Connex 3400 questions

[Npollman]

First question....What purpose does the watch battery have? Is band memory it’s only purpose or does it have something to do with the faceplate lights? Mine aren’t changing all of the colors just a few and would like to get them working again.

Second Question.... in the very back corner is a 473 ceramic capacitor that sits in c204 right next to VR11. What purpose does it serve? Mine looks either snipped or broken. Wondering if I can leave it that way or need to have it fixed

 

[nomadradio]

C204 should be one of many RF-ground capacitors. One side goes to the pc board's DC-ground foil, the other side to the adjacent metal foot with a chassis-ground screw on it. This cap is in parallel with a bunch of others that make the metal chassis a proper RF ground, while keeping the DC ground circuit on the circuit board isolated from DC continuity.

If one of them comes loose, you might or might not see a difference in the radio's performance. The radio has one of these capacitors in each of a half-dozen chassis-ground points around the edge of the circuit board.

Probably ought to fix it, even if you can't see a symptom of trouble from it.

73