Flying in the Face of OLEDs

Flying in the Face of OLEDs

“Art derives a considerable part of its beneficial exercise from flying in the face of presumptions,” wrote Henry James in ‘The Art of Fiction,’ and I think that turn of phrase, which refers to challenging ordinary expectations, applies as much to amateur radio as it does to the creation of outstanding literature.

Amateurs radio operators, or hams as they are popularly called, by the very nature of the hobby are experimenters and DIY-ers. That was the way I and, I think, most other hams started out. I still remember vividly, decades later, chucking a wire tied to a stone into the high pines to put a dipole antenna and then tuning it to work distant stations. My attempts at creating a more complex antenna with the help of plastic tubing ended in utter failure when the whole frame collapsed.

In those days I had a good friend in the next State who was a self-taught genius. There was nothing the late Ranjit Chaliha–VU2RCH could not fix whether it was a huge machinery imported by the government from Europe that was dead on arrival or an imported power supply for my transmitter weighing just a few pounds. Ranjit was adept at tracing the error and fixing the problem which, in the case of the power supply, was a hairline fracture on the PCB that had escaped detection by professional technicians.

How I wished Ranjit was still around when a problem cropped up with the used, top-of-the-line transceiver that I had acquired in the States and transported all the way to India, which in itself was no mean task considering its weight which, along with its accessories, exceeded the business-class airplane baggage limit. The radio in question was the famed Yaesu FTDX-5000MP LTD transceiver, in my opinion the best transceiver ever made.

But, like the proverbial Achilles heel, it had a design defect. Three small yet indispensable front-panel screens would, over the years, dim to the point of being unusable. I realized this only after I had carted the radio across half the globe. I did not know what to do. The thought of hauling the heavy radio back to the US to have the issue fixed and carrying it back again was daunting to say the least. Putting this precious radio, however well packed, at the mercy of savage baggage handlers at airports was not an option. In addition to intercontinental shipping costs and risks, there was also the cost of in-country shipping to the manufacturer and back. I bought replacement OLEDs from Yaesu, the manufacturer, but did not know what to do next.

The internet, as was to be expected, provided a solution. And what a beautiful solution it was! A YouTube video, almost an hour and twenty minutes long, that showed, in step-by-step fashion, how the radio was to be taken apart, the OLEDs replaced, and then the whole thing put together again. But the enormity of the task was mind-boggling. Just the top and bottom outside covers had a total of thirty-three screws. And the electronics inside would put a seasoned, top-of-the-line electronic technician in jitters. The number of delicately thin flat ribbon cables that would have to be gently detached and the printed circuit boards that would need to be removed after that to access the OLED location was scary to a non-techie like me. My friend Ranjit, had he not been ‘silent key’, could have done it. But I was not in the same league as my friend and nor was my eyesight what it once was.

But yesterday, I threw caution to the winds and, to quote Lady Macbeth, “screwed my courage to the sticking place.” In this enterprise, I had company. I was ably assisted by my two grandnephews, Remington and Alistair, who themselves had no clue about electronics. Our strategy was to play the YouTube video ‘Yaesu FTDX 5000 OLED Repair Redux’ on a big television screen, pause it, play the bit again a second time, and then emulate the actions illustrated. The process was repeated all over again for the next step.

It was slow going but we made progress little by little. There were several occasions when I wondered if we had bitten off more than we could chew. But my “assistants” would have none of it and we marched gallantly on. Finally, after about two and a half hours, when we had removed the last obstacle, a PCB

with sixteen screws and many connectors, we discovered to our joy the location of the golden fleece – the nested OLEDs. At this, the halfway point, we took a well-earned break. We continued after a short break by first undertaking the tricky maneuver of removing the dead OLEDs and installing the brand-new ones. Once that was accomplished, we were on a roll. The way back was easier but not without hiccups. But after four and a half hours from when we first set hour hands on the radio, the deed was accomplished.

With the top and bottom covers back in place, we turned in trepidation to the ultimate power on test. There were no explosions! Instead, the radio came back to life and all the screens lit up, including the three new OLEDs that we had just replaced. Our joy knew no bounds. We had done it! The OLED replacement was complete, and the radio was working again perfectly, like new. The Yaesu FTDX-5000MP had received a new lease of life.

I had not done any DIY stuff for many years. Almost everything that was needed was bought off the shelf. So, this adventure, with a successful ending, was a morale booster of sorts. I had done something “radio amateurish” after many, many years. I was a ham again!

I share this in the hope that others who may be hesitant or diffident to undertake a similar exercise would draw courage from this.

It goes without saying that this could not have been accomplished without the excellent YouTube video, produced by “The Radio Mechanic” (@theradiomechanic9625). Grateful thanks to “The Radio Mechanic”!

This successful radio repair adventure is dedicated to the memory of my late amateur radio friend Ranjit Chaliha – VU2RCH.