#80 Realistic HTX-100 diagnostic and repair  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / rf-microwave

author: Radio Tech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2016, 02:55:59 am
content: #80 Realistic HTX-100 diagnostic and repairIn this video we take a donor radio and do a little troubleshooting to see just how bad a shape it is in. Since I already have one of these I will probably give this radio away to someone in need.

author: The_Penguin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2016, 01:30:38 am
content: I love a good repair video, even more so when it's a solid state ham rig.Thanks for sharing!

author: Radio Tech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2016, 10:05:36 am
content: Thanks for watching. Not a lot here do so. All depending on what one likes

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2016, 10:10:21 am
content: Quote from: Radio Tech on November 29, 2016, 10:05:36 amWell you can count me as a viewer too, I like a good repair video, in fact I've just repaired a Uniden 2830/President Lincoln and will be checking the alignment one evening this week.

author: Radio Tech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2016, 10:49:48 am
content: Quote from: CJay on November 29, 2016, 10:10:21 amGreat, Would be interested to know what you found wrong on the Uniden. Thanks

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2016, 11:38:21 am
content: Quote from: Radio Tech on November 29, 2016, 10:49:48 amCommon fault on Unidens in general but on the FM board there are a pair of caps wired back to back to make a bipolar/non polarised capacitor, they go short and cause extremely poor or no FM/AM receive, replaced with a proper non polarised part.Trying to get approval to re-cap the whole radio, owner won't get a guarantee unless they agree.It also had a faulty CPU which wasn't responding to two or three buttons, replacing it fixed that.

author: The_Penguin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2016, 04:00:36 pm
content: Speaking of Uniden, I'm working on a BCD-996xt scanner that got fried probably by overvoltage.Would kill for a schematic, but my searches of all the dark seedy corners of the internet have failed

author: voltz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2016, 09:36:10 pm
content: Count me in too. I always watch your videos but dont always comment because you're doing a great job anyway!

author: Radio Tech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 10:56:52 am
content: Quote from: CJay on November 29, 2016, 11:38:21 amI always feel like recap solves a lot of problems. Make troubleshooting much easier in the long run. I know what you mean about back to back capacitors. Seen this in quite a few circuits and can be a trap for young players.Quote from: The_Penguin on November 29, 2016, 04:00:36 pmAlways hard to find schematics for those. Not even sure if they ever released one. If I run across one will let you know.Quote from: voltz on November 29, 2016, 09:36:10 pmThanks brother. I get quite a bit of views now. I do not post as many videos on websites anymore. Seems it makes no difference if I do or not. Biggest thing at the moment is keeping up with all the replies from folks. I am getting well over 100 emails a day.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 11:30:17 am
content: Quote from: Radio Tech on December 02, 2016, 10:56:52 amI only repair radios for my own amusement or very good friends these days, I like the ones other techs have given up on so I have a habit of buying myself 'scrap' radios like your donor HTX100 to fix up and move on, I'm not that interested in using them once I've repaired them.Three out of the four Uniden boarded radios I've had in 2016 had shorted caps so a recap would seem to be a sensible thing to do, maybe not as a first course of action unless I can attribute a fault to it but for reliability as much as anything else.Had the discussion on other forums where recapping is seen as a waste of time by the screwdriver experts but my experience and test gear tells me it's often worth it.

author: Radio Tech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 08:06:29 pm
content: Quote from: CJay on December 02, 2016, 11:30:17 amThat is where they don't understand. A lot of these screwdriver experts don't realize the stuff they are working on was built cheap down to a price. And being built cheap means they used cheap capacitors. Like the HTX-100 I worked on had a bad YEC branded cap. Rest are Rubycon. CB radios use what ever they could get cheap. Cheap don't last long. I like Mike at Mikes Radio Repair, he changes all the caps in every radio that comes in.

author: The_Penguin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 03:02:29 am
content: Quote from: Radio Tech on December 02, 2016, 08:06:29 pmOne day I'll post a photo of the bag 'o caps I've replaced over the last 6 years. I mainly repair LCD monitors, TVs, and assorted other devices with SMPS (printers, IP phones) as a hobby, and the amount of bad caps is staggering. My spreadsheet says I've use 283, but I suspect it's more than that in the bad bag.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 08:19:32 am
content: Quote from: Radio Tech on December 02, 2016, 08:06:29 pmAbsolutely, the Cybernet chassis' seem to use decent quality all through but after 25-35 years, they'd benefit too.Hate the mythology that those screwdriver experts help create.A random sampling of the caps in the radio on the bench right now (picture) hasn't found any out of spec but as it's my radio I might just do it anyway

author: Radio Tech
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 04:33:43 pm
content: Quote from: The_Penguin on December 03, 2016, 03:02:29 amIt is amazing how these things pile up. Mike over at mikesradiorepair on YouTube (one of the best honest cb radio techs I have ever seen.) He will not work on a older unit unless he can recap the thing. He saves all the caps and recycles them. Several 5 gallon buckets at a time.Quote from: CJay on December 03, 2016, 08:19:32 amYep, replace them and get many years of service. Is that a Jumbo?

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2016, 10:49:55 am
content: It is, Mk1 PTBM059 and it'd never seen a soldering iron before I opened it.The only fault with it was a failed trimmer capacitor on the 10.695 carrier crystal, it was approximately 4KHz off and would only trim a few Hz, replaced that and it's working fine now it's all aligned properly.A few white LEDs for the signal meters and it'll be up for sale soon.The Mk2 PTBM121 I own has been hacked about quite a lot unfortunately.

author: The_Penguin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 03:25:28 am
content: Quote from: Radio Tech on December 03, 2016, 04:33:43 pmGreat, I just watched a bunch of Mike, Buddy and Peter's repair videos. In addition to test-equipment envy, I now have the urge to restore my old Yaesu 757 GX.It needs a Metric shipload of diodes, a battery, and I may as well re-cap it while I have the RF board out to do the diodes.

author: twistedxknights
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 04, 2017, 09:46:40 pm
content: thanks for the Video , I have a htx-100 at the moment that seems to be working fine just has lower then advertised output ( approx around 15 watts on ssb) so for the moment I live with it though it seems like the 10m band is dead in my area so I have it up for sale/trade on QRZ.I do have 2 other ham radios that are in need of repair one is a yeasu ft-4700h and the other is an ICOM IC-232.