Calling on some wisdom from the group....

[guitar_199]

I have what I am calling a labor of love to do. A few years back a friend of my son Tim (Skip... who owned Outlaws Toy Radio CB Shop) died of a heart attack in his mobile repair van while working on a radio..... parked at home. A short while later... his wife let Tim come over and take whatever he wanted out of Skip's van. His one radio choice was an original 858 Washington with channels and all. Tim will soon be getting to set up a spare room as his "radio shack" and wants that radio in it. He has asked me to "recap it", "put it back to stock" and "align it".

I just bought an electrolytic cap kit from @Klondike Mike (thanks Mike) and am wondering if anyone has any tips on 1- are there any tantalums that it would be wise to replace, and 2- anything else that one might look at while in there.

Thanks in advance,
Bob

 

[TM86]

Replace C179, a tantalum cap. Use either the next higher voltage rating tantalum or an electrolytic. It has a bad habit of going boom.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Our member @unit_399 has a ton of good info on those great 858 radios.

HOME | 858ssb

unit399.wixsite.com

 

[guitar_199]

Our member @unit_399 has a ton of good info on those great 858 radios.

HOME | 858ssb

unit399.wixsite.com

Thank you for the reminder.... as I long ago pulled down his PDF paper on the uPD858 platform. I will certainly go find it.

 

[wjm1129]

I sent one out for recap and alignment and the glue on the circuit board ate up the legs on a lot of the components so it would have been cost prohibitive to fix. Just check for that.

 

[loosecannon]

My suggestion is to get yourself a parts rig if you don't already have one.

you may need a crystal or some other part that is almost impossible to find, and chances are there are missing parts if the radio has been modded.

also be sure to check for L6 and the associated crystal filter.
i can't remember if Washingtons had them from the factory or not, but you're going to want that mod if not.

as for cap values, you can increase the value of the two caps that come right off of VCC, but don't go crazy upping the values of all the filter caps for the various zener regulated circuits.

I like to do 399's relay on the power switch mod, as those alps pots are impossible to find replacements for, and using one from another old radio isn't necessarily going to be a reliable option.
it's on his page.

as a general rule, there are more than a few super tiny circuit traces on some of the caps you'll be replacing and you really have to be careful of heat and time on these to avoid lifting them.

that plastic film piece that connects the channel selector to the PLL is super easy to burn and/or damage so be very careful when working around it.

the power supplies in these base stations run pretty darn warm, so replacing heat sink grease on the TO-3 transistor and the rectifier is imperative.

hope that helps!
LC

 

[nomadradio]

My suggestion is to get yourself a parts rig if you don't already have one.

Not so different from making a 45 year-old foreign sports car your daily driver. A parts donor or two can prove valuable down the road.

73

 

[guitar_199]

My suggestion is to get yourself a parts rig if you don't already have one.

you may need a crystal or some other part that is almost impossible to find, and chances are there are missing parts if the radio has been modded.

also be sure to check for L6 and the associated crystal filter.
i can't remember if Washingtons had them from the factory or not, but you're going to want that mod if not.

as for cap values, you can increase the value of the two caps that come right off of VCC, but don't go crazy upping the values of all the filter caps for the various zener regulated circuits.

I like to do 399's relay on the power switch mod, as those alps pots are impossible to find replacements for, and using one from another old radio isn't necessarily going to be a reliable option.
it's on his page.

as a general rule, there are more than a few super tiny circuit traces on some of the caps you'll be replacing and you really have to be careful of heat and time on these to avoid lifting them.

that plastic film piece that connects the channel selector to the PLL is super easy to burn and/or damage so be very careful when working around it.

the power supplies in these base stations run pretty darn warm, so replacing heat sink grease on the TO-3 transistor and the rectifier is imperative.

hope that helps!
LC

I appreciate every bit of it and thanks for taking the time to send it!!!