1THE LEADING UK CONSUMER ELECTRONICS TECHNOL L SERVICINGVIDEOSATELLITEDEVELOPMENTS JUNE 1999 £2.70 1k111) 1;1 Ihplayer repairs How PC memories k Servicing the Panasonic Euro-2 chariis A time-run switching circuit ISSN 0032-647X Servicing Daewoo V50/V60 VCRs 161 9770032 64 085 Fault reports TVs, VCRs, PC Monitors and Satellite L_ECTRcJNIC The Ultimate Source Insist7i "1/ , /,, he bo r changeLa- '0 4,- ECI Ersatzteil Origina. Ricambio IM-r`gr originale Ricambio IMC-.2111=1 onginale Rican LSI Replacemint Part Original CE-IMIC:3 Replacement Part Origin :hange IZEJ-5=1 d'origine Piece de rechange r-4.7-rwri741 d'origine Tr-T"Tc=-1 Etsatzleti Original In ---",11--1 Ersatzteil Original MilE_I-72515 Ricamhio r'47-T"MI originate Ricambio eqr"' '1 o icinale Rican ZE3 Replacement Par. Original 172.13MIC=1 Replacement Fart Origin2 thangen--".11.1=1 n'oricine Piece de rechange ME -5111. d ottylne ,,910al ME-4MM Ersalzteil °"01nal CM -701, ullynate Rican' Available from all top distributors-Technical help line: 01635 278678 CONTENTS June 1999 Vol. 49, No. 8 Japanese Dilemma 523TV Fault Finding 548 Editor John A. Reddihough What a Life! 526Help Wanted 565 Production Editor A great start to the day soon comes to an end for Tessa Winford Donald Bullock as he faces a day's problems with sets VCR Clinic 566 and their owners. Consultant Editor Martin Eccles Teletopics 528Servicing the Indiana 200 Successful start for ONdigital. Satellite and interactive Chassis 568 Publisher TV update. Latest trade news. Alan Dent on the differences between this and the Mick Elliott basic 100 chassis and specific 200 chassis faults. Satellite Workshop 530 Advertisement Jack Armstrong's column on satellite receiver PC Operation and Repair 570 Sales Manager servicing and related matters. Part 3 of K.F. Ibrahim's current series tells you every- Grant Allaway thing you need to know about the various types of 0181-652 3032 531 Test Case 438 Advertisement Sales Executive Monitors 532 Pat Bunce 0181-652 8339 Satellite Notebook 534 Fax 0181-652 8931 Solutions to problems with satellite TV equipment and installations. A listing of Astra digital transmis- Editorial Office sion frequencies/polarisations. 0181-652 8120 Fax0181-652 8111 Servicing the Panasonic Euro-2 Note that we are unable to Chassis 536 answer technical queries over the Chassis that use digital signal processing present telephone and cannot provide problems that differ from those experienced with stan- memory devices and the way in which computer mem- information on spares other than dard sets. Brian Storm on how to tackle Panasonic's ory is used. that given in our Spares Guide. second chassis to feature this type of circuitry. A Run-on Timer Circuit 572 CD Player Servicing 542 Keith Cummins presents a delayed switch -off arrange- ment that could find several uses. The basic aim was low cost with reliability. DX and Satellite Reception 574 Terrestrial DX and satellite TV reception. News from abroad and about satellite developments. The Bookies TV Channel. And don't miss the coming eclipse, which will affect radio and TV propagation conditions. Roger Bunney reports. Service Casebook 577 John Edwards on various servicing problems. Letters 578 June issue on sale DTT reception. Follow-ups to previous articles. A Mayl9th. mystery TV fault. Digital repairs. John Coombes on what to check for common fault symptoms. Next issue, Digital TV Courses 582 dated July, The College of North West London has geared up for on sale June 16th. Servicing the Daewoo V50 and the transition to digital TV and is the first to offer V60 544 C&G courses on digital TV at Level 3 of the 2240 J. LeJeune provides a detailed fault-finding guide that Electronics Servicing Programme. covers the deck and the electronics used in these popu- lar budget -price machines. Next Month in Television 583 TELEVISION June 1999 521 Decode and recode car: The Joule A-400 Radio Decoder radios & CD players quickly with the Joule If you already service car audio equipment, the A-400 could prove to be a very valuable additional sourceof income for oW so 'WO e your company. service departments and Police Forces. Electronic Sound Systems Hilton Road, Aycliffe Industrial Park C.E. Approved - meets' Newton Aycliffe, Co. Durham DL5 6EN all current regulations. United Kingdom Prices start from Tel:+44(0)1325310278 £375.00 + VAT for the Fax:+44(0)1325300189 Starter Kit covering over Email: [email protected] 100 models of popular radios. For Your Radio Decoding Requirements Call us now for a free Please feel free to visit our Internet web site at elecsys.com information pack ands where you can download full details, pricing information and demonstration disk on demonstration software. Or, visit us for an on -site 01325 307442. demonstration. Repair SMDson M.C.E.S. PCBs in seconds Specialists in the Service and Recalibration to original manufacturers specification of. - with the NEW All types of: - Hot Jet 'S' TUNER UNITS TO 20 GHZ BOOSTERS & RF MODULATORS Desoldering and soldering of SMDs by hot air and without contact is the fast COMBINED TUNER AND IF UNITS and efficient way for the modern repair workshop. And now,Welwyn Tool can Supply of Upper Drum Assy's for all video offer the complete package - a recorders including time lapse, marine and range of hot air tools, SMD aviation requirements, either as new or Rework Stations, nozzles to suit remanufactured using your original drum and all SMD requirements, free new grade A chip sets. demonstrations and free colour instructional brochure... all We are able to service, recalibrate and confirm available from Distributors manufacturers specifications for all low noise nation-wide. blocks. For further information.please ask for Reference No. TMS New LNB's can also be supplied to order. WELWYN New price list now available. TOOL 15 Lostock Road, Davyhulme Manchester M41 OES CO.LTD. Telephone: 0161 746 8037 4 SOUTH MUNDELLS, Fax: 0161 746 8136 WELWYN GARDEN CITY HERTS AL7 I EH. TEL: (01707) 331111. *WV MasterCard FAX: (01707) 372175. SWITCH PUT HOT AIR TO WORK FOR YOU 522 June 1999 TELEVISION COMMENT Japanese Dilemma Strange how situations change.It nearly ten per cent of the workforce. Otherbehaviour. There isalso a demographic seems not so long ago that Japan andmanufacturers who have announced poorproblem: the Japanese population is ageing. its industries, particularly electronics,results and restructuring recently include Japanese interest rates are negligible. So could do no wrong. They taught us how to NEC, Matsushita, Sharp and Toshiba. It's borrowing is not a problem. But conversely make cars and TV sets properly. Theyall a long way since the time when, itall those savings are bringing inlittle invested heavily and came up with a seem- seemed, all the Japanese had to do was to income. In the Western world interest rate ingly endless stream of desirable, innova-get the product right and produce more andchanges often have a considerable impact tive products. Both outsiders and insiders more of it. on the economy. This economic tool is not could see no end to this success story. We Some of this was foreseeable. Markets available when interest rates are negligible. were told, by more than one leading reach saturation point; new products are not The Japanese have been advised to get their Japanese electronics industrialist, that thealways a runaway success; if investment in banking system sorted out, but that's not 21st century would be the Japanese one, new plant is excessive you end up with too the sort of thing that can be done overnight. when Japan became predominant industri- much capacity; and so on. Then there is the Right now the best opportunity for Japan ally and culturally. fact that Japan is not isolated from econom- seems to be to export its way out of its dif- For the last couple of years the situation ic problems elsewhere: no economy that is ficulties, something that shouldn't be too has been somewhat different. Japan is stillheavily dependent on exports can be. Butdifficult once worldwide expansion has the world's second largest economy, but thethere are also more specific Japanese prob- resumed. But the high value of the yen is a previous confidence has gone. The econo- lems. The banking system is beset by non- drawback. my has stalled, and doesn't look like getting performing loans that Japanese bankers are From the economic viewpoint it's an going again for some time. Profitability has reluctant to write off. The bubble economyextremely interesting situation, one in become appalling, and the talk now is all of of a few years ago, when asset values rosewhich the laws of economics have little to restructuring and job losses. to unrealistic levels, collapsed. This is partoffer. This could be because such laws are, Sony has announced that some 17,000 of the cause of the banking system difficul- basically, descriptive rather than prescrip- jobs will be lost worldwide, ten per cent ofties. Then there is the practice of cross -tive. In the real world you can't always ini- its workforce, while fifteen of its seventy ownership, with firms owning substantial tiate economic activity through monetary or factories are to be closed. Mighty Hitachi, stakes in each other. This can work nicelyfiscal means. Some commentators have whose activities span a much wider field when everything is doing well: when reces-gone so far as to suggest that the Japanese and whose turnover is equivalent to over sion looms, it aggravates the problems. government should spend, spend, spend two per cent of Japan's gross domestic Japan's unemployment rate hit a newand print money to kick-start the economy.