BC8500XLT Light Replacement

[b7spectra]

I've been told I'm blind in one eye and can't see out of the other, because I didn't find any post relating to this.

My tried and true BC8500XLT has had the orange LCD light go out. All the other lights work except that one. How simple is it to replace it? Also, what type "bulb" does it use.

Thanks!

 

[KenLayton]

If your pushbutton LED's are still lit up to normal brightness, but just the display backlight is out or acts erratic with brightness (dark one minute, weak brightness the next, full brightness when first turned on, etc) then you have a bad driver transistor on the main board.

Transistor Q46 has gone bad. It is originally a type 2SC2120-Y. You can use any one of these three transistors to replace it:

SK3849

NTE 293 (prefered replacement because it's a TO-92 giant package)

NTE 289A (normal TO-92 package)

If you can get a snap-on heat sink for the transistor, that would help dissipate the heat from this transistor as it gets hot. Uniden undersized this transistor, IMO, for the job it has to do.