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Ranger Franken-radio

Eldorado828

828 in the Lonestar state (WDX-828)
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Feb 21, 2016
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The Panhandle of Texas
Well fellas, after months of selling radios off I've come to this. A TRE-797 that I was fixing to send down the road but decided to do something fun instead. It'll be fun or failure.

I get hobby burn out and have to get myself in an adventure to break the monotony.

I'm taking the tre-797 and installing an rci-x9 amp section onto it. Seems pretty simple, I hope.... but I might need some help along the way.

Wish me well!

I'll share how it goes as well as sharing photos.
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For any that might be interested in this project, I was able to achieve quite a bit after some having to make minor mods.

The swr board had to go, the power jack hole had to be enlarged to fit the molex plug and some electrolytic caps had to be re-oriented to accommodate the amp section. There is no schemo for the X9 so I had to use the galaxy 94hp schemo as a reference to get everything wired in correctly.

So the finishing point for today, it's put together but it's a super snug fit. The x9 is all surface mount and the transformer on the board is in a different spot near the chassis side but in this one..... all through hole so some parts are quite a bit bigger and the transformer is right underneath the amp cover.... The wires had to be positioned perfectly for it to button up.

It's working just as it's supposed to but the audio sounds like total hell, and the meter needs to be adjusted. That'll be addressed in the coming days when time permits.

But so far, it's been successful-ish.... No magic smoke!

More to come

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Update

I got the audio straightened out, it's much better. Before the amp transplant I had done the r176 mic amp resistor mod for more gain and it seems that it didn't play well with the added amp section. Now it'll be some fine tuning and this "abomination" should be ready to hit the airwaves! I'll report back with the final product!
 
Update

I got the audio straightened out, it's much better. Before the amp transplant I had done the r176 mic amp resistor mod for more gain and it seems that it didn't play well with the added amp section. Now it'll be some fine tuning and this "abomination" should be ready to hit the airwaves! I'll report back with the final product!
You and a lot of people on here are way above my head on a lot of the radio mods/ experiments. But it's cool to see everyone's projects.
 
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You and a lot of people on here are way above my head on a lot of the radio mods/ experiments. But it's cool to see everyone's projects.
I can say I'm pretty decent with a soldering iron but far from an Elmer by any means. Most of what I know was taught to me by the C.B.T. and WWDX academies and their generous Elmers who share their knowledge.
 
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