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Strange Meter Problem

P

park

Active Member
Sep 30, 2006
502
9
28
Near Austin, TX
This is weird,

In my work shop I have a Cobra 29 LTD that is on most nights. I went to wipe dust off the meter with my thumb and after I wiped the dust off the neddle it stuck at half scale. I thumped it a few times and it went back to normal, but every time I run my finger right to left (not the other way) on the meter face it will go to about s7 and stick??
 

take a static cling sheet and wet it slightly , or dash a drip or so of fabric softer on a cloth and wipe the meter with it , it will pretty much take the static out until next time . I've even opened radios and folded a cling sheet and nicely tuck it right under the meter , works great ! grounding the radio can help as well , I suppose it just depends on where your at ? If it's been windy where your at ? it can also cause a lot of extra static electricity in the air and around us. It sounds like static to me , but usually once they are turned on , things will come back to normal more so then not , if it's sticking as you said , there is a set screw that can be slightly turned left to right , but that is usually with radios that have sat for years without any operations at all and the set screws will usually get them working again , if not ? it's usually time for a new one. Try the static sheet or fabric softer first and see how things work out for you. Good Luck
 
In many cases you can just breathe on the meter face (like when you're cleaning eyeglasses). Get a bit of a conductive path between the plastic face of the meter and the metal of the cabinet. Clear liquid dishwashing soap diluted about 10:1 with tap water also works (that's ten parts of water to one part of soap, by the way :D ) - just to be clear.
 
Beetle,
Glad you 'cleaned' up that possible misunderstanding! I'd think 10 parts soap and 1 part water might make the meter sort of 'sticky'?
- 'Doc
 
Geekster said:
When I worked for PDC, we used a can of static guard to spray the meter faces before packaging in bubble wrap.
Click to expand...

That darn bubble wrap tends to hold a lot of static as it is , so do packing peanuts :thumbdown: I can remember packing items and having peanuts stuck all over me , pain in the ass at times. When shipping many radios or meters I would just scotch tape a cling free sheet across the meters in hopes of NOT getting a complaining customer because his meters were acting up on him because of static build up. Although it does happen from time to time , I bet alot of guys have this going on and they don't even know it unless they run there finger side to side across there meters to begin with (friction) , some tend to be worse then others.
 
It might help if he just tried to determine what the source is which is creating the static charge if this is the problem.

What is the surface made of that the radio is mounted on?

Is there a tv in the near vicinity?

Grounding the radio is a good idea but will not get rid of the static charge.
 
mackmobile43 said:
Grounding the radio is a good idea but will not get rid of the static charge.
Click to expand...

Very true. The plastic is bad for holding a static charge.I used to maintain a Gates FM-5H FM broadcast TX that was really bad for holding a charge on the plate voltage and current meters. Before retuning the final I would have to spray the meter face with Windex so the meter would not stick.I'll bet I had the cleanest meter panel in the business.:D
 
mackmobile43 said:
It might help if he just tried to determine what the source is which is creating the static charge if this is the problem.

What is the surface made of that the radio is mounted on?

Is there a tv in the near vicinity?

Grounding the radio is a good idea but will not get rid of the static charge.
Click to expand...

It's just been setting on a power supply for the past 2 or 3 years, no tv.

I am aware of all the things everyone has thought of. I don't think anyone picked up on the key thing I said, it only does it when I move my finger from left to right,,not right to left?

I have seen meters move as you run your hand or finger across them before, but not like this. No big deal just weird.
 

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