Remember when you could fix a radio with just a multimeter and a schematic?

I was working on an old Cessna 172's KX 155 nav/com last week, trying to save the owner some cash. I found a cracked solder joint on a filter cap, reflowed it, and the radio came back to life, but the frequency display was off by about 0.05 MHz. Turns out the old crystal had drifted with age, something a simple visual fix couldn't solve. What's the oldest piece of gear you've brought back from the dead lately?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_bailey351mo ago

Honestly, that's just wasted time when a new unit works perfectly, unlike @taylor.jordan's fun project.

taylor.jordan1mo ago

I got a 1978 Atari 2600 working last month. The picture was just rolling lines until I replaced a single, tiny capacitor on the main board. My big win was figuring out the soldering iron settings before I melted the whole thing.