5000A VU - No Receive, No Transmit

Andrew Sommers

I just got my new-to-me 5000A VU yesterday and after staying up all night getting the computer issues figured out it’s finally connected to PSDR. The problem now is that it doesn’t receive any signals, just a solid S9 on the panadapter and nothing on the signal meter. I tried switching antenna ports to no avail. I tried to transmit and while a relay clicks it does not actually put out any power, nor does it show to be. Any ideas or common issues I’m looking over?

Marek Sz

Hi, I have a question, how much you paid for the VU 5000A

AH0U

From the sound of it... too much

Preston Mclaggan

make you have the right antenna connected at the back De g4mla

Don K2PMC

Andrew, I don't have the Vu unit but I would make sure your firewire connection is working. There are utilities available to help you. I'm out of town now and unfortunately I don't remember the names. I do use the latest KE9NS version of PSDR and it is solid.

Andrew Sommers

I took the radio to a friend’s house last weekend and swapped it in place of his 5000 and it worked fine. I’m suspicious of my FireWire cable and have ordered a new one to test it again on my computer.

Andrew Sommers

$1,500 plus shipping.

Dudley WA5QPZ

Andrew,

You should have noticed the 144 and the 430 MHz antenna connections on the rear ..   Antenna 1, 2 , and 3 are for HF,  below 54 MHz..    Also be careful of connecting the FW cable,  and yes it can go in upside down and is an instant radio failure and repair..    You should see the Flex 5000 showing up in the Setup ..  

Dudley

Andrew Sommers

It shows up in setup and the FlexRadio software shows everything is fine, but it’s just not giving me the receive or transmit info when it’s connected. I’m hoping a new FireWire cable fixes it.

Fred Friedl

I bought a 5000a w/VU5K from a Ham who was not careful how it was packed.  Long story short, after about a year of no VU I decided to inspect and found a ribbon cable on the underside of the main board was off its mounting position.  I restored the connection and now enjoy VHF and UHF.  As a side note.  The VU5K did not show up in setup hardware config.  So maybe yours is just loose.

73,
Fred - WX4US
Pensacola

Andrew Sommers

I sorted it by building a new Windows PC and ditching the iMac. Radio works great now. 73 all! Andrew - KD5FHW

Fred Friedl

Good to hear...no pun intended.
Fred - WX4US