Hi RED DOG ; Not sure what band your on , but i,ve noticed up here the last few days the bands seem to be effected by on going metour showers later in the evening ? Strange distorted garble along with distorted audio by times simulare to solar flares just a little more irratic ? Some i talk with on 11mtr have also noticed the same , maybe not your issue but its always best to rule all else out before investing alot of time & $$ if its nothing we can controll ? later Bob.
Meteor showers happen day or night we just can't see them in the daytime so "later in the evening" is invalid. They also only peak for a couple hours with greatly diminished numbers either side of peak. The ion trails they create will not effect CB or HF very at if all. VHF and UHF,especially 6m and 2m will reflect off them but only in very short bursts consisting of only a word or two lasting only a few seconds at most in general on 2m. 6m lasts a bit longer. I suspect what you are hearing is more related to auroral activity. That can cause issues throughout the upper HF spectrum and VHF/UHF.
PLL going out of lock on these rigs will cause the symptoms you describe. Loose harness connectors or intermittent Molexes (which join the VCO and PLL boards together) account for about 90% of '820 PLL problems.Problem solved...I was about to change the if board when I saw one of the connectors slid almost al the way of a connection. I plugged it back in and bang. There was the problem. Glad it was this simple. Thanks forth suggestions guys...I owe you all one for the help.