Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[Robert L Cochran]

Hi,

Last week, after transmitting several times on a Kenwood TR-7950
connected to my KPC-3 Plus and my (practically brand new) computer, my
Red Hat Linux installation simply froze and crashed on me. The hard
drive developed all sorts of never before seen (to me at least!) bad
blocks and inode issues which e2fsck couldn't cure. I was left realizing
I had no choice but to reinstall Red Hat 8. I was getting issues like
the 'diff' program suddenly becoming a symlink pointing at 'cut'.

Although an friend of mine thinks it is not possible, I'm wondering if
transmitting with this model of Kenwood (which is about 20 years old, I
would say) only about 1 foot from my computer and 3 feet from the
antenna, caused the system to crash? Perhaps the antenna is simply too
close to the computer? It is an MFJ mag-mount antenna. I didn't do very
much transmitting at all, I was trying to connect to a friend's packet
radio rig about 10 miles away on 145.010 and according to him we were
connected only once and it timed out.

73,

Bob Cochran
KB3JCM

Re: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[M Taylor]

On Tue, Mar 25, 2003 at 07:39:30PM -0500, Robert L Cochran wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Last week, after transmitting several times on a Kenwood TR-7950
> connected to my KPC-3 Plus and my (practically brand new) computer, my
> Red Hat Linux installation simply froze and crashed on me. The hard
> drive developed all sorts of never before seen (to me at least!) bad
> blocks and inode issues which e2fsck couldn't cure. I was left realizing
> I had no choice but to reinstall Red Hat 8. I was getting issues like
> the 'diff' program suddenly becoming a symlink pointing at 'cut'.

Disconnect and power down the radio, and boot the machine in single
user mode ('linux single initrd=' at the LILO prompt), and do a complete 
file system check, 'e2fsck' of all the drives. If you are seeing errors
to the console or syslog (typically in /var/log/messages on RH) about
an 'Unrecoverable error hdx' where hdx is your harddrive in question (e.g.
hda, hdb) then you have a disk failure and you should contact your vendor.

If you feel up to it, while reinstalling, tell it to check for bad
blocks, and if it takes a *very* long time or has a lot of unrecoverable
errors (check virtual console 2,3,4 (Alt-Fx), not sure which), then contact 
your computer vendor about a disk failure.

> Although an friend of mine thinks it is not possible, I'm wondering if
> transmitting with this model of Kenwood (which is about 20 years old, I
> would say) only about 1 foot from my computer and 3 feet from the
> antenna, caused the system to crash? Perhaps the antenna is simply too

My guess is that the radio itself is not causing the problem, and without
mentioning the effective radiated power output (W) from the radio/antenna
I am not certain, but I suspect it is not an EMC/EMI issue. Rule out a
disk failure before investigating a EMC / EM interference issue.

Good luck
ve1mct

Re: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[Robert L Cochran]

Thanks a lot for the advice. These are Western Digital WD1200JB drives. 
I have 2 running with software RAID1. I bought them last September and
have a hard time believing they will crash on me. Software error is much
more likely. But I'm so new to radio that I worried about the 45 watt
Kenwood zorching my machine.

I reinstalled Red Hat Linux and formatted the disks several days ago,
before posting this. I hadn't noticed any messages with the syntax
'unrecoverable error hdx' and the drives (still in a software RAID1
configuration) seem to be performing well as they always had up until
last week.

Another suspect on my list is my Ximian Evolution email client. I had
accumulated about 30,000 emails, maybe more, at the time of the crash
and when it did crash I was using Evolution. Maybe it was really
Evolution's fault? 

73,

Bob Cochran
KB3JCM

On Tue, 2003-03-25 at 19:57, M Taylor wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 25, 2003 at 07:39:30PM -0500, Robert L Cochran wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Last week, after transmitting several times on a Kenwood TR-7950
> > connected to my KPC-3 Plus and my (practically brand new) computer, my
> > Red Hat Linux installation simply froze and crashed on me. The hard
> > drive developed all sorts of never before seen (to me at least!) bad
> > blocks and inode issues which e2fsck couldn't cure. I was left realizing
> > I had no choice but to reinstall Red Hat 8. I was getting issues like
> > the 'diff' program suddenly becoming a symlink pointing at 'cut'.
> 
> Disconnect and power down the radio, and boot the machine in single
> user mode ('linux single initrd=' at the LILO prompt), and do a complete 
> file system check, 'e2fsck' of all the drives. If you are seeing errors
> to the console or syslog (typically in /var/log/messages on RH) about
> an 'Unrecoverable error hdx' where hdx is your harddrive in question (e.g.
> hda, hdb) then you have a disk failure and you should contact your vendor.
> 
> If you feel up to it, while reinstalling, tell it to check for bad
> blocks, and if it takes a *very* long time or has a lot of unrecoverable
> errors (check virtual console 2,3,4 (Alt-Fx), not sure which), then contact 
> your computer vendor about a disk failure.
> 
> > Although an friend of mine thinks it is not possible, I'm wondering if
> > transmitting with this model of Kenwood (which is about 20 years old, I
> > would say) only about 1 foot from my computer and 3 feet from the
> > antenna, caused the system to crash? Perhaps the antenna is simply too
> 
> My guess is that the radio itself is not causing the problem, and without
> mentioning the effective radiated power output (W) from the radio/antenna
> I am not certain, but I suspect it is not an EMC/EMI issue. Rule out a
> disk failure before investigating a EMC / EM interference issue.
> 
> Good luck
> ve1mct
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> 

Re: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[Curt Mills, WE7U]

On 25 Mar 2003, Robert L Cochran wrote:

> Thanks a lot for the advice. These are Western Digital WD1200JB drives.
> I have 2 running with software RAID1. I bought them last September and
> have a hard time believing they will crash on me. Software error is much
> more likely.

Another data point:  I was given a brand-new in-the-box WD 5.1 Gig
drive a few years ago.  I put it into my primary Linux box and got
three months out of it before it started losing sectors.
Subsequent hard drive tests showed that sectors were disappearing on
a regular basis so I stopped using it at that point.

If it had been me buying it, I wouldn't have bought WD in the first
place, but I hope they've fixed that little "problem" since then in
their drives.

I've got IBM drives that just won't quit.

Don't assume that the hard drive isn't failing on you just because
it's new.  New things fail too, sometimes between the date of
manufacture and the time you snag it off a store shelf.  Assume
nothing until you have eliminated all other causes.

-- 
Curt Mills, WE7U                    hacker_NO_SPAM_@tc.fluke.com
Senior Methods Engineer/SysAdmin
"Lotto:    A tax on people who are bad at math!"
"Windows:  Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates!" -- WE7U
"The world DOES revolve around me:  I picked the coordinate system!"

Re: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[Cranz Nichols]

FWIW, I have a 7930 about 14 inches away from my Compaq DeskPro running
RH 8.0.  No problems that I am aware of.

Just another data point.

cln
WB5BKL

On Tue, 2003-03-25 at 18:39, Robert L Cochran wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Last week, after transmitting several times on a Kenwood TR-7950
> connected to my KPC-3 Plus and my (practically brand new) computer, my
> Red Hat Linux installation simply froze and crashed on me.  <snip>

RE: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[Riley Williams]

Hi Cranz.

 >> Last week, after transmitting several times on a Kenwood
 >> TR-7950 connected to my KPC-3 Plus and my (practically
 >> brand new) computer, my Red Hat Linux installation simply
 >> froze and crashed on me.

 > FWIW, I have a 7930 about 14 inches away from my Compaq
 > DeskPro running RH 8.0. No problems that I am aware of.
 >
 > Just another data point.

To flesh out that data point, what power level do you run?

Best wishes from Riley.
---
 * Nothing as pretty as a smile, nothing as ugly as a frown.

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.463 / Virus Database: 262 - Release Date: 17-Mar-2003

Re: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[terry]

On Tue, 25 Mar 2003, Robert L Cochran wrote:

> Another suspect on my list is my Ximian Evolution email client. I had
> accumulated about 30,000 emails, maybe more, at the time of the crash
> and when it did crash I was using Evolution. Maybe it was really
> Evolution's fault?

... ciao:

    that rings a bell.  as of late, there have been numerous mentions of
'evolution' on 'securityfocus.com' and 'bugtraq'.  i would
suggest a search of 'securityfocus.com' and see what's what ...


-- 
73 , de WD0FPC		Pacific Nowthwest 2M Repeaters
    aka: terry 		http://www.aniota.com/~wd0fpc

RE: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[Robert L Cochran]

The TR-7930 runs at 25 watts HI and 5 watts LOW. 

The TR-7950 runs at 45 watts HI and 5 watts LOW.

This is at 13.8 VDC with 50 ohms load.

Source:Kenwood 2m FM Transceiver Model TR-7950 TR-7930 Instruction
Manual, Specifications, p. 5. 

You can adjust power output down to 5 watts.

My 7950 really makes my small computer monitor image jump with each
transmission (the red 'on air' light goes on. I moved a spare computer
plus the TNC plus the radio and antenna downstairs to isolate it from my
other equipment. It really gets my attention when my monitor image jumps
around on the screen each time I transmit. 

My home is not a wood frame house -- it's an older concrete block one.

Again, I'm extremely new at all this -- a real beginner as a ham. So I'm
not sure what it all means. 

Thanks!

73,

Bob Cochran
KB3JCM

On Wed, 2003-03-26 at 21:09, Riley Williams wrote:
> Hi Cranz.
> 
>  >> Last week, after transmitting several times on a Kenwood
>  >> TR-7950 connected to my KPC-3 Plus and my (practically
>  >> brand new) computer, my Red Hat Linux installation simply
>  >> froze and crashed on me.
> 
>  > FWIW, I have a 7930 about 14 inches away from my Compaq
>  > DeskPro running RH 8.0. No problems that I am aware of.
>  >
>  > Just another data point.
> 
> To flesh out that data point, what power level do you run?
> 
> Best wishes from Riley.
> ---
>  * Nothing as pretty as a smile, nothing as ugly as a frown.
> 
> ---
> Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.463 / Virus Database: 262 - Release Date: 17-Mar-2003
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
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> 

Re: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[jeremiah KD7DMP]

Hello,

It sounds like you are getting too much RF in the computer and if messing
up the hard drive. I had the same problem with my massive floppy disk
collection and my 70cm HT, Every time I would use the HT I would find more
and more floppies that where tosated. So what I did was  I got an Amo box
and loaded all the floppies in there, and now they are all the same as
when they went in.
So maybe if you can't move you'r antenna, you should try putting shielding
around you box, and see if that will help.

Good luck and 73.
Jeremiah
KD7DMP

On 25 Mar 2003, Robert L Cochran wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Last week, after transmitting several times on a Kenwood TR-7950
> connected to my KPC-3 Plus and my (practically brand new) computer, my
> Red Hat Linux installation simply froze and crashed on me. The hard
> drive developed all sorts of never before seen (to me at least!) bad
> blocks and inode issues which e2fsck couldn't cure. I was left realizing
> I had no choice but to reinstall Red Hat 8. I was getting issues like
> the 'diff' program suddenly becoming a symlink pointing at 'cut'.
>
> Although an friend of mine thinks it is not possible, I'm wondering if
> transmitting with this model of Kenwood (which is about 20 years old, I
> would say) only about 1 foot from my computer and 3 feet from the
> antenna, caused the system to crash? Perhaps the antenna is simply too
> close to the computer? It is an MFJ mag-mount antenna. I didn't do very
> much transmitting at all, I was trying to connect to a friend's packet
> radio rig about 10 miles away on 145.010 and according to him we were
> connected only once and it timed out.
>
> 73,
>
> Bob Cochran
> KB3JCM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

RE: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[Wilbert Knol]

Hi Bob,


On 26 Mar 2003, Robert L Cochran wrote:

> The TR-7930 runs at 25 watts HI and 5 watts LOW. 
> 
> My 7950 really makes my small computer monitor image jump with each


You should put up an outside antenna. 25 Watts inside the shack is not a
good thing... For a start, antennas don't like to be near
hash-producing things such as computers.

Even at 5 Watts, you'll be putting high levels of RF into all your shack
gear, resulting in RF detection and feedback. 

I wouldn't trust any electronic equipment to work reliably in such an
environment. Get the near field away from your gear.


Wilbert, ZL2BSJ

RE: Kenwood TR-7950 Crashing Computer?

[Cranz Nichols]

5 Watts...  But nothing curious happens on 25 Watts either.

Outside antenna.  Waterpipe ground.

cln
WB5BKL


On Wed, 2003-03-26 at 20:09, Riley Williams wrote:
> Hi Cranz..
> 
>  > FWIW, I have a 7930 about 14 inches away from my Compaq
>  > DeskPro running RH 8.0. No problems that I am aware of.
>  >
>  > Just another data point.
> 
> To flesh out that data point, what power level do you run?
> 
<snip>