How can I tell if this radio is working?

[wasatchrebel]

I just bought an old GE CB radio at a garage sale for $2.00. I hooked it up to a magnetic mount antenna which is missing the magnet, so it's no good as a mounted antenna, but would the missing magnet cause the cb not to receive any sound at all? I can't even hear a hiss from it, no matter where the squelch knob is turned and with the volume all the way up. Also, I tried hooking up some headphones to the external speaker jack to see if I could hear anything through them, but no. How can I find out exactly where the problem lies?

[Sandbagger]

Aug 6, 2009 12:23:45 GMT -5 wasatchrebel said:

I just bought an old GE CB radio at a garage sale for $2.00. I hooked it up to a magnetic mount antenna which is missing the magnet, so it's no good as a mounted antenna, but would the missing magnet cause the cb not to receive any sound at all? I can't even hear a hiss from it, no matter where the squelch knob is turned and with the volume all the way up. Also, I tried hooking up some headphones to the external speaker jack to see if I could hear anything through them, but no. How can I find out exactly where the problem lies?

Is the microphone plugged in? Are you in CB and not PA? Most of those mobile rigs require the mic to be in to get receive audio to the speaker. If the mic is in (and there are no broken wires), then it is likely that the audio amp IC is blown, assuming that the radio lights up ok, and there is some indication of receive signal on the meter.

[2600]

The quickest, most cost-effective way to troubleshoot that kind of trouble is by substitution.

You try a mike that you know is good.

Try another antenna that is working on another radio.

But if you don't have those handy, this makes troubleshooting more complicated.

If your 30 year-old radio has only one fault in it, that would be fine.

But rare. 30 years (or more) is a long time for a radio. Never assume that ONLY ONE thing is wrong with equipment when it won't do anything at all.

Mikes break more frequently than radios. But if this radio has the 5-pin DIN-style plug, finding a "known good" substitute mike won't be easy. Nobody much will stock a new mike wired that way. And if the radio is broke, buying one would be a waste of money anyway.

And the antenna is clearly broken. Sounds like maybe you need to start over with a working antenna. Fixing it may be tough. It's not built to be repaired.

But if the radio is broken, that would be a waste of money.

There's just no cheap, easy guaranteed way to troubleshoot a radio system that's dead when you have no tools and no spares.

73