A friend of ours passed away who was huge into CB/Ham. I picked up various items from his estate including transceivers, mics, etc. One of the coolest units is a Vintage Swan 500cx transceiver with an external 117xc power supply. Unfortunately, when I plugged everything in and flipped the switch, there was a pop from the 500cx, followed by smoke. I know nothing about these units so I'm wondering if anybody out there might have an idea what went wrong. I have repaired the two arcade machines I have so I know how to solder, use a multimeter, etc.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Several things could have happened. Improper termination, gain set to max on power-up. Who knows. Maybe it didn't work to start with. The thing I think goes to 300 watts. Should have had some help before plugging it in. Could have irradiated yourself with 300 watts continuous as well. Why not just put yourself in a microwave oven? playing with high power electronics unknown can be dangerous.
Lol. Luckily I suffered no burns or the like. Also, I didn't have an antenna hooked up. Just wanted to check if the unit powered on.
Yes, I was exaggerating about the 'cooking' anyway.
Lots of power with no place to go...
When we tested transceivers, we used a dummy load. This way, the power had a place to go.
Planning to put it up on eBay. Think it's fixable for a person in the know? I'd hate for such a nice vintage unit to go to waste because of my impatience (idiot that I am, I used a power cord from an old International transceiver that was in the lot. It has the same 15 pin connection, so I figured there wouldn't be an issue. Much like computer line cords are universal, I assumed these were as well, but when I later found the 117cx's cord, it had a fuse built in. So I suspect using that old cord might've contributed to 500cx blowing.)
The lot also had a Kenwood ts-530s new in the box.
If you didn't have an antenna plugged into it or one without the proper resistance, and you keyed the mic, you probably damaged the output circuit.
These things have like 480Watts out SSB. Good thing about those is that the tubes are strong, probably just a trace or discreet component burned. Open and look for the signs.
Well, here's the service manual. Maybe you can fix it?
Be careful with it because you might end up talking to him in the past.
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