Hi all, I have a Courier 23+ in Excellent shape, was sitting on the shelf for a few years and was working but went to try it and it won't key up. Receive is fine but won't transmit. When I key the mike it makes sort of a buzzing noise but will not key. It is NOT the mic (works on another Courier plus I tried 3 different mics for the Courier 23+ but all the same. I even swapped out the relay with a good working one but no different. I looked the radio over inside but can't see anything so hoping someone may know what the problem is? Thanks for any help. Adam
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Courier 23+ won't key up, any help please?
- Thread starter Adamf
- Start date
Buzzing sounds like the relay.
Caps are getting pretty old and dried out by this time . . .
Caps are getting pretty old and dried out by this time . . .
That radio is from the 70's like Rob said old dried capacitors most likely the problem
Not a power house radio but nice audio from those tubes radios and real nice looking one
Not a power house radio but nice audio from those tubes radios and real nice looking one
cheese and rice man!
That radio is old enough to be out of jail after a murder rap.
Exactly how long do you expect it to run?
There is absolutely ZERO point in attempting to repair one single problem with a radio of that vintage. Either get that radio re-capped, cleaned, and aligned, or put it on a high shelf and tell stories about how great it used to be.
I mean come on, did you really expect to go on a radio forum, ask a question about repairing a 50 year old radio; and have someone tell you, "oh yeah, just replace the key up tube and you'll be all good."
You know we want to help Adam, but you have to put in the work, and don't expect to be spoonfed an answer every time.
You state that the radio is in excellent condition. what does that even mean?
It's clean on the outside and not covered in dust? That has nothing to do with how the electronic components inside will act after 50 years.
You state that you looked at the inside and didn't see anything obvious. Do you even know what to look for? It's much more common for a part to fail without actually smoking.
No one wants to start down the road of repair with someone when they don't have the confidence that the person understands what they are being told to do, and tube radios can KILL you.
I do hope you find some help on the forum, but i am too timid to try to guide someone through a radio that might hurt them. Every time you don't post back i'd be wondering if you got shot across the room. (ok im exaggerating a bit. this isn't a tube amp we are talking about, but you can still get shocked good by that radio, and it can damage you)
LC
That radio is old enough to be out of jail after a murder rap.
Exactly how long do you expect it to run?
There is absolutely ZERO point in attempting to repair one single problem with a radio of that vintage. Either get that radio re-capped, cleaned, and aligned, or put it on a high shelf and tell stories about how great it used to be.
I mean come on, did you really expect to go on a radio forum, ask a question about repairing a 50 year old radio; and have someone tell you, "oh yeah, just replace the key up tube and you'll be all good."
You know we want to help Adam, but you have to put in the work, and don't expect to be spoonfed an answer every time.
You state that the radio is in excellent condition. what does that even mean?
It's clean on the outside and not covered in dust? That has nothing to do with how the electronic components inside will act after 50 years.
You state that you looked at the inside and didn't see anything obvious. Do you even know what to look for? It's much more common for a part to fail without actually smoking.
No one wants to start down the road of repair with someone when they don't have the confidence that the person understands what they are being told to do, and tube radios can KILL you.
I do hope you find some help on the forum, but i am too timid to try to guide someone through a radio that might hurt them. Every time you don't post back i'd be wondering if you got shot across the room. (ok im exaggerating a bit. this isn't a tube amp we are talking about, but you can still get shocked good by that radio, and it can damage you)
LC
is this the radio you have? this is the only 23 plus I could find. it has the schematic with it. not sure just what the inside of this radio looks like but if you look at the relay there should be a diode and cap right by the relay that sends the signal to it to hold it in TX mode. check those out. some of the relay radios the diode will go bad and hold it in TX mode but yours is doing just the opposet. the odds of you finding some one to tell you what one is bad will be hard to find. you could even change all the caps around the relay and see if you luck into finding the bad one. most of the old radios need to be recapped due to them being old and leaking. if you sre really wanting to fix it change out all the electrolytic caps and see what happens. if it was mine I would just change them all out to see what happens.
http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/courier/23plus/index.htm
http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/courier/23plus/index.htm
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Somewhere around the 30-year mark a tube-type radio crosses a line.
Younger than that and a "repair" may get it to run for a while. Trouble is that depending on the mileage you'll find that the "working" interval after you change just one part gets shorter and shorter.
Mileage is a big deal, but there is no odometer on the radio to tell this. A new-in-the-box radio should work just fine. Until all those 40 or 50 year-old parts "remember" how old they are and begin to fail. A radio with 500 original miles might function just fine for a few months of daily use.
A radio that old can be "repaired" by changing just the part (parts) that cause the symptom you see.
The hardest thing to find is someone who will perform the component-level troubleshooting part of the process, to identify which electrolytic cap or worn-out resistor is the cause of each symptom. That kind of labor tends to cost more than the parts, unless you can talk someone into doing it for free.
And that's one of the reasons you hear the same advice from different sources to get a 40 (or 50) year-old radio back on the air. Just change all the stuff that is too old to trust. The labor cost for that will add up to less than troubleshooting ten different failures, one at a time every week or three.
We have a nickname for the process of changing "just one" part that causes trouble in a radio this old. "Electronic Whack-A-Mole". Just as soon as you fix one fault, another one pops up.
73
Younger than that and a "repair" may get it to run for a while. Trouble is that depending on the mileage you'll find that the "working" interval after you change just one part gets shorter and shorter.
Mileage is a big deal, but there is no odometer on the radio to tell this. A new-in-the-box radio should work just fine. Until all those 40 or 50 year-old parts "remember" how old they are and begin to fail. A radio with 500 original miles might function just fine for a few months of daily use.
A radio that old can be "repaired" by changing just the part (parts) that cause the symptom you see.
The hardest thing to find is someone who will perform the component-level troubleshooting part of the process, to identify which electrolytic cap or worn-out resistor is the cause of each symptom. That kind of labor tends to cost more than the parts, unless you can talk someone into doing it for free.
And that's one of the reasons you hear the same advice from different sources to get a 40 (or 50) year-old radio back on the air. Just change all the stuff that is too old to trust. The labor cost for that will add up to less than troubleshooting ten different failures, one at a time every week or three.
We have a nickname for the process of changing "just one" part that causes trouble in a radio this old. "Electronic Whack-A-Mole". Just as soon as you fix one fault, another one pops up.
73
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