Looking for someone to repair my Sony Air-8

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airsquad9

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Looking for anyone that's able to work on my Sony Air-8. I just purchased it off eBay and the sound is non-existent. If I turn up the volume all the way, I can almost hear something if I put my ear to the speaker. Found lots of YouTube videos on the fix but I don't know how to solder. I'll pay for all shipping and repair costs. Also I live in Las Vegas, so if anyone's in the area or knows a repair shop, that would be great too.
 

tvengr

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If you are able to barely hear aircraft, the RF stages may be OK. Try plugging an earpiece or headphones in the headphone jack and see if it works. You could have dirty contacts on the headphone jack which are muting the speaker.
 

cmjonesinc

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I thought I remembered it being something with the volume and squelch pot. A little googleing later and I found these.
Vol Pot

PTP90 1 -0 30K-203

Squelch Pot

PTP90 1 -0 30K- 503

Mouser has them both but they are only showing 1 of the volume and after it's gone it will be a 26wk lead time. I think I would go ahead and get those coming while you look for someone to replace them.
 

danesgs

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I will look at it if you ship pay for shipping to and from VA. Have worked on scanners and other radios over the years.

Greg-KJ4DGE
 

airsquad9

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If you are able to barely hear aircraft, the RF stages may be OK. Try plugging an earpiece or headphones in the headphone jack and see if it works. You could have dirty contacts on the headphone jack which are muting the speaker.
I tried that. No luck.
 

airsquad9

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I thought I remembered it being something with the volume and squelch pot. A little googleing later and I found these.
Vol Pot

PTP90 1 -0 30K-203

Squelch Pot

PTP90 1 -0 30K- 503

Mouser has them both but they are only showing 1 of the volume and after it's gone it will be a 26wk lead time. I think I would go ahead and get those coming while you look for someone to replace them.
I found a couple on eBay and ordered them. They're coming from China though. Hopefully they're the right ones. Pretty sure that's the issue.
 

merlin

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Looking for anyone that's able to work on my Sony Air-8. I just purchased it off eBay and the sound is non-existent. If I turn up the volume all the way, I can almost hear something if I put my ear to the speaker. Found lots of YouTube videos on the fix but I don't know how to solder. I'll pay for all shipping and repair costs. Also I live in Las Vegas, so if anyone's in the area or knows a repair shop, that would be great too.
I am no longer in Vegas, Had a shop on Highland Dr.
If you run into problems, HRO (Ham Radio Outlet) is on Arville a couple doors N of Thomkins.( Trop/Arville area)
(Look for antennas)
They are good people to work with and likely take this on for you.
If that fails, get back to me.
 

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moonbounce

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If you can take your radio apart so you can see the on/off switch you should see on the pot one or two little square holes. If you can get that far then get some 99% rubbing alcohol and if you can get a syringe fill it with the alcohol and squirt it in those little square holes it will clean up that control. After you squirt it in twist the volume control to make sure it cleans itself. I had the same problem with a radio and that solved my radio problem, I couldn't hear anything before cleaning and after cleaning it was like brand new. You can do the same for non responsive keypads.
 

airsquad9

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If you can take your radio apart so you can see the on/off switch you should see on the pot one or two little square holes. If you can get that far then get some 99% rubbing alcohol and if you can get a syringe fill it with the alcohol and squirt it in those little square holes it will clean up that control. After you squirt it in twist the volume control to make sure it cleans itself. I had the same problem with a radio and that solved my radio problem, I couldn't hear anything before cleaning and after cleaning it was like brand new. You can do the same for non responsive keypads.

Thanks for the tip. I managed to do that and can actually hear something now. Still low but at least somethings coming out. Thanks again!
 

merlin

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If cleaning won't restore normal sound you may have a bad pot. It happens. You would need some basic soldering skills to repair yourself. Need help, PM me.
73s
 

moonbounce

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Thanks for the tip. I managed to do that and can actually hear something now. Still low but at least somethings coming out. Thanks again!

I would keep at it, carbon buildup can be hard to get rid of. Just another thought, with the radio on try lightly moving the volume control and speaker wires see if you hear any difference in the sound, you could have a bad solder connection. I was just checking out a picture of the radio and I see it has a squelch switch, spray that one also if it has a carbon buildup it can also block the signal.
 
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