Anyone here working on Galaxy Saturn-type radios?

[Greg T]

I have a buddy who's been out of CB for quite some time and wants to get back in. He has a radio (Saturn Echo) that has been a bit molested and would like it back working. He said there is an extra knob on the radio that he's not sure of, and looks like someone removed the echo board. The radio also doesn't receive. I know, it's asking a lot but i told him I'd put my feelers out to see if anyone was interested in looking. TIA...

 

[nomadradio]

That radio dates from the mid-1980s. If your buddy had a 1985 Ford Tempo that won't start, there's a good chance it would need more than just one little thing to make it a daily driver again. 40 years takes its toll, even if the mileage is low.

Some time around the 40-year mark, you can count on electrolytic caps in that sort of radio to start failing from age alone. A high-mileage radio will have more than one of them gone bad by now.

This sounds too much like radios I would see that were "thrown in" with a trade deal of some sort. Usually because someone up the sequence of owners found out how much the radio really needed and chose not to spend the money. Naturally, this detail gets left out before the next owner takes posession.

The quality control at RCI in the 1980s was not so good. Expect at least one of the front-panel controls to be bad. Don't know why those radios would have that fault so often, but it's worth checking if you can. But if someone shows me a radio that old that won't receive, my next question is how many attempts have been made to fix it since it first broke down? For every pair of hands that didn't get it to work, expect one, two or more new faults to have been added to the original one. A guy who tries and fails to make it work often leaves a trail of one or more new faults inside the radio.

Might just be a bad speaker. Has anyone tried an external speaker? For that matter did they try to key it?

I have mostly sworn off of fixing pre-1990 Galaxy radios. Ended up with too many of them that weren't even worth the owner's time to come back and claim. Ran out of room for parts radios and unloaded them on fleabay until someone took notice and started ratting the "prohibited" status to fleabay. That results in a nastygram from them after they cancel the listing.

Must be somebody out there with RCI experience and a sense of adventure, right?

One last thought. Has anyone looked inside to check for missing parts? If it's been used as an organ donor, that's worth knowing.

73

 

[Greg T]

That radio dates from the mid-1980s. If your buddy had a 1985 Ford Tempo that won't start, there's a good chance it would need more than just one little thing to make it a daily driver again. 40 years takes its toll, even if the mileage is low.

Some time around the 40-year mark, you can count on electrolytic caps in that sort of radio to start failing from age alone. A high-mileage radio will have more than one of them gone bad by now.

This sounds too much like radios I would see that were "thrown in" with a trade deal of some sort. Usually because someone up the sequence of owners found out how much the radio really needed and chose not to spend the money. Naturally, this detail gets left out before the next owner takes posession.

The quality control at RCI in the 1980s was not so good. Expect at least one of the front-panel controls to be bad. Don't know why those radios would have that fault so often, but it's worth checking if you can. But if someone shows me a radio that old that won't receive, my next question is how many attempts have been made to fix it since it first broke down? For every pair of hands that didn't get it to work, expect one, two or more new faults to have been added to the original one. A guy who tries and fails to make it work often leaves a trail of one or more new faults inside the radio.

Might just be a bad speaker. Has anyone tried an external speaker? For that matter did they try to key it?

I have mostly sworn off of fixing pre-1990 Galaxy radios. Ended up with too many of them that weren't even worth the owner's time to come back and claim. Ran out of room for parts radios and unloaded them on fleabay until someone took notice and started ratting the "prohibited" status to fleabay. That results in a nastygram from them after they cancel the listing.

Must be somebody out there with RCI experience and a sense of adventure, right?

One last thought. Has anyone looked inside to check for missing parts? If it's been used as an organ donor, that's worth knowing.

73

I know. I've already spoken to him about radios and common sense. His problem is that he began working in a radio station at an early age, and although didn't keep that job long, he developed a fascination for large, knobful equipment. I've explained repeatedly to him about recapping, robbed parts, attempted repairs, cleaning controls, and the incessant drifting issues of the 80s vintage equipment. I've told him that once he's finished paying the shipping on something that large, the repair bill and all the other crap he has to go through, He'll end up with a $400.00 , 1980s paperweight. He's just got this fascination for large, black, heavy stuff full of knobs. I would hand it it off to someone for 100 bux as a project and move on. I'll continue to work on him and try to get him into something newer, but he just keeps on insisting that he has no use for a computer radio that needs a laptop to run. He's not getting it. I've sold at least 10 Stryker 955s around here once they hear mine being modulated by a Turner plus 3. I'm not even in business and I have my two new ones spoken for as soon as I want to sell them. But this guy ... wants his huge, black, heavy box with the knobs and meters.