Just finished what was supposed to be an easy recap on this thing yesterday. Other items that had to be fixed, missing ground in the receive audio output section, meter light out, SO-239 bulkhead connector intermittent. Also, some kind of nasty crud on one side of the exterior. Not sure what it was, but isopropyl alcohol took care of it.
From a non-professional tech standpoint, it's not fun to work on. It's pretty obvious that the designer of this radio was in Hirohito's Imperial forces and wasn't to happy about his leadership's decision to surrender. This radio represents one little bit of revenge he could take on the US and get paid for doing it. Had to be very careful when opening it, the radio's internals open like a book. While you technically can unplug the sections from each other the plugs have been place for over 30 years, so there's a bit of stiction there. When it's open you can run the risk of damaging the meters. I didn't, but it is something to be aware of.
Then there's the bits and pieces bodged on to the solder side of the board. Yes, many radios from this era have them, but usually not in such quantity that removing all of them would reduce the weight of the radio by a measurable amount. And by measurable, I mean by how much it compress your shocks when you put it on the passenger seat of the car.
As far as performance goes, meh, it's a 70's CB radio. It can hear down to at least -120dBm, possibly more if aligned properly. Puts out 4 Watts dead key on AM and generates a nice envelope when modulated without going into boxcars unless you tweak it to do that. Couldn't get a good read on SSB output with my
It does have the SM5104 PLL, which I was able to verify visually after getting a large metal can out of the way. Easy enough to get expanded coverage with, but no really convenient place to put toggle switches if you don't want to repurpose your PA, Noise Blanker, and/or SWR CAL switches up top. Yes, there's other ways to do it, but then we're talking custom solutions. While this radio does have a lot of flat surface area, most of it isn't useful for little toggle switches without tearing up a lot of plastic.
The linear pots on this particular radio were still nice and smooth, which tells me no dirt or other foreign crud has gotten in to them over the years. The top was dusty, of course, but that was easy enough to clean up.
Overall, if you want a fairly reliable radio that just works and is a conversation piece on it's own due to it's unconventional looks, this or the similarly laid out Hygain VIII would probably fit the bill. If you want something that can easily be modified for "Moar channels!" you may want to look at a more conventionally laid out radio.
