One of my SCIIs has stopped working. IT will occasionally throw the first switch of the six assigned to it. Other five, no indication of command received. Almost all of my TMCC problems over the years have involved engines, and I believe that all their problems have been solved by modifying or replacing the antenna. I know the SCII receives command from the base via the radiated track signal like an engine. Has anyone else experienced reception problems with SCIIs? What solutions have you found and is there anything internal which can be repaired, replaced, or modified to improve signal reception?
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Since nobody had any ideas, I followed my instinct and treated the faulty SCII as I would an engine. I removed the back and found a 1/2 inch wide, 1 1/2 inch long steel or aluminum strip serving as the antenna. Replaced the strip with a 3 inch square of copper foil cut in a square spiral to provide about 2 ft. of 1/2 wide antenna surface.
I covered the copper with electrical tape to prevent shorting against any of the components in the unit. Reassembled the unit, reprogrammed, and tested. Problem solved. All six switches now work reliably. Only glitch is that sometimes the unit requires several seconds to respond to commands. No idea why, but not a major problem.
taylorra, this subject has been covered many times. Please don't take offence but if you had entered "SCII reception" in the search box you would have been directed to many of those threads.
Al
FWIW, the SC2 is like a locomotive, it has an antenna and responds just like a locomotive, and it also has the same reception weaknesses.