Disconnected C7 on Main Board

[VA3RTG]

Hello Everyone!
I have extremely low receive sensitivity on my recently-assembled High-Band kit. After carefully checking all of my work (unable to find errors), I examined the surface mount components and noticed the C7 on the main board is NOT connected as shown in the image. NewDIYTech hasn't been of much help so far (I asked them to check if their other boards have that situation). I also have a Low-Band kit (unassembled) and C7 IS connected. Looking at the schematic
( https://dl2man.de/wp-content/uploads/20 ... _v1.0m.pdf , page 2, sampling detector section in the center),
it seems to be very RF related.
Could anyone tell me if C7 (on the main board, high-band rig) should be connected? I'm hoping that is my problem with the very low sensitivity situation.
Thanks in advance!
Rob

[DL2MAN]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
This most likely IS the reason for low (if not none) sensitivity, as all RX Signals Run over C7.
If it´s disconnected, there is no RX.
This is absolutely not, how it should look like. I will contact Sunny immediately.

73 Manuel; DL2MAN

[DL2MAN]

Update:
I´ve borrowed your pic and posted it also in the facebook group, so affected people can check and report if neccessary.
I´m trying to figure out if you´re the only one, or if a whole batch is affected.

73 Manuel; DL2MAN

[VA3RTG]

You're very welcome, and thank you very much for the information Manuel! I'm happy to make a small contribution towards a better product.

I'll try my best surface-mount soldering to connect C7 and report back the results.

By the way, NewDIYTech is much more responsive now, Sunny explained that they had network setup problems. He also indicated that they do not see the C7 disconnect issues on their current inventory examined, so I guess that I was just special that way, a one-off anomaly. Lucky me!

73!
Rob

[VA3RTG]

Just a little update. After soldering C7 such that it's connected in the circuit as designed, the receive works much better now!! That was obviously the problem with my particular unit and was an easy fix.