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Post by Raccoon on Jun 19, 2020 16:35:39 GMT -5
Hey everyone , I bought a really nice Lafayette Comstat 23 base radio from back in the 60's a little while ago . But I'm having a hard time finding anything out about these radios online . I can find Comstat 23 Mark IV & V .... and I can find the Comstat 25 , but not the Comstat 23 .
So I was just wondering if anyone knows where I can find out more about the Lafayette Comstat 23 ... like the owners manual , reviews , or basically just anything in general .
Thanks
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Post by SIX-SHOOTER on Jun 19, 2020 16:46:01 GMT -5
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
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Post by Sandbagger on Jun 19, 2020 22:19:51 GMT -5
Hey everyone , I bought a really nice Lafayette Comstat 23 base radio from back in the 60's a little while ago . But I'm having a hard time finding anything out about these radios online . I can find Comstat 23 Mark IV & V .... and I can find the Comstat 25 , but not the Comstat 23 . So I was just wondering if anyone knows where I can find out more about the Lafayette Comstat 23 ... like the owners manual , reviews , or basically just anything in general . Thanks That's a tough model to pin down. Originally the Comstat 23 looked identical to the Comstat 25, the only difference being the original Comstat 25 actually had 25 channels, whereas the Comstat 23 had (you guessed it!) 23 channels. But after the extra 2 channels in the 25 were shot down by the FCC, and the Comstat 25A was reduced to "only" 23 channels, Lafayette started marketing the Comstat 23 as a "budget" alternative to the Comstat 25 series. They removed the fine tuning from it. I believe they made a MK 5, and 6 version of the "budget" version. Checking CBTricks shows nothing for any of the Comstat 23 versions. I'm kind of curious what the differences were electrically between all the versions. I know that the Comstat 23 MK 6 was electronic switching, which was a bit unusual for a tube rig. There were also fewer tubes than the Comstat 25. Other than that....... Hopefully yours works well and doesn't need a whole lot of parts to bring it back to full glory.
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Post by Raccoon on Jun 20, 2020 8:05:20 GMT -5
I've been trying to track down anything I could about this Comstat 23 . There are very few videos or posts about it anywhere online , and usually when I do it has to do with the Comstat Mark series . Luckily it was already recapped , and had all new tubes put into it before I got it ... so hopefully it won't need any work anytime soon . I was shooting skip on it about a week ago , with good reports . So it seems to be doing alright .
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Post by Raccoon on Jun 21, 2020 19:01:37 GMT -5
I've been keying up the Lafayette Comstat 23 , and monitoring the audio with a couple of different radios ... and I've used a couple of different microphones on the Comstat too .... and every time there has been a hum coming in with me whenever I key up . Would that be a bad tube , or something else ?
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Post by 2600 on Jun 21, 2020 22:14:15 GMT -5
The hum is most likely rectifier ripple, caused by the failure of filter capacitors. Very typical failure. The aluminum electrolytic capacitors used in those radios were designed for a ten or fifteen-year life. Any proper repair calls for replacing every, last one of them in the radio.
73
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Post by Raccoon on Jun 21, 2020 23:52:15 GMT -5
It was already recapped recently ... that's why I was suspecting a bad audio tube . The lettering on the audio tube in it is faded , and I can't find a manual ... so I don't know which tube to replace it with . Would it be the 6BQ5 , like with so many others ?
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
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Post by Sandbagger on Jun 22, 2020 16:05:49 GMT -5
It was already recapped recently ... that's why I was suspecting a bad audio tube . The lettering on the audio tube in it is faded , and I can't find a manual ... so I don't know which tube to replace it with . Would it be the 6BQ5 , like with so many others ? If it's a taller 9 pin tube, then it's likely a 6BQ5. if it's a 7 pin tube, then it's likely a 6AQ5 the shorter 9 pin tube is likely to be a 12AX7
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Post by Raccoon on Jun 23, 2020 10:54:59 GMT -5
I broke down and bought the Sam's Photofact #12 for the info it has on the Comstat 23 ... and I also bought the Photofact #45 for the Kris 23+ . I should be good now
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Post by Polycomm on Jul 22, 2020 9:02:06 GMT -5
First Post! I have been looking for a Lafayette Comstat 23 for a while and ran into your post - good to hear you have yours working again. The Comstat 23 was introduced in 1966 as a 23 channel rig with a 100mw power switch on the back. Sometime in 1966 the HELP program was proposed to the FCC that would have opened channels 24/25 in between 22 and 23. Back in the day they were called channels A &B. In 1967 Lafayette (probably in '66 but it was in first in the '67 catalog) dropped the Comstat 23 and introduced the Comstat 25-25 channel version which had channels A & B enabled. The front panel of the Comstat 25 says "25 Channel Crystal Control". I have one with a 1967 inspection stamp. Somewhere along the way the Comstat 23 Mark V and Mark VI were introduced as low priced 23 channel rigs. They are very different in that they don't have a fine tune control and the receiver was simplified to single conversion. Later in 1967 Lafayette dropped the Comstat 25 and introduced the Comstat 25A-25 channel version. The front panel says "25 channel Crystal Control" This one had all the channel A & B crystals installed but the channels were disabled through a jumper on the channel switch. A note was in the manual saying to contact Lafayette when channels A & B were authorized and their engineers would give instruction how to enable the new channels. The HELP program was never authorized so channel A & B were dropped which lead to introducing the Comstat 25A "23 Channel Crystal Control" version of the Comstat. I have never checked the catalogs but it looks like this was 1968. The 100mw switch on the back was also eliminated. Mine is stamped 1969. Finally in 1970 the Comstat 25B arrived and 1975 the Comstat 35. All of these rigs share a common chassis but the tube lineups are slightly different and the crystal setup was changed through the generations. Manuals can be purchased through the manualman www.manualman.com/Pete either worked at Lafayette back in the day or was at a service center - he has a lot of Lafayette info. I have picked up manuals from him and the reprints are good quality.
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Jul 22, 2020 18:30:31 GMT -5
First Post! I have been looking for a Lafayette Comstat 23 for a while and ran into your post - good to hear you have yours working again. The Comstat 23 was introduced in 1966 as a 23 channel rig with a 100mw power switch on the back. Sometime in 1966 the HELP program was proposed to the FCC that would have opened channels 24/25 in between 22 and 23. Back in the day they were called channels A &B. In 1967 Lafayette (probably in '66 but it was in first in the '67 catalog) dropped the Comstat 23 and introduced the Comstat 25-25 channel version which had channels A & B enabled. The front panel of the Comstat 25 says "25 Channel Crystal Control". I have one with a 1967 inspection stamp. Somewhere along the way the Comstat 23 Mark V and Mark VI were introduced as low priced 23 channel rigs. They are very different in that they don't have a fine tune control and the receiver was simplified to single conversion. Later in 1967 Lafayette dropped the Comstat 25 and introduced the Comstat 25A-25 channel version. The front panel says "25 channel Crystal Control" This one had all the channel A & B crystals installed but the channels were disabled through a jumper on the channel switch. A note was in the manual saying to contact Lafayette when channels A & B were authorized and their engineers would give instruction how to enable the new channels. The HELP program was never authorized so channel A & B were dropped which lead to introducing the Comstat 25A "23 Channel Crystal Control" version of the Comstat. I have never checked the catalogs but it looks like this was 1968. The 100mw switch on the back was also eliminated. Mine is stamped 1969. Finally in 1970 the Comstat 25B arrived and 1975 the Comstat 35. All of these rigs share a common chassis but the tube lineups are slightly different and the crystal setup was changed through the generations. Manuals can be purchased through the manualman www.manualman.com/Pete either worked at Lafayette back in the day or was at a service center - he has a lot of Lafayette info. I have picked up manuals from him and the reprints are good quality. The timeframe of 1966-67 was an interesting time with Lafayette radios. Some of them had 100mW switches early, only to have them removed due to FCC rule "clarifications". Then there were radios like the Comstat 25, the HB-444/25, and the HB-525, which were made for a short time with 25 channels pending the approval of the H.E.L.P. program. I's say that was a bold gamble on Lafayette's part to produce radios for those channels before they were approved, only to have to replace them with "A" models which returned to the standard 23 channels. In the Comstat camp, the realization that the Comstat 25A was no different feature-wise than the Comstat 23, the Comstat 23 MK 5 became a "Muntz TV", budget version which they could sell cheaper. Interesting that you mention the Comstat 25A still having the capability of 25 channels. That must have been a VERY short production run. I've never seen one. Every 25A, I've seen had only 23 channels, and no 100mW switch. The earliest 25A I have has the 25 channel selector and number card, but the "A" and "B" can be seen on the card, but there is no color on the letters and the dial does not click into those positions, it just slips through until it hits channel 1. Also the radio circuits were completely redesigned and the main crystal frequencies were changed from 41 Mhz to 23 Mhz. The newer 25A that I have has only a 24 position switch, but the circuitry is the same. I also never figured out what the point of the Comstat 35 was (hated that orange channel knob). It really wasn't any different than the Comstat 25B, except for minor cosmetic changes. Like other makes that used the Panasonic chassis, the Comstat 35 SHOULD have came out as a 40 channel radio, like the Shakespeare 740, and the Robyn "Yellow Bird" 240. But it's an interesting history, in a radio line.
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Post by Polycomm on Jul 23, 2020 16:30:30 GMT -5
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Jul 26, 2020 15:20:30 GMT -5
Looked through those catalogs. Looks like 1966 and early '67 were interesting for Lafayette. 1966 saw the introduction of the 5W/100mW switch for their tube radios (never saw it included on any solid state rig). The Comstat 23 was new in '66, only to be replaced by the Comstat 25 in '67, which advertised 25 channels (along with the HB444/25) and the 5W/100mW switch. Later in the year, they downplayed the 25 channels, with a disclaimer that they were illegal to use until the HELP proposal was adopted. By the end of the year, they were coming out with the Comstat 25A. Gone was the 25 channels and the 100 mW switch. That power switch was gone from all of their rigs in '68.
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Post by Raccoon on Jan 8, 2021 10:07:48 GMT -5
I check the forum regularly , so I have no idea why I didn't notice the replies sooner , and I apologize for not responding sooner . I love all the information that has been given about the different Lafayette radios . Because I had such a hard time finding anything out about the Comstat 23 radios , I decided to make a video for my Youtube channel to hopefully help others that buy , or are looking to buy a Comstat 23 . I'm currently working on it , and I'm trying to focus on it's features , and it's history . I'll be sure to let everyone know when I finish it .
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