After fixing the HF antenna, I decided to see if I could tackle two problems with my FT-1000D: a noisy volume control and hum on transmit. The volume control would likely be easy: deoxit. Before taking the covers off, I did some diagnosing and thought the likely culprit to be one of two or three bypass capacitors very close to the mic input. So off the covers came.
Damn, there is a lot packed in there:
From the top:
From the bottom:
The goal was to remove the front panel assembly to access the controls and the PCB board where one of the suspect capacitors is located. Here's where I stopped:
That is the cabling between the front panel and the collection of boards that make up the guts of the radio. To actually remove the panel as far as I did, I needed to rotate the radio ninety degrees, twice, while insuring that the cable "harness" didn't get twisted or nicked.
This is not gear that is meant to be worked on, or at least this part of it isn't (by the likes of me). I carefully cleaned the pots and switches I could reach without further disassembly, gave up on the idea of finding the bad capacitor, and very carefully put it back together.
Made me really appreciate just about ever piece of Fluke, HP, and Tek gear I have every worked on.