| Author |
Message |
    
Funtimebob
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 - 6:15 pm: | 
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I'm finally getting around to installing my 2nd TRC-448 to replace the 1st one that was junk off of E-Bay. Hopefully this one works.
anybody know which photofacts covers this radio?
looking on the Mods boards i have come up with the following
vr4-ssb mike gain
vr5-amc
vr204-alc
vr203-rf meter
vr205-am meter
vr209-squelch
vr-210-Am power
but no listing for ssb power.
the 1st radio most likely has a bad regulator (gets brighter on tx) and some other problems I would like to try and figure out.
thanks. |
Tech808
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 - 8:03 pm: |
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Funtimebob,
In the 2 books I have on Realistic / TRC both show SSB is VR204 for SSB.
Also for Modulation tune VR5 or / cut D27 & D28
Hope this helps.
Lon
tech808 |
Funtimebob
| | Posted on Friday, August 23, 2002 - 1:45 am: |
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thanks. I think somethings wrong with this one too.
cant get more than 3 watts outta this one on Am without swinging backwards on the meter or 10 watts SSB. has a looser recv to boot  just cant seem to find a decent one on E-Bay |
Rightwing
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 12:10 am: |
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get a sams photofacts on the radio, fix em up , and what you get for them get an rci or similar radio.. just a suggestion.... |
Rightwing
| | Posted on Thursday, October 03, 2002 - 3:41 am: |
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say bob, did youy ever fix the radios? please let me know as i may be interested in buying it as a spare radio. email me at rightwing1963@yahoo.com if you wanna talk about it. |
2600
| | Posted on Friday, October 04, 2002 - 12:26 am: |
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Hi Bob,
I gotta wonder. What's the fixation on the TRC-448. It's a radio that wasn't made for very long, so the factory never really got the production quality polished. Compare that to the Cobra 148/Uniden Grant radios, produced in one form or another for 20+ years at a handful of different factories. The design of a radio made in massive quantities gets refined, and the production quality of the radio AND the parts in it will be higher than any flash-in-the-pan one-year-only model. Me experience with the 448 isn't as nostalgic as yours. My impression of the thing when it was new(er)? I was glad they discontinued it. I think the assembly line where it was made went bust while it was in production. I can't remember their name right now. Something like "NDI", I think.
Consider that your disappointment may stem in part from the low quality of these radios when they were new. They don't get better with age. The problems your two radios had MAY be entirely from being 'screwdrivered' by unskilled yahoos. On the other hand, if they had performed well for the previous owners, would so many screwdrivers have been poked inside them? The other thing that causes problems is the Impossible-To-Find PLL chip. It was an early "unlocked" chip that would deliver extra channels the simple way with a few toggle switches and a resistor or three. This leads the yahoos to poke inside with ungrounded soldering irons, and pop the chip, trying to 'trick' it out. One quick touch of an ungrounded iron tip to the circuit board in a grounded radio chassis, and the PLL is silently assasinated, never to synthesize again.
Kinda reminds me of the Yugo. Parts from other radios just don't interchange with this one. A radio made in large volume, sold under multiple brand names and models means that a part from a junk radio is more available, and also might fit, too. No such luck for the 448. If the channel switch goes over the cliff, you're SOL.
Sure, it's just my own jaded opinion. Don't think it can make your day any worse, really.
73 |
Funtimebob
| | Posted on Sunday, October 06, 2002 - 1:05 am: |
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A friend of mine (deceased) a retired Zenith engineer had one slightly modified and aligned that worked really well. Good quiet recv. Better crystal filtering etc. not worried about extra channels, and it did have Good sound quality. He replaced the 3 audio output transistors with an IC and did a few other tweaks... |
2600
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 09, 2002 - 1:31 am: |
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Bob, may I respectfully submit the possibility that the way that one radio performed reflects considerable engineering talent on the part of your friend, not the nature of the radio as built. If NDI had been as sharp as he must have been, I wouldn't be whining about the way THEY built it.
Too bad you can't get THAT radio.
73 |
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