I bought a Cobra 139XLR at a garage sale for $20. The guy didn't have an antenna for it, so I couldn't test it, but it LOOKED like it wasn't subjected to the "golden screwdriver" (no holes or extra switches/knobs) and it lit up and made noise (standard eBay criteria for a "working" radio) so I bought it.
Got it home and hooked it up to an indoor antenna (in-between residences right now) The RX works GREAT (TONS of DX- on an indoor antenna!!) but when I keyed up, the mod meter peaked for a second and went back down. No "swing" when I whistled into the mic. Tried a second time and no meter movement. A few minutes later I tried to show the roomie what was happening and same result (meter peaked first time, not second, no "swing") Could the final(s) be going bad??
I hope it doesn't take too much (money/effort) to get this working, I'm studying to get my Technician license, and from what I've seen on the web, it would be fairly easy to convert this to 10 meter sideband. Worse comes to worst, I could (try to) get my money back selling it on eBay!! (Hey! It's a "working" radio!!)
Got it home and hooked it up to an indoor antenna (in-between residences right now) The RX works GREAT (TONS of DX- on an indoor antenna!!) but when I keyed up, the mod meter peaked for a second and went back down. No "swing" when I whistled into the mic. Tried a second time and no meter movement. A few minutes later I tried to show the roomie what was happening and same result (meter peaked first time, not second, no "swing") Could the final(s) be going bad??
I hope it doesn't take too much (money/effort) to get this working, I'm studying to get my Technician license, and from what I've seen on the web, it would be fairly easy to convert this to 10 meter sideband. Worse comes to worst, I could (try to) get my money back selling it on eBay!! (Hey! It's a "working" radio!!)