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Pix Request, 148 GTL / Grant XL

LeapFrog

Wielding Hanlon's Razor
Feb 15, 2016
1,709
903
123
Anchorage, Alaska
Hello everybody, just got another one in the mail for my collection.
A Uniden Grant XL, with hackery/butchery included at no extra cost lol.
Just like the Cobra 148 GTL, these tend to get "all hacked up". This eBay find was not spared.


Here are a few pics.

PLL Area, a repaired trace, and solder bridge are noticeable.
[photo="medium"]4374[/photo] .

Audio (By the Mic Jack)
[photo="medium"]4373[/photo] .
I see a few solder bridges, and the trashed traces.

I could fry my feeble mind attempting to interpret the schematic, and with such a common radio I think two hi-res photos would allow me to set this one straight(er) in a jiffy.
My main concern is that I will remove a factory jumper or factory solder bridge.


I can circle the trouble areas I am concerned about, if need be.
If one of you fine gents would be so kind as to snap a few photos of these areas on the circuit board I would be extremely grateful.

EDIT: Going to the usual place to look at the F.S.M. to see if transparent images of the PCB (& traces) are included or not.

Thank You, & All The Best.
-LeapFrog
 
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I'll check and see if I have one of those in my collection. If I do I'll open it up and take some photos.
Is the Grant XL the same as the 148? If so I got you covered for sure.
 
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I have a 148 opened in my shop. I'll go take pictures in a few. I got some photos but this unit has been hacked. Will check on the others I have when I get back from town.
 
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Thank you Tallman, any (non-export) 148 GTL or Grant XL should be fine.
I'm gonna clean up the board and maybe do some testing tonight.
Photos posted in my album in the How do you carry album

I have not found my other radios but I will continue to look unless you see what you need in the photos I posted
 
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Yes, it's running good thanks to your help, now i just need to do an alignment because ssb frequency is off a few hundred cycles!

Nothing was wrong with the radio other than the poor solder work (bridges everywhere) and the bias adjustments set for "full tilt boogie", too bad I had to deal with a solder amalgam from hell, I think the previous "tech" used acid core plumbing solder...

Thank You Once Again!
 
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Yes, it's running good thanks to your help, now i just need to do an alignment because ssb frequency is off a few hundred cycles!

Nothing was wrong with the radio other than the poor solder work (bridges everywhere) and the bias adjustments set for "full tilt boogie", too bad I had to deal with a solder amalgam from hell, I think the previous "tech" used acid core plumbing solder...

Thank You Once Again!

Happy to help!
 
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glad you have the radio coming back to life. have been watching this from the start and looks like you are getting it up and running. I like the forums but so many guy's are coming on line trying to fix and upgrade their radios and actually mess up things like you have just found. they try to talk like they know what they are doing and use wrong solder and tear up traces and solder blobs as the like.
i like the grant xl and grant lt radios a lot and have bought a few the past couple of years that have been cheap since the guy's mess them up. bought a grant lt last year basically new in the box that had the same problems as yours. it still had the plastic factory cover on the face. just solder splattered all over the place to kill the radio.
 
Many people hyped-up the receiver in these radios to be great.....
And... they are GREAT! I was truly shocked to here people I normally could not on a Galaxy (CB) radio! it is more senstive and sounds better over all, even with the original caps she is running and sounding great, new Rubycon caps or similar will be used eventually when I re-cap it. (y)

The bezel/faceplate on this Grant is in poor condition, the topside of the board was in good shape though and the coils had not been spread into slinkies, they even left the 54Mhz trap alone!
 
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glad you have the radio coming back to life. have been watching this from the start and looks like you are getting it up and running. I like the forums but so many guy's are coming on line trying to fix and upgrade their radios and actually mess up things like you have just found. they try to talk like they know what they are doing and use wrong solder and tear up traces and solder blobs as the like.
i like the grant xl and grant lt radios a lot and have bought a few the past couple of years that have been cheap since the guy's mess them up. bought a grant lt last year basically new in the box that had the same problems as yours. it still had the plastic factory cover on the face. just solder splattered all over the place to kill the radio.
That's why when I buy a used radio online I open it up and inspect it before I power it up. That has saved more than radio.
 
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Update for this radio guys:
I had the thing running and testing it out for an hour or two before setting the bias correctly, I sudenly lost TX, I may have been running too little bias, as the radio had three pots all the way to the right, So I set them a quater of the way open and talked fine for over an hour, then the radio lost transmit.

*I pulled the driver & final, they tested ok.
*I installed new ones to be safe, TX never returned.

I think the problem is one of the "thermal tracking bias diodes" mounted near the driver/final, as both do not test out the same.

+What diode can I sub (1N4148?)
+Also I'm not sure what spot the anode & cathode need to be on the PCB.
+Can I remove the wax near the final stage without affecting the reference oscillator or something related to SSB stability?

Thank you guys!
 
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