N8YX
09-12-2011, 07:31 PM
I'm project-in' again.
That is, a couple R7000s I have in the lineup are going to get some mods - and I need some concentric potentiometers plus the knob sets to accomplish this. Problem is they've been discontinued by Icom. Thus, eBay or the various classified sites/support groups are the only way I'm going to get the parts.
So I won a set of IC-740 knobs on eBay. They're common to that rig, the R-70 and the R-71. Off in search of either of the latter I go...
Found one - parts rig - advertised on the site of the vendor which everyone loves to hate. Parts are usually a safe bet to buy from the gent, so I did...and promptly received a refund and a note that the unit had already been sold but the website hadn't been updated to reflect this.
:wall:
Immediately stuck an ad on QTH for an R-71. Got four replies - three that were in line with 'parts-only' prices and one who was a tad higher than that. The high-priced unit could probably be fixed but these are going to be gutted and I couldn't see disassembling an almost functional set. So I bought the first two. According to the sellers, neither had any filters or other options installed and the prices reflected this. Including shipping, I have $270 in both.
Rig 1 arrived Saturday at 5PM. It had evidently been in water at some point in its life as there is a considerable amount of chassis rust but most of the boards look fine. Did a quick powerup to test everything and it worked...up until the sticky keys on the numeric keypad ruined the fun. So it was carefully disassembled and the parts tucked away. It did have the IC-CK70 DC power kit which was removed and stashed.
Rig 2 arrived today and was inspected when I arrived home. A little dirty but overall in good shape. I fired the unit up and the frequency display refused to illuminate, though the mode and VFO indicators did. (And I know the fix for this, but since I already had a working display from Rig 1...)
I got a hell of a surprise when I removed the bottom cover. It not only had the speech option but an RC-11 remote controller board was installed!
Front panel, knob and switch removal ensued; the display was swapped with the working one and a new meter lamp was fitted. The cosmetic stuff went into the soak tank while the electronics were dealt with, then a rinse/dry/reassembly later it was ready to test. The CK70 was fitted at this time, as I prefer to run all of the receivers in the shack with 12VDC instead of their internal AC supplies.
Needed an alignment of the RF/IF section and the BFO/PBT reference oscillators required adjustment but it's playing fine now.
Just need filters, an FM board and a UX-14 for remote control and the project is a wrap. And I still have leftover pots for my R7000 project.
This was almost as good as paying $300 for a broken R7 and finding a fully complement of filters and the NB-7A installed. Said blanker fetches almost as much as I gave for the entire receiver!
That is, a couple R7000s I have in the lineup are going to get some mods - and I need some concentric potentiometers plus the knob sets to accomplish this. Problem is they've been discontinued by Icom. Thus, eBay or the various classified sites/support groups are the only way I'm going to get the parts.
So I won a set of IC-740 knobs on eBay. They're common to that rig, the R-70 and the R-71. Off in search of either of the latter I go...
Found one - parts rig - advertised on the site of the vendor which everyone loves to hate. Parts are usually a safe bet to buy from the gent, so I did...and promptly received a refund and a note that the unit had already been sold but the website hadn't been updated to reflect this.
:wall:
Immediately stuck an ad on QTH for an R-71. Got four replies - three that were in line with 'parts-only' prices and one who was a tad higher than that. The high-priced unit could probably be fixed but these are going to be gutted and I couldn't see disassembling an almost functional set. So I bought the first two. According to the sellers, neither had any filters or other options installed and the prices reflected this. Including shipping, I have $270 in both.
Rig 1 arrived Saturday at 5PM. It had evidently been in water at some point in its life as there is a considerable amount of chassis rust but most of the boards look fine. Did a quick powerup to test everything and it worked...up until the sticky keys on the numeric keypad ruined the fun. So it was carefully disassembled and the parts tucked away. It did have the IC-CK70 DC power kit which was removed and stashed.
Rig 2 arrived today and was inspected when I arrived home. A little dirty but overall in good shape. I fired the unit up and the frequency display refused to illuminate, though the mode and VFO indicators did. (And I know the fix for this, but since I already had a working display from Rig 1...)
I got a hell of a surprise when I removed the bottom cover. It not only had the speech option but an RC-11 remote controller board was installed!
Front panel, knob and switch removal ensued; the display was swapped with the working one and a new meter lamp was fitted. The cosmetic stuff went into the soak tank while the electronics were dealt with, then a rinse/dry/reassembly later it was ready to test. The CK70 was fitted at this time, as I prefer to run all of the receivers in the shack with 12VDC instead of their internal AC supplies.
Needed an alignment of the RF/IF section and the BFO/PBT reference oscillators required adjustment but it's playing fine now.
Just need filters, an FM board and a UX-14 for remote control and the project is a wrap. And I still have leftover pots for my R7000 project.
This was almost as good as paying $300 for a broken R7 and finding a fully complement of filters and the NB-7A installed. Said blanker fetches almost as much as I gave for the entire receiver!