What woudl be funny.... is if THAT happened to be an S Meter adjustment!!!
It will all come out in the wash.
It will all come out in the wash.
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Smokey 23 channel troubleshooting no tx/rx
- Thread starter Champo
- Start date
Found the problem. I did indeed install one cap backwardsWhat woudl be funny.... is if THAT happened to be an S Meter adjustment!!!
It will all come out in the wash.
. You guys were spot on! I'll need to get that switched around this afternoon....and it wasn't the one I suspected lolFound the problem. I did indeed install one cap backwards
Alright. Mic is rewired and the cap is flipped. I have a virtual meeting I have to attend that shouldn't take more than an hour and then I'll fire her up. Fingers crossed!
The negative side of caps will go to foil ground in most cases, but there's that one exception that's sometimes found in these radios. I'll check the Bobcat schematic for verification. I mark the board with my fine point sharpie after locating the negative side before removal. A 4 pin Midland connection has been confirmed (see his inside jack connection photo on page 1) To be clear, diode isolation and solid state switching is involved, no relay present. Diodes are one of the things I would check. I also believe the microphone he is using is correct, provided he is using his Midland adapter. I agree that no further mics be modified at this time. That sidetrack could cause another issue. If you already have a lot of 4 pin Cobra mics, I would suggest rewiring the radios jack in the future, but not now. Later I'll point to the modulation pot location using your photo. That could be another possible fault, especially if somebody has been playing around with it.
Thank you guys. I appreciate all of the input. Regrettably none of the changes I've made improved anything. I did rewire the power mic but without success. I also reversed the incorrect cap but that did not change the back swing on the meter. I have a few more caps to triple check now that my meeting is over. So, the current state is the radio receives and transmits a carrier. PA is inoperable and has that motorboating/oscillating sound but does cut out when the mic is keyed. Still no modulation. Assuming I didn't botch any other caps, what should the next step be?
I believe there might be a second reversed cap. All others are confirmed correct. I'm going to pull it to confirm and I'll let you know what I find.
Disregard. The cap is in correctly. So at this point I'm not sure what would cause the meter to back swing.
No Sam's 104 in my collection. Except for a few high numbers, most of mine are under 100. Buy a used book. The downloaded copies are crap IMO. Those that are copying their books and selling them on Ebay are also low quality, plus you are only getting one radio, not the entire book.
Yes I'm going to buy the complete book. You never know what else you might need lol.
So there are two wires that feed the meter; a blue and a white. The blue runs to the trimmer in the picture and the white runs to a group of wires that includes the gray and white wire from the mic jack. Just in case this is helpful in some way.
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I also can't remember if I mentioned this from the get go. When I first opened the radio it had a blown ceramic cap near the front of the board. Based on my reading they said they usually fail as a result of age/fatigue. It's probably hard to tell in the picture but it was a pretty decent pop because soot was left all over the nearby ceramic and electrolytic. I chalked it up to that and replaced it. The electrolytic is good as I tested it when it was out. The nearby ceramic has soot on it as well but seems to be ok. I figured I'd mention this even though it probably isn't relevant. Perhaps it sheds some light on something.
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This will be my last post to allow you guys to catch up since my chain of posts is getting pretty long lol. I went through and compared the Astatic recommended wiring for the Romar to that of the stock mic wiring (Cobra) vs. the Midland and the Astatic recommendation lines up with the Midland wiring so the Astatic d104m6b is now wired in a Midland configuration that matches the Astatic wiring recommendation for the Romar. That's a mouthful! So it would seem, at least to this untrained mind, that the mic can be eliminated as the cause of the no modulation. It's missing with both a stock cobra wired mic with Midland adapter and the newly wired D104m6b.
(THIS POST SAT HERE FOR TWO OR THREE HOURS.......because I was too stupid to his the "Post Reply" button!!!!!!)
Lets clarify some things.....
When you say "it receives"..... are you saying that it DOES receive signals? As in....it gets the same signals in that another radio gets when IT is hooked to an antenna?
And.....if that IS correct.... is the sound coming out of the internal speaker?
(at the moment, not worrying about the meter.... just want to see if the RCV itself is working pretty well!)
And.... when you say "it transmits".... a) is the meter responding properly to the key up? Meaning...when you key the meter jumps up to a reasonable place, and b) another radio nearby "senses" the carrier?
Lets clarify some things.....
When you say "it receives"..... are you saying that it DOES receive signals? As in....it gets the same signals in that another radio gets when IT is hooked to an antenna?
And.....if that IS correct.... is the sound coming out of the internal speaker?
(at the moment, not worrying about the meter.... just want to see if the RCV itself is working pretty well!)
And.... when you say "it transmits".... a) is the meter responding properly to the key up? Meaning...when you key the meter jumps up to a reasonable place, and b) another radio nearby "senses" the carrier?