Uniden Washington Basket Case Fun Facts

[SuperLid]

I thought I had seen it all, until now....

I have on the bench, a dirty, nasty, dusty, hairy, cigarette tar infested, screwdriver'd example of a 8719 Washington.

What got me on this particular one, is that nearly EVERY tunable can is bad. I am close to getting it working, but geez. It should have been tossed in the junk pile. Almost every can FFS! If I can get the LO's to line up, it may be working for the most part.

I have never seen that before, not one single time.

73,

SL

 

[doffo]

I thought I had seen it all, until now....

I have on the bench, a dirty, nasty, dusty, hairy, cigarette tar infested, screwdriver'd example of a 8719 Washington.

What got me on this particular one, is that nearly EVERY tunable can is bad. I am close to getting it working, but geez. It should have been tossed in the junk pile. Almost every can FFS! If I can get the LO's to line up, it may be working for the most part.

I have never seen that before, not one single time.

73,

SL

True dedication to get the radio going again. I have a Cobra 142 GTL base radio that works on USB, but nothing on LSB. Maybe the mode switch is dirty? I didn't look too far into it. Once I get an itch to go through it again I hope to get it going again. I do have another 142 but needs knobs replaced and for good measure new capacitors to keep the radio working for more years to come.

 

[SuperLid]

True dedication to get the radio going again. I have a Cobra 142 GTL base radio that works on USB, but nothing on LSB. Maybe the mode switch is dirty? I didn't look too far into it. Once I get an itch to go through it again I hope to get it going again. I do have another 142 but needs knobs replaced and for good measure new capacitors to keep the radio working for more years to come.

It is more like pure stupidity. I should have trashed it, nostalgia got the best of me. It was from a friend that found it on FB marketplace. He saw it, said he didn't want it, asked if I did. I figured for 10 bucks, there would be some parts I could use. I had to go and fix the damn thing! It is done for the most part, but the RX is not as sensitive as it should be, and probably never will. be.

Your 142, may have a bad carrier oscillator crystal. Do you have output on LSB? You could swap the car osc xtals, and see if the problem moves.

73,

SL

 

[doffo]

It is more like pure stupidity. I should have trashed it, nostalgia got the best of me. It was from a friend that found it on FB marketplace. He saw it, said he didn't want it, asked if I did. I figured for 10 bucks, there would be some parts I could use. I had to go and fix the damn thing! It is done for the most part, but the RX is not as sensitive as it should be, and probably never will. be.

Your 142, may have a bad carrier oscillator crystal. Do you have output on LSB? You could swap the car osc xtals, and see if the problem moves.

73,

SL

I swapped them, but the problem didnt carry over. The glue was corroding pretty good though between them, but the damn diode in the middle fell apart from the corrosion. Now I can't see what diode it is as even the number on the board is long gone. Doh! Would you happen to know the diode that sits between the 2 crystals? and what other diode may work if that part isn't common.

 

[SuperLid]

I swapped them, but the problem didnt carry over. The glue was corroding pretty good though between them, but the damn diode in the middle fell apart from the corrosion. Now I can't see what diode it is as even the number on the board is long gone. Doh! Would you happen to know the diode that sits between the 2 crystals? and what other diode may work if that part isn't common.

Not by memory, but the service docs are here in the DX tech. If it is the same as the Washington, it is D26, 1S1588, which is a switching diode, so you could use a 1N914/4148.

I swapped them, but the problem didnt carry over. The glue was corroding pretty good though between them, but the damn diode in the middle fell apart from the corrosion. Now I can't see what diode it is as even the number on the board is long gone. Doh! Would you happen to know the diode that sits between the 2 crystals? and what other diode may work if that part isn't common.

 

[doffo]

Not by memory, but the service docs are here in the DX tech. If it is the same as the Washington, it is D26, 1S1588, which is a switching diode, so you could use a 1N914/4148.

You rock! Yep.. D26... Wouldnt you know.. I scraped off the offending glue, soldered back the 2 crystals, and then a 1n4148 diode in place... LSB now works!!


You were QUICK to troubleshoot that one. Thank you so much SuperLid. Hope yours will come around and be back better than ever.

 

[SuperLid]

You rock! Yep.. D26... Wouldnt you know.. I scraped off the offending glue, soldered back the 2 crystals, and then a 1n4148 diode in place... LSB now works!!


You were QUICK to troubleshoot that one. Thank you so much SuperLid. Hope yours will come around and be back better than ever.

Hey, that great news!

These really are fun old radios. They talk and listen very nicely, Mine will most likely never listen as well as a new one, but it listens without Ranger noise LOL. It still has a problem, I will work on later today. There is almost no bias current on the final. It was replaced with the NTE-236, which I have never used, so I am not sure what to expect there, just not almost nothing. I have to check the 10 ohm in that circuit, it may be open.

73,

SL

 

[Tucker442]

I thought I had seen it all, until now....

I have on the bench, a dirty, nasty, dusty, hairy, cigarette tar infested, screwdriver'd example of a 8719 Washington.

What got me on this particular one, is that nearly EVERY tunable can is bad. I am close to getting it working, but geez. It should have been tossed in the junk pile. Almost every can FFS! If I can get the LO's to line up, it may be working for the most part.

I have never seen that before, not one single time.

73,

SL

I got a 142 cobra like that I mean it smelled like it was right in the tobacco factory. It had nicotine all over it. It was nasty. I plugged it in and it worked. The power was a little low, but it worked so I got a Sams. Photo fact out and started to go through it and as I did, the power slowly went away and the smell got worse. I guess some of the caps were deteriorating as I was using it. It was so bad I wouldn’t even use it for parts. I threw it in the garbage, I did cut the cord off in case somebody tried to use it and it might catch on fire.

 

[SuperLid]

Hey, that great news!

These really are fun old radios. They talk and listen very nicely, Mine will most likely never listen as well as a new one, but it listens without Ranger noise LOL. It still has a problem, I will work on later today. There is almost no bias current on the final. It was replaced with the NTE-236, which I have never used, so I am not sure what to expect there, just not almost nothing. I have to check the 10 ohm in that circuit, it may be open.

73,

SL

Turns out, the final is some odd brand I never heard of, EXR. Aparently made by Digitron Electronics, EXR-236, same nomenclatuer as ECG/NTE. This transistor did not work right. HFE of 3. I installed a real 1969 I have for testing and the TX was perfect. Then I installed a HG 2312, then TX was high output, too high. Then I installed a HG 1969, the gain was considerably lower and power out was what it shoule be. Buut when biased correctly, the TX was oscillating. I had to cool down the bias to tame it. I am probably going to convert to MOSFET.

Lastly, the internal speaker is blown....what a dog this is.

73,

SL

 

[SuperLid]

I got a 142 cobra like that I mean it smelled like it was right in the tobacco factory. It had nicotine all over it. It was nasty. I plugged it in and it worked. The power was a little low, but it worked so I got a Sams. Photo fact out and started to go through it and as I did, the power slowly went away and the smell got worse. I guess some of the caps were deteriorating as I was using it. It was so bad I wouldn’t even use it for parts. I threw it in the garbage, I did cut the cord off in case somebody tried to use it and it might catch on fire.

I need a parts donor, you shoudn't have told me that

 

[Tucker442]

I need a parts donor, you shoudn't have told me that

I’m sorry I really didn’t think or should I say I would be embarrassed to even let it get close to somebody. I was emptying out an abandoned house and it was in the basement on a workbench. Everything in the house you couldn’t touch without my rubber gloves sticking to it. I’ve seen a lot of nasty things in my life, but that place really grossed me out.

 

[TM86]

I got a 142 cobra like that I mean it smelled like it was right in the tobacco factory. It had nicotine all over it. It was nasty. I plugged it in and it worked. The power was a little low, but it worked so I got a Sams. Photo fact out and started to go through it and as I did, the power slowly went away and the smell got worse. I guess some of the caps were deteriorating as I was using it. It was so bad I wouldn’t even use it for parts. I threw it in the garbage, I did cut the cord off in case somebody tried to use it and it might catch on fire.

I had a TRC-449 like that not too long ago. Fortunately the nicotine was primarily on the outside. Had to soak the case in Fabreeze a few times and let it mellow in the garage for three weeks and it still kinda smells. Works OK, though.

 

[nomadradio]

No question that aluminum electrolytic caps have a finite life, either in years or miles or both.

Complete packages to "re-cap" a radio as they say, are being marketed.

Here's a forum member's site. Mike's kits have quality capacitors only, no one-lung-sam no-name fleabay caps.

http://www.klondikemikescapkits.com/

Just what a radio is worth? Depends on who you ask. Whether it's a CB base, a guitar amp or a car you'll pay more to rehab one the older it gets.

73

 

[SuperLid]

I spent more time yesterday and got the RX where it should be. I replaced and added more caps than I can count in my head.

The moron that worked on this radio, put an expo kit in the RF gain control space. He removed the control and shorted the leads, rather than leave the control inside, in the event the owner would want to reverse the mod. So, rather than hunt for a control, I had to get the expo kit working correctly, which required new padding cap values, as the crystals aged out of range of the original values. Many new caps of all kinds.

The radio works like it should now. It has been fun to use for a couple of days.

 

[SuperLid]

I’m sorry I really didn’t think or should I say I would be embarrassed to even let it get close to somebody. I was emptying out an abandoned house and it was in the basement on a workbench. Everything in the house you couldn’t touch without my rubber gloves sticking to it. I’ve seen a lot of nasty things in my life, but that place really grossed me out.

I was joking...but too bad to hear it ended up in a landfill.