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Craig L231 mic wiring issue

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Retroradio

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Interesting radio. I had one in 1990 and scored a barn find. Cosmetically a mess but an easy fix. It came with no microphone.
I pulled the wiring down off CBTRICKS and no luck.
It receives without the mic in. (and its awesome)
I can get the relay to trip but no signal deflection on power out or modulation on the meter.
Anyone have any experience or suggestions?
 

KB4MSZ

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I found this Astatic wiring guide. It lists your radio and the color code to each pin. At the end of the guide it shows the type of connection for the Astatic wire colors. Maybe you can derive the proper pinout using this guide for your microphone.
 

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Retroradio

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KB4MSZ, an excellent suggestion and the first place I looked. Unfortunately my D-104s are not 4 wire and my 6 wire is dedicated to another radio. I tried deriving using a stock radio shack mic to no avail. I can get the relay to trip but no modulation, or power reading.
It doesn’t look like the previous Owner(s) changed the wiring on the mic plug but 3 of the capacitors that go to it are not connected.
No bodge wires seen other than badly installed replacement meter lights.
The mic plug is unique to Craig/Johnson radios and oddly enough the same plug used on Commodore computers.
 

prcguy

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If you take a wire that is grounded and poke at each pin on the mic connector one should key the radio and it sounds like you might have found that. The radio should put out several watts of dead carrier and if it doesn't then the radio could have a problem. The mic connector is probably a 5 pin twist lock DIN type which was common for older Johnson and Craig radios.
 

dispatch235

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If it is a relay-switching radio you may need to take the cover off the relay and try cleaning it with some de-oxit or they used to make a little flat tool to drag through the contacts to clean them. I had a minty Tram D-40 that had sat in a basement for years and the contacts of the relay were somewhat tarnished, and relay cleaning tool fixed it right up...
 

Retroradio

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It is in fact a relay radio. I had one years ago and it was slow to go from Transmit to receive.
The relay clicks.I thought about removing the relay, contact cleaner and reseat but this one is not socketed, its soldered in place. Not use about removing the cover as the relay is not replaceable if it gets damaged.
Good point though.
 

techman210

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If you can download the schematic from CB tricks, I would look in the upper left-hand corner where there is switch “S6” - that allows voltage to the coil of a relay that is also poorly documented. One position disconnects voltage.

I imagine one position of that switch is for “PA“ and the other one is for “CB”. This relay coil seems to switch between the transmit and receive sections of the radio.

I would really look at that PA/CB switch and give that a good washing with contact cleaner and make sure input voltage is there.

Another way to clean dirty relay contacts without tearing into an old radio is just to exercise the heck out of the relay.

A good indication that you have a problem with the transmit/receive relays, is to monitor the current, note the receive current and then key the radio and look at the transmit current. If there is no transmit output but there’s an increase of current being indicated by an ammeter, you know the transmitter is generating power. You just have to figure out where that power is or is not going.
 
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