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Which CB Shops are still accepting mail-in repairs?
- Thread starter Unit 194
- Start date
All this talk about wait times, high prices, or wondering if some guy is keeping your radio if and when he goes out of business etc, those are truly worrisome aggravations. Unfortunately, that’s the price you pay for not at least trying to learn basic repair. Like so many things worth doing, early endeavors often fail. That’s a huge part of the learning process, but when you do succeed, the pride of self reliance soon nullifies all the negatives. Remember, the next time you fix something yourself, precede it with a few strong fist pumps while hollering out, YES! It will make you feel a lot better...Put the antacids away.
Unfortunately, the prices some of these guys charge to do repairs can't pay the bills for most people, and they certainly don't pay for the proper equipment. I honestly wouldn't trust someone to do a good job at less than $80 for a repair. Any repair.
Keep in mind, I don't care what repair it is, I can plan on every repair taking at least an hour. Even if it just entails me opening the thing up and spraying some deoxit in the pots. It takes five to ten minutes talking to the customer for them to explain the problem, another several minutes taping up the faceplate of the radio and connecting it to the test equipment, another several minutes doing a proper once over, several minutes spraying deoxit in the pots and twisting them back and forth to work the dirt out, ten to twenty minutes to wait for it to dry, which still takes up time on my bench, and another several minutes to test that the deoxit fixed the problem and put the radio back together, then another five to ten disconnecting the radio, handing it back to the customer, and taking their money. That is an hour.
I started to factor out overhead to explain things better, but suffice it to say, just the repair part of my business costs me about $5K a month. That alone requires me to make $23/hr, 40 hours a week, and that's before I make a penny. If it weren't that I have other sides of my business other than just repairs, I wouldn't be in business.
Now, before anyone gets the impression that I do radio repairs for my business, I have not done them for about 15 years now. It just never quite paid the bills. I do repairs of televisions, stereos, and amplifier equipment for musicians. Most of what I do is warranty work, or I would likely not be repairing anything.
Given how often I turn down radio repairs though, there is a big demand for it. Anyone that can get someone to do it cheap by someone that knows what they are doing better get it done now, because it isn't going to take much longer before the few that are left out there realize that they can get much more than they are currently getting, and the prices go up.
Most of the time though, if you find a really cheap repairman for electronics, you are paying someone to destroy your equipment.
Keep in mind, I don't care what repair it is, I can plan on every repair taking at least an hour. Even if it just entails me opening the thing up and spraying some deoxit in the pots. It takes five to ten minutes talking to the customer for them to explain the problem, another several minutes taping up the faceplate of the radio and connecting it to the test equipment, another several minutes doing a proper once over, several minutes spraying deoxit in the pots and twisting them back and forth to work the dirt out, ten to twenty minutes to wait for it to dry, which still takes up time on my bench, and another several minutes to test that the deoxit fixed the problem and put the radio back together, then another five to ten disconnecting the radio, handing it back to the customer, and taking their money. That is an hour.
I started to factor out overhead to explain things better, but suffice it to say, just the repair part of my business costs me about $5K a month. That alone requires me to make $23/hr, 40 hours a week, and that's before I make a penny. If it weren't that I have other sides of my business other than just repairs, I wouldn't be in business.
Now, before anyone gets the impression that I do radio repairs for my business, I have not done them for about 15 years now. It just never quite paid the bills. I do repairs of televisions, stereos, and amplifier equipment for musicians. Most of what I do is warranty work, or I would likely not be repairing anything.
Given how often I turn down radio repairs though, there is a big demand for it. Anyone that can get someone to do it cheap by someone that knows what they are doing better get it done now, because it isn't going to take much longer before the few that are left out there realize that they can get much more than they are currently getting, and the prices go up.
Most of the time though, if you find a really cheap repairman for electronics, you are paying someone to destroy your equipment.
Did he ever get a business license from the City of Las Cruces, or has he moved on from there?
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
i jump off my chair and pump my fist everytime i recap one of my radios.
Why is it that so many people say" Maybe You're just better off buying a new radio."? Show me a new base station radio that has the features of a Robyn SB-520D For the money paid. ($150) You can't! The only one that comes close is the Galaxy DX2547 and you are not going to find a used one for much less than $300. Besides,I like to recycle old stuff anyways!
You will always find someone more than happy to spend your money on a new radio but you have to be happy with the radio you wish to spend your money on. So I have never understood the don't waste your time and money on that old radio no matter how much you like it. The deal is, spend your money on whatever you wish to do spend it on and except that you may have to do it again I have restored hundreds of radios over the past 50 years and don't regret any of that time or money spent doing it. It's tougher these days parts are much harder to come by for older radios you almost have to buy another radio with the same chassis to get some of the parts and they may not always be a sure bet as to if the part will be good or out of tolerance or already robbed, You get the idea but that never stops you if it's what you love to do and I must say there is a sense of accomplishment that you don't get from working on all new equipment. "And that's all I have to say about that".
Oldtech
Oldtech
That entirely depends on what you consider to be a base station. The DX2547 is the only CB base station on the market right now. That is if you consider a base station to be a radio with an internal power supply. Because of that, it is tough to get an apples to apples comparison. On the other hand, you could pair a power supply to a Uniden Bearcat 980, and have a much more feature rich base station for about the same money.
Then there is the age you have to take into account. That Robyn, if it hasn't already been recapped, probably should be recapped. You would be surprised at how many bad caps you will find, even in a working radio. Unless you do that job yourself, look at paying another $100 to $150, and if you don't do it now as preventative maintenance, you can probably tack on another $50 as procrastination tax for when those old capacitors take out other components and traces.
Now, as for what radios are better, that is entirely subjective. The old Cybernet and Uniden crystal filters far surpass anything you will find in any radio built since the '80s, so you will get much quieter receive on sideband, so the number of features may not be the thing you want to hang your hat on when it comes to which is a better radio.
The reason to consider buying a new radio is when you can replace the one you have for less than it would cost to fix it, even if that means buying another used one. That logic stands, even if you are a fan of repairing old radios.
http://www.avvid.com/
Real shop repair, does not repair anything but Kenwood, notice shop hourly repair charges????
CB repair shops are mostly rip offs, not all but there are enough to make consumer beware.
As for cost of repairs on vintage equipment?? Up to the owner how much he wants to pay for sentimental value of an older rig.
The old tube radios are nostalgic and require continual attention to keep on the air.
So either they will continuously be sent for repair or the owner has enough knowledge to keep the radio on the air.
I enjoy working on the old tubers, but I do it for a hobby as most owners hesitate to pay what it will really cost to bring an old tuber back to life and have some resemblance of being reliable and a daily driver.
Real shop repair, does not repair anything but Kenwood, notice shop hourly repair charges????
CB repair shops are mostly rip offs, not all but there are enough to make consumer beware.
As for cost of repairs on vintage equipment?? Up to the owner how much he wants to pay for sentimental value of an older rig.
The old tube radios are nostalgic and require continual attention to keep on the air.
So either they will continuously be sent for repair or the owner has enough knowledge to keep the radio on the air.
I enjoy working on the old tubers, but I do it for a hobby as most owners hesitate to pay what it will really cost to bring an old tuber back to life and have some resemblance of being reliable and a daily driver.
$50/hr. is actually pretty cheap. Consider the amount of knowledge these guys need to have to be able to repair this stuff, add to that the cost of their equipment, and contrast that to the hourly rate of your local auto repair shop. It's hard to find an auto repair shop that has an hourly rate of less than $100/hr., yet your repairs are most often done by a guy that actually doesn't have the understanding to even diagnose the problem with your car. Most shops have one master mechanic that does the diagnosis, and they just have someone else replace the parts.
To give a comparison, I am paid $110 by manufacturers to do warranty repairs on televisions, which is much more akin to how an auto repair shop does things than how a radio shop does things. In fact, it's not even as difficult as diagnosing and repairing cars. In most of those situations, I diagnose the board that is causing the problem, the manufacturer sends me a new one, and I replace it. I'm not doing component level repairs on those.
On the other hand, I toyed with the idea of charging a $110 shop rate for customers that walk in from the street. It didn't work very well. Customers who would ask would nearly faint, so I have to do things a bit differently. I instead charge a shop rate of $80/hr., but I don't do component level repairs for that. What I do is sell them a refurbished board, which I refurbish. The price is the price on those, and they never complain. I just don't advertise that I refurbish the boards myself. I then can charge even more than the $110/hr. for refurbishing the boards, and sell customers back what is often their own board. Granted, I'm only spending a few minutes on each customer's board, but it makes all the difference in the world when the customer perceives that they are getting a better deal, when it really is the same deal they would get at the higher shop rate.
I suspect that anyone that is charging $50/hr. for repairing electronics is getting by with something similar. They are getting their money somehow.
As for the price of nostalgia, that is where I love to work. When I repair old guitar amps, much of that is nostalgia. Some is more practical, but when someone wants a restoration, I know that with few limits, this person just wants to have the thing looking and working as close to new as possible, and price be damned. It allows me to care about the work I am doing, which is what the customers in those scenarios want anyway. With the practical repairs, those I have to get in and out as fast as possible so I can make money on volume. I don't spend any extra time looking for problems that aren't complained about. I don't care much if I clean up my "no clean" flux. I just get them out the door, because those customers are not paying for pride, so I can only afford enough of it to keep from getting complaints.
To give a comparison, I am paid $110 by manufacturers to do warranty repairs on televisions, which is much more akin to how an auto repair shop does things than how a radio shop does things. In fact, it's not even as difficult as diagnosing and repairing cars. In most of those situations, I diagnose the board that is causing the problem, the manufacturer sends me a new one, and I replace it. I'm not doing component level repairs on those.
On the other hand, I toyed with the idea of charging a $110 shop rate for customers that walk in from the street. It didn't work very well. Customers who would ask would nearly faint, so I have to do things a bit differently. I instead charge a shop rate of $80/hr., but I don't do component level repairs for that. What I do is sell them a refurbished board, which I refurbish. The price is the price on those, and they never complain. I just don't advertise that I refurbish the boards myself. I then can charge even more than the $110/hr. for refurbishing the boards, and sell customers back what is often their own board. Granted, I'm only spending a few minutes on each customer's board, but it makes all the difference in the world when the customer perceives that they are getting a better deal, when it really is the same deal they would get at the higher shop rate.
I suspect that anyone that is charging $50/hr. for repairing electronics is getting by with something similar. They are getting their money somehow.
As for the price of nostalgia, that is where I love to work. When I repair old guitar amps, much of that is nostalgia. Some is more practical, but when someone wants a restoration, I know that with few limits, this person just wants to have the thing looking and working as close to new as possible, and price be damned. It allows me to care about the work I am doing, which is what the customers in those scenarios want anyway. With the practical repairs, those I have to get in and out as fast as possible so I can make money on volume. I don't spend any extra time looking for problems that aren't complained about. I don't care much if I clean up my "no clean" flux. I just get them out the door, because those customers are not paying for pride, so I can only afford enough of it to keep from getting complaints.
i charge a 1 hour minimal charge. i dot care if it takes me 5 minutes sign is posted on my shops door. if you dont want to pay the minimal charge take your radio elsewhere
I bet that if you calculate all the actual time you do spend due to a customer's repair, and collecting the money, it ends up being closer to an hour than you think to do a 5 minute repair.
As for having a 1 hour minimum, that is pretty normal.
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
A lot of people have no idea what it takes to fix things. Anything. I get this at work a lot. People say all you gotta do is ....... They don't understand what goes on behind the scenes and the complexity behind the things that might look simple.