[sdiy] lackluster performance? repair for an obsessive compulsive person to do

[anthony]

My DOD R-870 was having problems with it's bias again and was sounding 
crappy so after so head scratching I took it apart. Now my first impression 
of the board when I looked at it the first time I opened this up was 
"sheesh! I could have etched this board better myself!" Indeed there was 
evidence of factory performed PCB surgery. I coulod see nothing that need 
fixed and adjusting the bias trim pot was doing nothing so what did I do? 
Well all of the copper traces were bare coper so I ran a nice bead of solder 
over every single gosh-darned trace. Totally trashed two tips, but I did it 
in one evening. And now? SOO-POIB!

This is sort of similar to a repair I did once to a boombox that had a 
pretty hot power amp in it (and 3.2 Ohm speakers) but it pooped out a little 
when cranked. At first I just accepted it as a poor design, but then I 
discovered a tiny trace where a lot of current was suppose to squeeze 
through so I scraped the green coating off of it and soldered in some 
stripped wire-wrapping wire (I have never ever used that stuff for 
wire-wrapping, but I consider it indispensible for a number of things...) 
and then well PRESTO!

In the present case I'm guessing somwhere there was a trace haning on for 
dear life. And since it was more more enjoyable for me to just solder up the 
whole thing than to find out exactly where it was needed - that's what the 
hell I did. Actually the impression that I got was that it was need in more 
than one place.

I don't really mind that the unit was constructed this way. I know that it 
was hand-made in the USA and that's kind of special to me. I'm not sure if 
it was completely hand-made, but my DOD PDS2000 was made in the USA too.


aa