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Cobra 150 GTL bad solder joint "suddenly" causing transmit/no-power?

zenomcfeely

Member
Nov 16, 2022
2
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This was brought to me after having recent service elsewhere to fix a no-PTT issue with the mic. Supposedly it was just "blown out with canned air", and when the owner got it back it would key up, but nothing out. I opened it up expecting to find the usual capacitor issues but I found something else instead: What appears to be a solder bridge between two resistors...or at least it was because when I first discovered it, there appeared to no longer be a connection:

cobra150_closeup02.png

Downstream is where another resistor should be but isn't; since these are all SMDs that's not something that happens accidentally (the presence of large solder blobs on the pads as well as flux residue are also good indicators).

cobra150_closeup03.png

None of this is anywhere near the resistor by the CPU that gets removed in order to get 11m going on it, so my question is if anyone knows of some additional golden-screwdriver hackery that might for some reason involve jumpering 2 resistors and removing a third? All I was expecting to do with this is get it working normally and, succeeding at that, maybe redo the front with LEDs (which I know I can do, but I'm not touching a thing until I get this sorted first)
 
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Reactions: Shadetree Mechanic

Wow a Cobra 150 that actually still works, amazing. The Cobra 150 and 200 were probably two of the worst ever radio's they had made.
 
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Reactions: unit_399
Wow a Cobra 150 that actually still works, amazing. The Cobra 150 and 200 were probably two of the worst ever radio's they had made.
LOL! Cobra 200 was absolutely the worst piece of crap ever...... Still amazes me that Cobra was willing to slap their nameplate on that turd.
 

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