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A tool from Harbor Fright is probably good enough for use a few weekends a year. And a pro who uses that same tool every day probably chooses one with a longer service life. A wattmeter is a wattmeter. If it's a proper design and calibrated, what's the difference? Naturally the difference...

I did discover a counterintuitive quirk of this antenna. The RG213 coax on my "Stinger Four" clone was tied alongside the strut wire to increase the radius between the feed point, and where it gets strapped to the tower. Bad idea. Turns out there's significant RF voltage on the surface of that...

A crystal-clear violation of flebay's "As Pictured" rule. Should entitle you to a refund, anyway. 73

It was a repair job for hire. Not mine to sell. 73

The date codes are all from 1983. Fujitsu was still cranking out this chip for a good ten or fifteen years after that. The printed logo is a hint. They weren't laser-marking plastic DIP packages back then. 73

RCI bought the Taiwan factory from Fanon-Courier, so the story goes. The "Courier" name came with it. And so did the name "Excalibur". The first 40-channel radios from that plant looked like clones of the Uniden-made Cobra 146. This radio was designed after RCI took it over. Pretty sure that's...

A long-time customer talked me into fixing his UR5QW equalizer/echo/etc audio gadget. Looks cool enough. Said it went totally dead. No output of any kind. And no schematic to be found. Sure enough, there's a tiny part that looks like either a surface-mount fuse or a PTC protector in line...

A dummy load that radiates. Just ask the neighbors about their surround sound setup. 73

Until you wear them out. Shameless plug. We sell a drop-in sub for the R50. https://www.ebay.com/itm/115811471683?mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5336136228&customid=&toolid=10001&mkevt=1 The DIP relay we use for it will be an extinct dinosaur soon enough. Never did like...

Here goes nothing: The model number is NYFD-40. This link is what came up using the search at Ali Express...

First thing I would do is unhook the HV secondary wires from the transformer and test for insulation breakdown to ground. An insulation tester good for at least 3000 Volts is not a Home Despot pegboard item. Likewise, testing the breakdown voltage of each tube cold, from cathode to grid might...

Brings to mind Cory Doctorow's stages of enshittifcation. When an online resource is new, there is a surplus of value to the users. Bit by bit it gets commodified and eventually costs more to use than it's worth. Think how Facebook's pitch to sign up new users decades ago went. Come over here...

CT1 and CT2 are subject to oxidation. I prefer to eavesdrop on the carrier oscillator when doing alignment. If you tune it in on a sideband receiver you'll hear scratchy erratic frequency jumps when turning the trimmer screw. We dribble a drop of control cleaner into the plastic trimmers and...

The ghost of Billy. No negative feedback. 73

It's a frequency expansion. The switch selects bands above and/or below the legal 40 channels. I'm not familiar with that exact one, but I'm pretty sure that's what it is. 73

Pretty sure the sideband-delay capacitor is the small dark-blue electrolytic seen just to the left of the big bare-wire coil between the coax sockets. Taking it loose permanently would involve clipping it loose where it stands. But to turn the delay back on would require a switch and a working...

Last seen Dec 17, 2025. 73

Oops. Next question is about all three (four) modes. Is the transmit silent on AM, FM and sideband? Or did he already answer that elsewhere? 73

Hi Wenefe, welcome to the forum! Have you tried another microphone? They tend to fail more quickly than a radio. And if you don't have another mike to try on that radio, do you have access to another radio that uses the same microphone? First step to troubleshoot failed transmit audio begins...

Have you tried another speaker? Do you have access to an oscilloscope? It's the only way I know to follow an audio signal through the radio seeking where the fault resides. 73