- May 6, 2026
- 7
- 10
- 3
- 62
Warning ya might want to come back when you have time or just put me on ignore.
I'm 62 fixing to be 63 and really glad to be here thanks for having me. I fully intend to show everyone respect and observe protocol as I will be extremely grateful for any help.
About three months ago I found an old Craig 4201 base station. This was at my friend's junk store which includes anything and everything bought at auctions and picked up off the curb.
I was intrigued so I grabbed it and a few magnetic antennas.
Btw I had not touched a CB radio since the 70s when we had one in our Ford Econoline van. That the roof quickly rusted out on. That we should have raised he$$ above but didn't.
Anyhow FF to 2026 now I have this CB that hasn't been turned on in at least 20 years more likely 30.
It has a call sign on the front face in green label maker tape.
So I take it home and turn it on it powers up lights up but doesn't make a sound. Time to get on my phone and start reading. Ok yeah maybe connecting an antenna would help (sorry but yeah I'm clueless and starting from ground zero here)
Ive got three or four magnetic antennas with varying condition of coax terminals I find one that looks decent and connect it. Still no sound not even static.
Ok back to the world wide web now I read that maybe it needs a mic connected to receive.
Back to my friend's junk store. He has a dozen mics hanging on a rack I start looking.
Some bad news.....all of the terminals are different.
I'm not seeing anything that fits. Finally I see a Johnson messenger 250? base station and it looks like the mic fits. Cool
I grab the johnson messenger and it's mic and get back to the house the Johnson mic fits the Craig 4201 but still no sound. Oh well.
Later through some inquiries and purchases on eBay I learn from some kind and helpful gentlemen (Medlin radio and CBK supply) that the Johnson mic is not gonna work.
So next I order an old Craig mic it gets here and I plug it in and power up. Not a peep.
Put the headphones in start messing around and still can't hear any static but crank volume all the way and FINALLY start to hear some gibberish but I can barely hear it and volume maxed out.
So wow now I'm dancing yeah I can hear some people I wonder who they are and where are they. Later I discover that apparently what I'm hearing is the super bowl. Oh well.
Have you fallen asleep yet ?
I turn my attention to the speaker that came with the unit and it seems to be dead all I get it open when testing with the multimeter.
I attach some wires and connect a 8 ohm speaker now I'm worried because the original is 16 ohm.
But I have sound from the super bowl but it is very feint super low volume.
Yeah ya might want to make a pot of coffee if you are still with me.
So I have a big problem super low volume so I order a Sam's book for this model.
Now being an (old) NOOB I don't know where to start looking or how to isolate stages all I know is I'm looking for a smoking gun....somewhere... anywhere.
So I start looking at the schematic and testing DC voltages.
Finally....I noticed this
Now....it says output/modulator does that mean audio output? Hell if I know.
I start looking at this wondering what the deal is and (miraculously) arrive at the conclusion that R172 must be open or not connected.
Now I'm shaking in my boots because I'm about to do surgery and you know how it is on forums "well this (truck, stereo, etc) ain't working I replaced a bunch of stuff" and now it's Pandora's box.
So I just joined this site and I thought well ya might want to present your findings and ask for permission to desolder and replace something or at least see what they think. But on the other hand I'm trying to do a little bit of homework to give you something to work with.
Ok so I desoldered it and told myself yeah don't get excited that resistor will test fine I've seen that movie too.
Well I tested it and it is open
Man was I ever excited about that. Like I might actually fix something woot
Back to the Sam's I see it's a one ohm (huh?!) one watt resistor. Ok well time to order some. Wait I have some Chinese Aukenien? ugly blue resistors low and behold I have five one ohm five watt resistors.
Ok cool time to solder it in and see if we are back in business. Well it was so big I had to solder it to the bottom of the board but I got it in.
Now the moment of truth time to power the unit back on and see if I get LOUD VOLUME.
Seems in all the excitement and elation at finding something that I forgot something I had read many times while lurking on forums.
A BURNT RESISTOR IS NOT A SYMPTOM ITS A RESULT OF ANOTHER PROBLEM. YEAH GO AHEAD AND REPLACE THE RESISTOR BUT YA BETTER FIX THE PROBLEM THAT CAUSED IT
So I powered the unit back on I got the mic and antenna and makeshift speaker connected and....not really any improvement.
Now I'm thinking why don't ya get the multimeter out and check your voltages now? But instead I reached over and felt the newly installed 5W resistor and burned the crap out of a finger and thumb and noticed it was starting to smoke.
And then turned the power off.
Sigh. Ok so I pulled the two 2SC1096 and one is shorted emitter collector. So that's cool I'm glad I found something else.
So I start looking for replacements meanwhile I look at my transistor inventory and decided to try two MJE15032. Yeah I know probably not a great match I should have asked here first.
But I got them in and used some Wakefield type 120 and nothing is on fire I have a bit louder static but there's really no activity or maybe these transistors won't work idk.
Finally I got some Superbowl chatter
Meanwhile I got an external speaker with a 3.5mm jack and tested the PA and wow it works GREAT.
SO there is that
Anyhow thanks I'm hoping to learn how to work on these radios I'll go back to lurking hope you all have a great weekend
I'm 62 fixing to be 63 and really glad to be here thanks for having me. I fully intend to show everyone respect and observe protocol as I will be extremely grateful for any help.
About three months ago I found an old Craig 4201 base station. This was at my friend's junk store which includes anything and everything bought at auctions and picked up off the curb.
I was intrigued so I grabbed it and a few magnetic antennas.
Btw I had not touched a CB radio since the 70s when we had one in our Ford Econoline van. That the roof quickly rusted out on. That we should have raised he$$ above but didn't.
Anyhow FF to 2026 now I have this CB that hasn't been turned on in at least 20 years more likely 30.
It has a call sign on the front face in green label maker tape.
So I take it home and turn it on it powers up lights up but doesn't make a sound. Time to get on my phone and start reading. Ok yeah maybe connecting an antenna would help (sorry but yeah I'm clueless and starting from ground zero here)
Ive got three or four magnetic antennas with varying condition of coax terminals I find one that looks decent and connect it. Still no sound not even static.
Ok back to the world wide web now I read that maybe it needs a mic connected to receive.
Back to my friend's junk store. He has a dozen mics hanging on a rack I start looking.
Some bad news.....all of the terminals are different.
I'm not seeing anything that fits. Finally I see a Johnson messenger 250? base station and it looks like the mic fits. Cool
I grab the johnson messenger and it's mic and get back to the house the Johnson mic fits the Craig 4201 but still no sound. Oh well.
Later through some inquiries and purchases on eBay I learn from some kind and helpful gentlemen (Medlin radio and CBK supply) that the Johnson mic is not gonna work.
So next I order an old Craig mic it gets here and I plug it in and power up. Not a peep.
Put the headphones in start messing around and still can't hear any static but crank volume all the way and FINALLY start to hear some gibberish but I can barely hear it and volume maxed out.
So wow now I'm dancing yeah I can hear some people I wonder who they are and where are they. Later I discover that apparently what I'm hearing is the super bowl. Oh well.
Have you fallen asleep yet ?
I turn my attention to the speaker that came with the unit and it seems to be dead all I get it open when testing with the multimeter.
I attach some wires and connect a 8 ohm speaker now I'm worried because the original is 16 ohm.
But I have sound from the super bowl but it is very feint super low volume.
Yeah ya might want to make a pot of coffee if you are still with me.
So I have a big problem super low volume so I order a Sam's book for this model.
Now being an (old) NOOB I don't know where to start looking or how to isolate stages all I know is I'm looking for a smoking gun....somewhere... anywhere.
So I start looking at the schematic and testing DC voltages.
Finally....I noticed this
Now....it says output/modulator does that mean audio output? Hell if I know.
I start looking at this wondering what the deal is and (miraculously) arrive at the conclusion that R172 must be open or not connected.
Now I'm shaking in my boots because I'm about to do surgery and you know how it is on forums "well this (truck, stereo, etc) ain't working I replaced a bunch of stuff" and now it's Pandora's box.
So I just joined this site and I thought well ya might want to present your findings and ask for permission to desolder and replace something or at least see what they think. But on the other hand I'm trying to do a little bit of homework to give you something to work with.
Ok so I desoldered it and told myself yeah don't get excited that resistor will test fine I've seen that movie too.
Well I tested it and it is open
Man was I ever excited about that. Like I might actually fix something woot
Back to the Sam's I see it's a one ohm (huh?!) one watt resistor. Ok well time to order some. Wait I have some Chinese Aukenien? ugly blue resistors low and behold I have five one ohm five watt resistors.
Ok cool time to solder it in and see if we are back in business. Well it was so big I had to solder it to the bottom of the board but I got it in.
Now the moment of truth time to power the unit back on and see if I get LOUD VOLUME.
Seems in all the excitement and elation at finding something that I forgot something I had read many times while lurking on forums.
A BURNT RESISTOR IS NOT A SYMPTOM ITS A RESULT OF ANOTHER PROBLEM. YEAH GO AHEAD AND REPLACE THE RESISTOR BUT YA BETTER FIX THE PROBLEM THAT CAUSED IT
So I powered the unit back on I got the mic and antenna and makeshift speaker connected and....not really any improvement.
Now I'm thinking why don't ya get the multimeter out and check your voltages now? But instead I reached over and felt the newly installed 5W resistor and burned the crap out of a finger and thumb and noticed it was starting to smoke.
And then turned the power off.
Sigh. Ok so I pulled the two 2SC1096 and one is shorted emitter collector. So that's cool I'm glad I found something else.
So I start looking for replacements meanwhile I look at my transistor inventory and decided to try two MJE15032. Yeah I know probably not a great match I should have asked here first.
But I got them in and used some Wakefield type 120 and nothing is on fire I have a bit louder static but there's really no activity or maybe these transistors won't work idk.
Finally I got some Superbowl chatter
Meanwhile I got an external speaker with a 3.5mm jack and tested the PA and wow it works GREAT.
SO there is that
Anyhow thanks I'm hoping to learn how to work on these radios I'll go back to lurking hope you all have a great weekend
)and the minute I powered up that two new parts were gonna go up in smoke.
I found this place where people like to work on this stuff I'm one lucky SOB
That was an awesome feeling once I replaced missing parts. Once I replaced the missing parts, it still was 0 audio and was not working... I felt around with my fingers and thats when I noticed 2 chips like the ones you were showing were HOT!!!.... Replaced them with some spares I had (I desolded/saved chips before chucking some radios that were just junk.), and the damn radio screamed back to life.