Motorola CM-550 Repairs

 I repaired this "near-mint" Motorola CM-550 for a friend. It had a bad tx power regulator, a bad lamp, and needed an alignment. Here's a few pics and videos...

Kenwood TS-700S Repairs

 I picked this TS-700S 2m all mode rig from a friend. It was non-functional, but pretty clean externally. 

Every one of these I've ever touched, had dirty / bad contacts in all the switches. I can't explain why, but they did. This one was no exception...and required servicing all toggle & rotary switches, as well as the pots on the front panel. This one was completely missing the main 6PDT relay, and had a bad 10.xxx mhz oscillator transistor on the FM board. Once repairs were made, and a full alignment performed, she ran like a new rig! Here's a few pics...

All finished and operating. What a beautiful rig!

The interior is very well laid out and documented.

Rotary switch in need of cleaning and lubrication.

6PDT relay installed...

Cleaning and lubricating pots...

I fabricated a power cord...

Replacing the osc transistor on the FM board...

Telex CB-73 Hand Mic

 I found this in a box of stuff at a yard sale. Telex made several versions of this noise canceling hand mic for Ham, CB, and Aviation. This was very dirty, but except for a bad battery box, it was electrically functional. The plastic housing was very faded from sunlight exposure. I cleaned it up, replaced the battery holder, and wired it for my converted CB-to-10 meter radio. It can be heard regularly on 29.000 AM. Here's a few pics...

Cobra 2000 Rebuild...

 This Cobra 2000 was brought to me as a parts rig, when a friend had another I rebuilt for him. I just couldn't bring myself to use it for parts, despite it having been hacked and also missing several things. Additionally, some previous owner was a heavy smoker and it was yellow, inside and out...

I would put it on the bench and work on it until I was tired of it, and put it aside. I finally finished it, and it is a pretty slick radio.  Here's some pics, vids, and a little more info...

Cleaning started in the 3 pics above...

One of the front panel controls was busted...

An unstable hack on the 11mhz osc had to come out...

Wires clipped, here and there...

One of the headphone receptacles was jammed back inside, from its mounting location...

Freq counter / clock was non-functional...

Mosfet hack had to go. DC supply was hacked to 16vdc...

Front panel hacks removed and put back original...

Punch list...

Parts cut around the 11mhz master osc...

The 11mhz xtal was off freq, so a circuit was build with temperature stable parts and installed. No more drift...

Found more cut wires...

More cut wires, sheesh....

Hole repaired to reinstall the headphone jack...

Another hack / trimmer to be removed...

Mosfets removed, new bipolar transistors and support components reinstalled. 

Freq counter / clock repaired and operational...

Taking shape!

Junk removed from the driver and final stages...

Ribbon cable and switches removed from previous pll mods...

Pllmods mapped and diode matrix designed for proper switching.

Busted ton control removed, PC mount tone pot installed and adjusted to mid-range. 6 position rotary switch installed in old tone control location. This cleanly controls the pll diode matrix. 

Switch shaft to be shorted and original knob fitted...

Tone control now controls PLL mods.

Variable power installed and control fitted to rear apron.

Hole plugged with chrome bolt.

More cleaning completed.

Replaced blown power supply pass transistor and hacks removed.

Parts replaced around AM power  control circuit...

This cap bumped from 1uf 50v to 22uf 50v for improved PEP in AM.