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The Toshiba TA7222AP was used in Uniden-built and RCI-built CB and (cough) 10-meter radios for decades. But if you look inside a pre-1980 Cobra, President, Teaberry, Robyn and other 1979 models you'll find the original, older version the TA7222P. No letter "A", just a "P" suffix letter. But...

This Texas Star DX500V turned into a rabbit hole. Partly my fault. I should turn down jobs that have this quality of repair visible inside. Normally seeing the 10-ohm base resistors with lead wire this long should have prompted me to just put the cover back on. But the owner is an old...

Just when you think you've seen everything. Found a bad final transistor in a RCI2990DX. There was no heat sink compound between the ceramic insulating washer and the heat sink. But the washer was glued to the transistor with white bathtub caulk. I guess somebody told the weekend warrior to...

RM Italy's AD203, "stinger" module looks like a good deal. Until the day it goes poof. This one is in a DAK mark X cabinet alongside a Taiwan Cobra 148 and suitable power supplies. The stinger's heat-sink plate is bolted to the rear panel of the cabinet. There's a standby switch that revealed...

After years of promising myself I'd update our discontinued 1990s PLL synthesizer I finally have a solution I can use. Troy Radio sells a handful of DDS solutions, but one of them is a bona-fide screaming bargain. Their "AM/FM-only" package provides a rotary encoder, nominal 1-inch OLED display...

Adding lower channels to the Browning Mark 3 receiver requires a 31.1 MHz crystal and some rewiring. Gonna use the same module I showed for the Mark 4A. Adapting the ProgRock module to the Browning Mark 3 receiver is a bit more involved than the Mark 4A receiver. To start, it needs to rectify...

Ever hear the advice that begins with "If it looks too good to be true"? Color me skeptical. Ever get the feeling you're being jerked around? Gettin' that feeling. 73

Here's a before picture of the carrier oscillator section in a Cobra 138XLR mobile CB. The X1 socket is empty because the crystal died. Finding a 48 year-old replacement can probably be done, but I'm going a different route. This issue keeps coming up, and I have tired of looking under rocks for...

As popular CB radios become older they get senile. In a way. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors have a finite life span. And a radio with dozens of them inside can develop a whole spectrum of quirks and outright failures as they fail. Problem is, the age alone is not the only factor. Mileage...

Here's a fault we have seen in more than one newer Connex radio. This one is a CX46 with the amplifier under it. The problem occurs when the transmit audio gets "enhanced", or the modulation boosted in any way. The transmit audio will squeal no matter where the mike gain is turned. Turn it all...

Twenty years ago or so I posted pics showing how to "lock" the clarifier on a RatShack TRC-457 base CB. Has the same pc board as a whole list of 1978 radios, but the mobile version sold by Cobra is different. The control wires on the base station connect to the solder side of the pc board. The...

Found this listing for the volume/squelch/power control used in millions of mobile radios. Same one used as echo volume/speed...

'nuff said. 73

Why is it so hard to find a good 1978 Firebird I can just use as a daily driver? Aside from how many of them were totalled by adolescent or drunk (or drunk adolescent) drivers in the last 48 years, you'll need to basically rebuild one that isn't a genuine "barn find" with low mileage. 48 years...

Just over 30 years ago, a customer wanted a roger beep that nobody else had. Started with a "Roger K" board and hacked it to become the infamous "Bump-Bump". The CAD system we used back then under DOS was called Supercad, sold by a company called Mental Automation. They have been gone for a...

Found on Scribd. 73

Here's the followup to the Mark 4A receiver crystal substitute mod. The Browning Mark 3 receiver is an older dog than the Mark 4/4A. Does use a crystal for each tuneable band. The first version from 1970 had only one tuneable band and two fixed-crystal channels. The one and only band crystal...

Bought one of these recently from Ali Express. The test leads were already assembled. A real necessity checking high-voltage transformers for insulation problems. 73

Some days cleaning up at my shop feels more like archaeology. Here's a sign a former tech put up after a customer zorched the finals in his FT-101. The other one cracked, this one only cratered on one side. About 30 years ago. Get glass hot enough and it gets soft. A stab from the past. 73

Pretty sure the chatroom thread he started concerns a Dentron GLA1000 that won't key. Unless this amplifier has been modified, you need either a foot switch plugged into the socket marked "relay" on the back panel, or a radio that has a linear-keying relay inside it. The GLA is a ham linear, and...