Repairs

Homebrew equipment discussion, show off your projects.
sidspop
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2018 6:27 pm

Repairs

Unread post by sidspop »

Any of you lot do any repairs on radios?
I have been fixing them for 35 odd years, since I was at school. Started on CBs at the height of the craze, and nowadays I am one of the few left in my area that dabble. I will have a go at anything within reason, up to a point.
I very rarely repair anything nowadays 27Mhz FM, unless it is a simple fix. If it costs more than 15 quid it's more cost effective to bin it, as customers will not pay 15 quid on a 20 quid radio.
I do however repair some older amateur stuff, the big boys will not touch older stuff due to parts availability and warranty for old age. A lot of the more modern gear can be daunting, due to size of components, (referred to as "bits of flea shit") but with care can be done. It's just a problem when multi-legged devices go wrong!
Quite often I have been known to apply lateral thinking, such as stripping and rebuilding encoders rather than replace. I recently repaired an Icom 775 with NLA display fault, by using some chinese LED strip.
So does anybody else perform open heart surgery on their radios?
Also, I am looking for a cheap frequency standard to calibrate my counters. I cannot afford a rubidium clock, so would welcome any suggestions, but not involving Arduino stuff.
Toodlepip
M0XXQ
Posts: 484
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 10:23 pm
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
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Re: Repairs

Unread post by M0XXQ »

I currently have a TS450 on the bench with a faulty AF power amplifier, however as it is all through hole vias and SMD I have decided to bypass the whole stage and drop in a discrete circuit, successfully replaced one of the through hole electrolytic and the 5 pin power amp IC but further attempts have destroyed a couple of vias due to the fact the solder won't flow very well and ended up with too much heat for too long.

Lead free solder and SMD are non-starters for me as I neither have the skill,dexterity, eyesight, patience or tools to deal with them which is why all of my homebrew equipment is discreet through-hole, I don't care for latest tech, innovation or "keeping up with the nerds", as long as my design works and I can service it I don't care - I have enough difficult to find spare parts for all my builds to outlive me. :D

As for the Rubidium clock, a couple of lads of HAM Radio Deals forum pointed me to this GPS Locked 450Hz to 800MHz Reference, comes in at £150 but you ain't going to get anything better for less money.
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M0VMT
Posts: 1005
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 10:23 pm
Location: Doncaster

Re: Repairs

Unread post by M0VMT »

I've been known to partake in lead solder but nothing really exciting.
I don't mind fixing CB radios their simple compared to SMT....even the new cb radios have adopted surface mount.
I'm more of a antenna guy and my shack is not big enough to have a proper repair bench well not until the brats grow up :D
M0VMT Mark
Doncaster
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MM0XXW
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2018 1:39 pm
Location: Edinburgh

Re: Repairs

Unread post by MM0XXW »

It's the old story of the more they pack in the more can go wrong and more expensive they are to repair!
I did the same as many dabbling in CB and SSB sets such as Cobras, Concordes, Natos etc but they were easy in comparison to modern kit!

I opened my 7410 recently to add the extra filters and having had a look at the boards in there that's as far as I'll be going if it goes tits up ;)
Cheers,
Martyn

'True Blue' #797
M0XXQ
Posts: 484
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 10:23 pm
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
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Re: Repairs

Unread post by M0XXQ »

I have stocked up on all the important components to keep my homebrew projects going until I end up in a box.
Crystal filters, mixers, coils and RF transistors are they keys items, the rest of it is what it is and don't see discrete capacitors and resistors being phased out anytime soon.
As for older gear, well I horde what I can just in case, old boards, parts as time passes their value increases as the availability dwindles.
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