Dorpmuller
Member
OK, you rich guys can afford Icoms and AOR's. For me, (the poor) there's the Grundig/Tecsun Satellit 750. Here's what I did with mine; made it much nicer to use:
A little daunting... like other posts said, (Yahoo 750 group) the radio has to be disassembled almost completely. I am not responsible if you hose your receiver, burn it up, vaporize the entire planet or ruin it trying to do some other whackerific mod...
****
Unscrewed back (one screw in battery compartment-don't forget it) and unsoldered too-short-to-work-with antenna lead from connector on the whip.
Removed encoder, RF gain, squelch and BFO knob.
Fortunately the receiver subassembly screws in as a unit. Took out the screws holding it in. (way down deep looking into the face-down radio)
Used a pair of needlenose and GENTLY flexed the tabs holding the rotatable antenna in, just enough for me to pull it out. DON'T attempt to do this from the top of the radio-those tabs are not very flexible. the antenna would not pop out this way-I had to flex the tabs. Set it aside.
DO NOT FORGET to take the nut off the encoder before lifting out the receiver subassembly!! I gently worked the receiver black box out of the cabinet around the external antenna board. You'll see when you open it up.
The obnoxious beeper is on the display board. I took a pair of dikes and popped off the top cap of the beeper and used any gentle means necessary to crush the guts. Don't let the soft magnet ring break into a thousand pieces and fall into the guts of the radio.
There is not much solder on these wave soldered circuit boards. I got the dikes under the rest of the beeper and it popped out of the board cleanly. (YMMV)
Yaaaaaay!!
After that I reassembled the radio-making very sure not to let dust cling to the display or its window. HINT: To get the screws down into the holes for the subassembly, I taped them to the screwdriver. lowered 'em in, started them and pulled the blade with the tape out. The blue painter's masking tape works good-it is not gooey-sticky.
Made sure to solder the antenna lead back onto the whip connector, heat-shrunk it. CAREFULLY! Got the back onto the radio, making sure to put the encoder nut back on the front.
MORE HINTS-WHAT ELSE I DID:
The MW antenna had the usual intermittent. I used a pen (gray) eraser to clean it to a shine. Don't get fingerprints on it! Oil from your hands will oxidize it again. That was the problem from the factory.
Sprayed a SMALL amount of Deoxit on a rag and wiped a very thin coat of deoxit on the antenna plug. Plugged it back in-carefully-and voila'! No more intermittent on rotation.
I can't stand floppy knobs. A big deal for me is for the radio to have a nice feel when tuning. What I did: On the front panel you'll see a recessed channel that surrounds the encoder shaft. (outside circumference of knob) I cut a shim from a 3X5 file card and laid it in the channel; then I cut another shim from some felt, laid that in and put the knob back on the shaft.
Now, when I tune the knob is nice and firm with some resistance and very little wobble. I like to finer-and-thumb it anyway. Much nicer feel, but don't do this mod if you want the knob to spin freely with the finger dimple. Can't do that now. But if I hit the encoder when I fat-finger another control, it won't get knocked off freq either.
The receiver now is a joy to use-no more "That damn beep woke me up!" Bloody hell, I hated thet beeper!! and no more floppy tuning knob!
Comments welcome!
Rich
A little daunting... like other posts said, (Yahoo 750 group) the radio has to be disassembled almost completely. I am not responsible if you hose your receiver, burn it up, vaporize the entire planet or ruin it trying to do some other whackerific mod...
****
Unscrewed back (one screw in battery compartment-don't forget it) and unsoldered too-short-to-work-with antenna lead from connector on the whip.
Removed encoder, RF gain, squelch and BFO knob.
Fortunately the receiver subassembly screws in as a unit. Took out the screws holding it in. (way down deep looking into the face-down radio)
Used a pair of needlenose and GENTLY flexed the tabs holding the rotatable antenna in, just enough for me to pull it out. DON'T attempt to do this from the top of the radio-those tabs are not very flexible. the antenna would not pop out this way-I had to flex the tabs. Set it aside.
DO NOT FORGET to take the nut off the encoder before lifting out the receiver subassembly!! I gently worked the receiver black box out of the cabinet around the external antenna board. You'll see when you open it up.
The obnoxious beeper is on the display board. I took a pair of dikes and popped off the top cap of the beeper and used any gentle means necessary to crush the guts. Don't let the soft magnet ring break into a thousand pieces and fall into the guts of the radio.
There is not much solder on these wave soldered circuit boards. I got the dikes under the rest of the beeper and it popped out of the board cleanly. (YMMV)
Yaaaaaay!!
After that I reassembled the radio-making very sure not to let dust cling to the display or its window. HINT: To get the screws down into the holes for the subassembly, I taped them to the screwdriver. lowered 'em in, started them and pulled the blade with the tape out. The blue painter's masking tape works good-it is not gooey-sticky.
Made sure to solder the antenna lead back onto the whip connector, heat-shrunk it. CAREFULLY! Got the back onto the radio, making sure to put the encoder nut back on the front.
MORE HINTS-WHAT ELSE I DID:
The MW antenna had the usual intermittent. I used a pen (gray) eraser to clean it to a shine. Don't get fingerprints on it! Oil from your hands will oxidize it again. That was the problem from the factory.
Sprayed a SMALL amount of Deoxit on a rag and wiped a very thin coat of deoxit on the antenna plug. Plugged it back in-carefully-and voila'! No more intermittent on rotation.
I can't stand floppy knobs. A big deal for me is for the radio to have a nice feel when tuning. What I did: On the front panel you'll see a recessed channel that surrounds the encoder shaft. (outside circumference of knob) I cut a shim from a 3X5 file card and laid it in the channel; then I cut another shim from some felt, laid that in and put the knob back on the shaft.
Now, when I tune the knob is nice and firm with some resistance and very little wobble. I like to finer-and-thumb it anyway. Much nicer feel, but don't do this mod if you want the knob to spin freely with the finger dimple. Can't do that now. But if I hit the encoder when I fat-finger another control, it won't get knocked off freq either.
The receiver now is a joy to use-no more "That damn beep woke me up!" Bloody hell, I hated thet beeper!! and no more floppy tuning knob!
Comments welcome!
Rich
