I did not have anything to lose and ended up botching the removal. Nothing lost as it was already dead.... The W2A is not service friendly. They utilize the flex ribbon connectors and they are soldered

I think if you contact ICOM they will probably know what is happening to your radio as I was told there was a bulletin out about it.

I would be curious to know if you always charged your W2A with the battery attached to the radio? Like I said in the earlier post I think that is what contributed to the failure of my W2A.

By the way the Maha Chargers I have for my Icom W32A's (these replaced my W2A's)work perfectly with no RF noise at all. So far the W32A has been an outstanding HT. I found the UHF receive sensitivity in the 467MHz range exceded that of the W2A.

By the way...On e-bay now there is a W2A Service Manual and 2 W2A's up for auction.

Good Luck on the repair and nice chatting,

Ed
N4UMJ"

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2002 8:24 am
by MicorRT
Here is a little more info thanks again N4UMJ for the info!

"-The ICOM W2A and the 2SRA are both fine radios when they
are working. They share many of the same circuitry and therefore
commonly fail with similar problems. When they die the most
common cause is the voltage regulator. I have seen many reports
of this and people generally get rid of them. I have heard ICOM
will go into the radio and modify it with upgraded components to
fix and prevent this in the future. Did you get ICOM to try this?

- The BC-72 charger is trouble from the start.
Not only does it put out RF hash all over the HF frequencies it is
known to fail and when it does it will most likely take your radio
out with it. Schematics are hard to come by on this unit and it
would be best not repairing this charger and going with a Maha
or better replacement.

- If there are users out there with BC-72 still working I
would advise them to charge the battery by itself and not leave
the transceiver attached to it. I am fairly certain this is what caused
the sudden failure of my W2A

- I am speaking from experience here because I had my W2A fail
and this was shortly after starting to use a new BC-72 charger I
acquired. I dove into the repair on the W2A and discovered that
radio is very difficult to work on. The regulator is a combination
surface mount and through the PC board mount for heat sink
purposes I suppose. Needless to say removal of the old regulator
was unsuccessful. I had another W2A that I had gotten cheap
along with another BC-72 charger. I was going to use them for
parts. Both the radio and the charger were beyond repair.
The parts charger had several fried components and smelled real
bad and the scrap W2A was completely dead. Two bad radios here
to make one good one did not work !

- My choice was to find a replacement W2A on e-bay that was
working. I could have taken the ICOM repair route with the other
two W2A's but decided that finding an ICOM W2A that was
already working would be a better choice. I still have the RFpower
module cards and can use them in the future if they fail. This is
the only thing I can say that is service friendly on these particular
ICOM radios.

- I just sold my older 2SRA on e-bay and it worked well for the
8 years that I owned it. The only problem I had with it was the
antenna jack worked loose from the PC board and I had to resolder
it.

-On repairing your broken function problem I would say that most
likely you have a bad flex cable. The W2A and the 2SRA are full of
them. I think the best way to deal with removal and replacement of
these would be a soldering iron with a long bar attachment so you
could desolder all the connections at once. I am sure ICOM has all
of these specialized tools and is why they can justify the high hourly
labor rate for repair. You also might be able to replace the bad ribbon
connection with a hard wire if this is indeed what is bad.

- I must say this was a learning experience and I still say the W2A and
the 2SRA are fine radios when they are working. They really had a lot
of features for radios of its time. Nice frequency coverage too. I had
many accessories for the W2A so it just made sense for me to find
another working unit.
I have the newer W32 without the function key and still find it
unnatural to use. I guess I got used to the function key being there
on the W2A.

- If you need a schematic and service manual for the 2SRA check the
following:

http://www.w7fg.com/ "

Resetting the W2A

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 6:49 pm
by Radioactive
The problem is that the internal battery needs to be replaced. After you
replace the battery, hold down the F key and power button while you slide
the battery pack on.
Then Hold down the Light, B, and # keys while turning the power on.
That should do it. Now you could do this without the internal battery
replacement but it will go out again soon.
If that does not do it, then you may have to replace the 5V regulator.
Hope that helps you.

Robert

Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2004 12:10 pm
by MicorRT
Where is the internal 5 volt regulator located in the portable? I have SMT equipment but I don't have a schematic. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Timbo