I've been in two early 5 pin side mic 148's since I've stared doing restorations that sat up in boxes or closets in our humid enviornment down here. Despite my suggestions for re-capping, the customers didn't want to go that route and added expense. These were unmodified or tampered with and even 30 some years later, the only improvements were the warping caps on the crystals due to crystal aging and some deoxit on pots and switches from oxidation. I couldn't do any better then the factory tune on the coils which like many older sets appear to be pretty stable. During the past 1 1/2-2 years that I did these radios, one threw an audio chip and a even though the 'lytics around it tested good, I still replaced them as a precaution. Personally, I would recap as a preference and to protect against future problems even if the radio met spec. If you have access to a frequency counter and DMM and a basic power/modulation meter, buying a small can of deoxit from RS or much cheaper on the net and there's plenty of downloadable manuals and SAMS docs on this unit. Even if you don't know what you're doing, following the procedure and geting the crystals on frequency and vco range within range and cleaning the pots and open frame ones would be pretty much what any competent tech would do if he didn't have some nonsensical ripoff mods he's trying to sell you. Harbor freight sells very decent dmm's for under $5 and you can get a chinese portable frequency counter for less then 3 starbucks lattes. An old 3 way test set that does swr/mod/power should cost more then $10 plus shipping off Ebay and all you really need if you're following a test procedure from any of the docs above. These were great radios and conservatively rated if you follow the original alignment. Recapping only takes basic soldering skills and there's plenty of outfits selling a kit of caps for particular radios that are higher voltage and temp rated.
The test equipment are things you should have anyways. What you learn doing this yourself is priceless.
Why let a chop shop that has a vested interest into selling you dubious mods that you don't need and compromise the longeivity of the components by pushing them well beyond thier nominal ratings?
The old, original units were a great chassis and need little control cleaning and retuning primarly of the crystals and vco lock range to return them to original spec. Maybe a good cleaning and regreasing of the power devices with a small tube of silicone grease would be a good addition as a precaution. Even old mics can use a good cleaning with deoxit on the switch and maybe the cloth baffle can use a good soak in ammonia or an ultrasonic cleaner to remove dried spittle and derbis for improved audio.
Lot you can do yourself without paying someone with a vested interest in trying to sell you on a bunch of mods.
