Albrect AE-8000 sounding underwater

 This CB radio was quite popular here in Germany, with it's 80+12 channels and an output of 4W / 1W.

More details about it can be found on the rigpix website.

This one came sounding as if it was underwater. So the first thing I did was connect it to my radio communication tester to see if it was on frequency and if the sensitivity was within the specificaitons for this set. The results showed it was bang on the money and everything was just fine.

A play with the knobs on the front of the radio showed that the signal was intmittently getting louder or quieter as they were moved. So the case was cracked open to get a better look at what was going on.

The potentiometers were not easy to get to, so the front panel was removed as well. Then switch cleaner was used to clean all the potentiometers.

One of the background lights on the meters was also out, so it had to be replaced too.

This means removing the front panel of the radio and unscrewing the chassis.

The the lamps were accessed from the rear of the front panel:

Unfortunately, this radio had been worked on before and the lamps had been replaced. The tech doing this job, lifted the traces on the PCB. So I had to rework the traces to be able to solder in new LEDs.

The radio was then screwed back together and tested on the radio communications tester. The receiption was in spec. for THD and SINAD and not further work was required.