• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
  • Click here to find out how to win free radios from Retevis!

Sonar FS-23

The mike plug that radio uses was popular 50 years ago, but not so much these days.

Seems likely you don't have another mike with that plug on it to try. Mikes do break more frequently than radios, so another one is always the first thing to try.

Unless you have a mike tester.

Probably not.

I would suggest finding a 4-pin socket and a "quarter-inch stereo headphone plug" that fits the radio, and using a short piece of mike cord to make an adapter. If you have one or more 4-pin mikes on hand, you would no longer be limited to the one microphone that fits the radio. That stuff shows up on Ebay. Or a mail-order outfit like Tower Communications, www.pl259.com

Another mike is always the first thing a pro will try on a radio with no modulation.

For a reason.

73
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shadetree Mechanic
Know where I can get a replacement set of crystals?

I see most of the tubes in this radio are available on ebay.

I ordered a replacement relay already.

Can someone tell me (with this particular radio in mind) the best way to discharge all the lethal HV inside before working on it? I have no previous experience with tube radios that store a charge and I want to be as safe as possible.

Are the 3 big capacitors in the radio the only thing I'm worried about discharging before safely touching/replacing parts (relay, tubes, crystals, etc.)
Replacing the relay is a very good idea. Funny things happened to sonar and I'm assuming other tube transceivers when there is a relay problem. Make sure that you clean the the relay input sockets.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Shadetree Mechanic

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.