This is an Icom IC-746 Pro. It uses a ccfl backlight for the LCD display. The regulator for the inverter circuit is a small surface mount PNP transistor, runs very hot, and has minimal heat sink area. This one failed, making the display nearly impossible to see. I replaced it with a much more robust part, and fitted it to the inside of the inverter enclosure for heat sinking. Here's a few pics, and a final test video is below...
Midland 13-882C. Here's another 23 Channel CB radio I saved from the land fill. :-) It looked, and was, rough. Dirty, non-functional, rusty from a damp basement, erratic controls, oxidized plastic chrome, etc. I love these projects!
VCO wouldn't lock, no matter what. I found the old wax poured on the VCO to be contaminated with moisture, much like the problem Kenwood had with some of their HF rigs in the past. I melted the wax out and all was well!
New lamps, cleaned controls, alignment, sanding, paint, and it turned out pretty good. While I was at it, I rewired the delta tune control to add a few channels to the PLL matrix. Here's a few pics...
A bit of WW2 history... Here's a few pictures of a NAF headphone assy from the Naval Aircraft Facility during WW2. Mfg by Best Mfg Co. with Shure Bro Anb-h-1 elements. They look uncomfortable. They've probably experienced a few things, too!
I had a need for a switchbox, to select between a number of low power radios... mostly boatanchors. Digging through the junkbox, I found a metal enclosure that was originally built as a multi-load t/r switch. I gutted it, made some changes, and whipped this up for $0. It now uses a non-grounding ceramic switch, and can select between 6 rigs, and has about 50dB of isolation on HF.
