Bad Tech, no cookie!

[Handy Andy]

Could I borrow that?

I've got some work around here from the earlier days that needs a lot of heat to remove the solder so I can re-work the board. Some early Chinese - Malaysian boards I had received have some Lead Solder that seems to have been re-melts from the walls of some of their older Nuclear fission plants they decided to re-wallpaper with new RCI-Shielding <tm> from Emperor Foundry And French Fry Emporiums

Remember the Cherokee Night Rider 150? The one with the "White face" - you could design it with a "Bug-Zapper" screen so you could kill off the moths and other bugs that got attracted to it while you sat and worked a late night chat on a hot summer night - you certainly could find your cab filling up with insects it attracted and find bugs dumb enough to entertain themselves bouncing and banging on that front panel / Night light - and optional Green Glow from the board inside it...Spooky...

Does that come with a fire extinguisher?

 

[Rwb]

That job looks like the local GOLDEN SCREWDRIVER behind the flyin J in a beat up mobile home.guy was at a shop i use n was tryin to get my guy fix the rats nest inside his radio that golden screwdriver made

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

That job looks like the local GOLDEN SCREWDRIVER behind the flyin J in a beat up mobile home.guy was at a shop i use n was tryin to get my guy fix the rats nest inside his radio that golden screwdriver made

 

[TM86]

That job looks like the local GOLDEN SCREWDRIVER behind the flyin J in a beat up mobile home.guy was at a shop i use n was tryin to get my guy fix the rats nest inside his radio that golden screwdriver made

Well, I think I'm committed now. I spent $1.84 to get a replacement 78L05 and corrected an issue where the PLL had no Vcc. Guess I'll be buying epoxy for the trace fix and undoing the rest of the "work" the "tech" or "techs" did as I find it. There's at least one more bare wire bodge, but fortunately it's a very short run.

Since this radio is mine now, there's no time pressure. So this may be a while before I can get everything together.

Because I'm lazy.

 

[TM86]

Snake radio did up a recent vid wanting to sell off a radio that would only squeal - that was the radio in question.

There's your trace jumper in question - Why so long? Have no clue...

He says he re-capped it but all it did was squeal - and squelch and volume were ineffective.

For the record, I had to replace a voltage regulator to get VCC to the PLL. The radio receives now, down to about -110 dBm. It does not squeal. I got it to squeal, while flexing the chassis to find out just how microphonic the radio is. The answer is, "very".

To give him credit - the issue may have been from the customer dropping off a radio to get it fixed, didn't like the estimate so moved on - he was trying to sell that for $70 on the "bid" off of Youtube - I can't find the reference anymore so it's your baby now...

It may not be work of Snake Radio, but with any used radio you take chances on others works. a customer of his that didn't need the repair or wasn't attached to the radio took something in exchange and instead Tim sold him another and he's trying to recover the exchange cost of discount for parts...

I can't find any evidence of industrial degreaser or water damage. I also can't find the speaker wires, but I'll deal with that when (if) the other problems are fixed.

Edited to fix my bad quote tags.

 

[Rwb]

this knothead has a big generator and runs a browning eagle hooked to a big amp mike way overdriven.he gets on 19 screaming about his work as if he was the ONLY1 to solder a wire.after he gets his 5 minute bs advertizement over,if im close by i say as soon as you walk out of his nasty rv there is a dumpster just in front of his rv.toss radio in it then go inside the flyin J and buy a new radio. he gets mad n starts cussin n lots of us drive by laughin.
lots of times i change channels ,get on sideband n ignore him

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

this knothead has a big generator and runs a browning eagle hooked to a big amp mike way overdriven.he gets on 19 screaming about his work as if he was the ONLY1 to solder a wire.after he gets his 5 minute bs advertizement over,if im close by i say as soon as you walk out of his nasty rv there is a dumpster just in front of his rv.toss radio in it then go inside the flyin J and buy a new radio. he gets mad n starts cussin n lots of us drive by laughin.
lots of times i change channels ,get on sideband n ignore him

 

[Rwb]

Rollin n a trollin

 

[TM86]

View attachment 25082

Is that Shoe on Head?

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

No!! That is Boxxy!! The Queen of /b/.

 

[TM86]

No!! That is Boxxy!! The Queen of /b/.

Ah, haven't seen Boxxy in years.

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

She’s not as cute as she used to be but still the queen of that cesspool known as /b/.

 

[TM86]

Did a little more on this radio today.

Got the meter unstuck. No idea how accurate it is, but it moves now.

Undid someone's craptastic attempt at a channel mod. They ended up using the Noise Blanker switch to short a 5v source to ground, turning off the PLL. This may have been what killed the regulator I had to replace.

Cleaned the front panel pots with DeOxit, seems to have pretty much eliminated the microphonics I was hearing when flexing the chassis. So I guess that's a two-fer?

Pretty sure I've still got a cold solder joint to track down. I get some extra low frequency static when I lean on the left side side of my work table. I can whack the radio and it goes away. It's the only radio that's ever done this.

So far it's been fun fixing a radio that I didn't break, for a change.

 

[Robb]

Well, when I stared reading this thread, I thought it was about the bad practices that some 'techs' use when they work on someones radio . . .

Soooo, I guess I'll bring that back into focus if I can and point out just a few things 'less than proper techs' do.

1. Removing the AM Limiter.
This mod should never be done on any SSB radio, as this will usually and inadvertently disable the ALC control for SSB power. When this happens in order to get full AM modulation out of a radio, SSB will sound like crap. Make no mistake about it; if you run an SSB radio with the limiter removed, it sounds like crap on SSB. I don't care if people tell you your radio sounds good; anyone who has used SSB regularly know and can hear those guys that have pulled out the limiter and think they can still use the radio on SSB. You can't; it sounds like crap. Stop it.
Bad tech; no cookie

2. Disabling the 54mhz trap.
This is a popular one with any radio tech to do - that shows that the tech is only concerned with showing the customer that they got more watts out of the radio and show the customer they will be louder on air. This is a complete crock of crap and it shows that this tech doesn't have a clue what he is doing to the radio bandwidth and does not care - in order to make a few bucks and impress an ignorant but well meaning customer. What happens is once the trap is disabled, it allows for the 54mhz harmonic to transmit out. Those extra watts aren't even on a CB channel, they are out on 54mhz - or also known as the 6m ham band - but the watt meter does not distinguish that and just adds all the watts up and you are happy because you think you have more watts than the other guy. Some of these techs will do anything for money and frankly do not give a rats azz.
Bad tech; no cookie.

3. Maxxing out the bias on the driver and final.
All this does is get a watt or two out of the final and driver - if you are lucky you don't burn them up in short order. Yet some techs will do this on SSB radios and it shows complete ignorance and do not have a clue.
Bad tech; no cookie.

 

[Rwb]

They arent techs if they do all you said robb ,just the awarded GOLDEN SCREWDRIVER of the year kinda monkey