That's the problem with second hand radios............if yours is having
that problem. Most of the stuff I've seen lately has been junk. It seems
that many of the hamfest folks (not all of them) are following eBay's
tradition. At the last hamfest I attended (Radio Expo), I ended up with a
100% average........................I had to repair everything. Of course,
everything was misrepresented as "working fine". On the subject of your
radio, I have purchased radios over the years that do hold their memory, but
they did have some of those weird problems. Replacing the backup battery
cured the problem. And then, there is the other side of the
coin.............this is the one where somebody replaces the backup battery
and subjects the uP to ESD. End of story, unless you are adept at replacing
quad flat-pack ICs (not too hard, but you need the right technique). It also
helps if you have a stereo microscope when replacing one of these devices.

Pete

wrote in message
ups.com...

Lou wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

Lou wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...

Joe McElvenney wrote:
Hi,

I bought an ALinco DR 590 dual band amature radio at a
hamfest.
It
is a
mobile. Got it home, hooked it up, everything on the display
lit
up. I
mean everything, even things that were not supposed to. The
frequency
number has stange lines in it. It was not usable.

Some items of test equipment have a display 'test mode'
where
every
digit and LED/LCD segment are switched on either in sequence or
at
the
same time as a function check. I have three items of test
equipment
that
do just that on demand, so it could be that your rig was simply
strutting
its stuff.

As for the socket coming away, again it may be meant to.
Perhaps
the
terminal plugs into the assembly just behind it.


Cheers - Joe


If this was a "test" mode then why did it stay in test mode? The
radio
was completly not usable.


You said something to the effect of having it in your garage. Not
sure if
heated or not, but the temperature changes could be doing this -
if
wide in
nature - cold to warm - etc. Could be a bad solder joint. Display
may
be
going flaky. You bought it used, who knows what ales it. A copy of
the
owners manual if you don't have one - would be a good start.

LC'

Could the 3 v lithiam battery be going bad?


It could be, a good sign of that would also be loss of memory of
other
functions.

L.

(don't know where the C' came from!)

It stays on the frequency I left it when I unplugged it. I guess this
means the battery is ok?