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How not to work on your radio!!! Nightmare!!! Video.
- Thread starter Onelasttime
- Start date
RatsoW8
Supporting Member, W9WDX ARC Member - WD8T
That's a 32 minute video. How about a summary before I waste 32 minutes of whatever time I have left on the planet...lol
In essence, someone decided to play radio modder w/o having a freaking clue as to how go about it and nearly ruined the radio. Scary hack work.
Moving on . . .
When I first began to align and repair radios, I used a radio that was not presently working that I wanted to fix. Would NOT recommend a newbie to start on their prized radio AT ALL. Find a fixer-upper - first - and go SLOW. LEARN as you go.
First bought a Uiniden GrantXL at a flea market for $5. Very nice radio to have/use IF I could fix it and align it. Repeat - IF!!!!! This was motivation. Fixing it w/o making it worse.
This first radio took some time to complete as it was popping fuses. Replaced the protection diode (the first, most common radio power fault); but it still popped fuses. Next problem was isolating/unsoldered all of the parts in the radio that was fed 13.8v, as any one of those parts could be the shorting culprit popping the fuse. The final transistor, audio chip, etc - where ever the SCHEMATIC showed a 13.8v feed to the board. Then, it didn't pop any more fuses - now I was getting somewhere. Now, it was made easier to find what was shorting out.
Problem turned out to be the zener diode and the voltage regulator were bad. Found the zener problem first, as it was found by poking at parts with a small wooden stick, the radio came on. This is - however - not the method to diagnose and repair per se. But it was a place to start at. Turned out to be correct that time.
After that was set straight, I went on to align the radio. Did it a step at a time, and repeated each step just to be SURE that it was set up to the service manual settings. I cannot stress all of this enough.
Start with a broken radio and ask questions. Understand - the best that you can - as to why something failed, the SYMPTOMS it has, and work with that first.
If you are aligning a radio for the first time; then get a cheap garage sale/flea market radio that you can get a service manual for at CBTricks. Baby steps turn into knowing what you are trying to do and can translate to other radio alignments.
Baby steps.
Schematics are a powerful ally, as well as the service manual.
Use CBTricks: http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/index.htm
Take the time to understand what each component part does on its own before you work on radios - too. That is, resistors, diodes (different kinds), kinds of capacitors, kinds of transistors, and so on . . .
Learn how to solder/learn how NOT to solder.
Dos centavos . . .
Moving on . . .
When I first began to align and repair radios, I used a radio that was not presently working that I wanted to fix. Would NOT recommend a newbie to start on their prized radio AT ALL. Find a fixer-upper - first - and go SLOW. LEARN as you go.
First bought a Uiniden GrantXL at a flea market for $5. Very nice radio to have/use IF I could fix it and align it. Repeat - IF!!!!! This was motivation. Fixing it w/o making it worse.
This first radio took some time to complete as it was popping fuses. Replaced the protection diode (the first, most common radio power fault); but it still popped fuses. Next problem was isolating/unsoldered all of the parts in the radio that was fed 13.8v, as any one of those parts could be the shorting culprit popping the fuse. The final transistor, audio chip, etc - where ever the SCHEMATIC showed a 13.8v feed to the board. Then, it didn't pop any more fuses - now I was getting somewhere. Now, it was made easier to find what was shorting out.
Problem turned out to be the zener diode and the voltage regulator were bad. Found the zener problem first, as it was found by poking at parts with a small wooden stick, the radio came on. This is - however - not the method to diagnose and repair per se. But it was a place to start at. Turned out to be correct that time.
After that was set straight, I went on to align the radio. Did it a step at a time, and repeated each step just to be SURE that it was set up to the service manual settings. I cannot stress all of this enough.
Start with a broken radio and ask questions. Understand - the best that you can - as to why something failed, the SYMPTOMS it has, and work with that first.
If you are aligning a radio for the first time; then get a cheap garage sale/flea market radio that you can get a service manual for at CBTricks. Baby steps turn into knowing what you are trying to do and can translate to other radio alignments.
Baby steps.
Schematics are a powerful ally, as well as the service manual.
Use CBTricks: http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/index.htm
Take the time to understand what each component part does on its own before you work on radios - too. That is, resistors, diodes (different kinds), kinds of capacitors, kinds of transistors, and so on . . .
Learn how to solder/learn how NOT to solder.
Dos centavos . . .
Last edited:
Here is a novel idea, Electronics Courses. Online classes are better than nothing.
Learn before you burn.
Learn before you burn.
good suggestions ROBB, I see so many new guy's want to mod their radios and start asking questions and have no idea what you are telling them. they need to read as much as possible and play with a old junker 1st to see if they can figure out what they are even doing. I am getting to the point I do not want to tell them a mod and then the turn around and ask some thing like where is the final, where is the capacitor you are talking about, etc.this kind of question's tells me the radio is about to get messed up right off the get go. my 1st radio to start learning on was a uniden pro 510xl that had a bad cap by the audio IC that was shorted and making the radio squeal. a friend has a shop and told me what to do and I started reading some Lou Franklin books about how to repair a radio and what components do.
a lot of the new guy's today want to come to the forum and just get info and try the mod and do not even know where the parts are or even what they do. on another forum a while back a guy wanted to do a swing mod to a cobra 29 ltd and he asked what the electro cap looked like so he could order one. to me this is an automatic failure.when I started playing with radios there was not a forum and all the service manuals available to look at .
OH well rant is over. just wish the new guy's would try to learn by at least reading some 1st. this info is available all over the place now days.
a lot of the new guy's today want to come to the forum and just get info and try the mod and do not even know where the parts are or even what they do. on another forum a while back a guy wanted to do a swing mod to a cobra 29 ltd and he asked what the electro cap looked like so he could order one. to me this is an automatic failure.when I started playing with radios there was not a forum and all the service manuals available to look at .
OH well rant is over. just wish the new guy's would try to learn by at least reading some 1st. this info is available all over the place now days.
I like this part
[/QUOTE]I like it too ... but down here in Colombia it would be "dos cientos". Our smallest coin is 100 pesos.
- tres noventa nueve
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