little extra income?

[Opcom]

made an error .. ugh. agreed to fix a CB radio with complaint of 'off frequency'. OK, how bad can it be? Usually the reference oscillator on those little PLL things.. Ended up just handing it back. Never got around to the actual complaint because the set didn't work enough to even begin. What a mess, parts missing- someone removed the bias pots to the final and driver and tacked in resistors, cut out two diodes, wire jumpers added, some kind of echo board installed but there was no modulation, - and no idea how to get rid of it and make the set work right, plus someone very skillfully added a small heat sink on the back or it might have come that way- can't really tell, CB/PA switch rigged to another board with an IC and XTAL to make another extra 40 channels apparently but not all work or in the 'PLL range" -maybe part of the complaint. It might have been an OK or even great set before all the carnage Why oh why.

So remember this next time you work on a ham radio that's had a little poor work done by someone else before.. Be cheerful! It could be much, much worse!  8-)

[W3GMS]

made an error .. ugh. agreed to fix a CB radio with complaint of 'off frequency'. OK, how bad can it be? Usually the reference oscillator on those little PLL things.. Ended up just handing it back. Never got around to the actual complaint because the set didn't work enough to even begin. What a mess, parts missing- someone removed the bias pots to the final and driver and tacked in resistors, cut out two diodes, wire jumpers added, some kind of echo board installed but there was no modulation, - and no idea how to get rid of it and make the set work right, plus someone very skillfully added a small heat sink on the back or it might have come that way- can't really tell, CB/PA switch rigged to another board with an IC and XTAL to make another extra 40 channels apparently but not all work or in the 'PLL range" -maybe part of the complaint. It might have been an OK or even great set before all the carnage Why oh why.

So remember this next time you work on a ham radio that's had a little poor work done by someone else before.. Be cheerful! It could be much, much worse!  8-)

Since I have been retired and really now have no time, people constantly ask me to fix there broken stuff!  In 99.9% of the cases my answer is no.  If you figure your labor and the amount of hours it takes to work on it, the cost sometimes is more than the piece of gear is worth.  Then as you mentioned a lot of the stuff is hacked up and many other hands have been in it.  Its just no worth the hassle. 

I did fix a Ten Tec Scout for a life long friend of mine that was up in his 90's.  He sent it down to the factory and lets just say it came back in less than stellar condition.  Ten Tec's charge was around  275 with shipping.   In that case I took it and put it on the bench and fixed all of the induced problems.  It was very disappointing what I found.  I was a big Ten Tec fan.  Something happened to the company and the quality really went down the tubes.  I hope with the merger with RF Concepts things improve.   I used them exclusively many years ago when I owned Control Products Unlimited and they did all my cabinet, silk-screening and painting. They did a stellar job and had fantastic customer service.   

Joe, GMS   

[K2PG]

The hottest places in Hell should be reserved for those who hack gear, thinking that they know more about how to engineer equipment than those who design it for a living. Probably the worst are the "Collins mods".

[Opcom]

well there will be a special place next to them for "CB golden screwdriver techs".

Some hacking is good. It depends. Hacking is good when the goal is to add a function such as a signal I/O or to defeat an annoyance. I draw the line at changing the circuits of properly designed equipment (where no expense was spared). However today almost everything in the consumer realm is a greedy or spying piece of garbage by design and therefore subject to any hackery I deem fit, to add alternatives and options, prevent annoyances, reserve and manage rights, and extend operating life. Don't sell hackers short, hardware or software, all do more good than evil.

[WZ5Q]

If I don't like the way something performs, I Modify it with Extreme Prejudice.
There are no exceptions.

[John K5PRO]

Joe
In the past 2 years, Ten Tec 'fixed' a Titan II model 416 amplifier for a ham, the one with the Russian 4CX1600B. It took almost a year in their service department, partly because the tube was shorting and taking out screen or grid power supply boards. I think they had a shortage of tubes and boards. I bought the amplifier as is, to modify to fit another tetrode. I was not impressed with their service department, when talking to them about the repair they had already done to it. On the telephone, not helpful except to warn me to not install that Russian tube at any time in the amplifier.

[n3lrx]

I hacked the hell out of mt Cobra 29 Classic.. Modified the crap out of the transmit audio. Changed the thing around so that it modulated a PEP of 25w on AM. (AM is all the 29 has) Some of it required making PCB jumpers. Some of the traces could not handle such high power so we used hookup wire to provide enough current an minimize the voltage drop. Change a few transistors, resistors, and caps here and there.  To top it off, the 500w toy box. I'll bet you new that was coming.. lol Anyway, I miss my 29 someone borrowed it and I never saw it again.

 

[Jim/WA2MER]

A good friend of mine used to repair radio equipment for local hams and a nearby store. He finally threw in the towel, and based on his experiences I'd never consider doing repairs for others. I'll simply say that working on the radios was the easy part, if you get my drift.

[K3ZS]

I fixed an installed CB for a friend.   All I had to do was plug in the microphone.   Many of them had the speaker audio switched in the mike, it had to be plugged in to hear anything.