THIS CITIZEN BAND HF TRANSCEIVER HAS AN ISSUE AND NEEDS SERVICING BY A TECHNICIAN TO BRING IT BACK TO FULL OPERATIONAL CONDITION
OR
UPGRADE TO 10 METRES FOR QRP AMATEUR RADIO USE
It is very important that those interested in this transceiver to read EVERYTHING in this detailed description so that you can gain an idea of what needs to be done!
HISTORY:
In a previous life I was heavily involved in professional communications (Maritime) and on a personal level, Amateur radio (ex VK2DWF and now relinquished for some years) so of course I collected radio equipment, even very early AM Citizen Band equipment and SSB gear. HF frequencies were always of interest, particularly with phenomenons such as "skip" allowing communications over great distances with very low power, when the conditions were "right"
I have no idea who is still using SSB on HF (Citizen Band) but I feel this type of equipment from REALISTIC (Tandy) may be of more interest to those who have their "ticket" and wish to upgrade/mod/retune this TRC-450 for use on 28Mhz as a little QRP transceiver.
Nice looking beastie and from what I have gathered around online, many still have high regard for these 450's, particularly the receive performance.
Quite a bit of forum discussions about these, how to mod etc BUT keep in mind that this is the AUSTRALIAN VERSION, meaning that it has 18 Channel capability whereas the Yankee version has 40 Channels
So if you like a servicing/modification challenge and enjoy listening to the constant crashing/crackles of HF communications (seriously, who uses Squelch?) then this could be a unit of interest to you
Please read on for the details of this REALISTIC TRC-450 mobile transceiver ...
REALISTIC - COMMUNICATIONS TRANSCEIVER
Designed & made in Taiwan
Marketed by Realistic (Intertan Australia)
Intended for the Australian market - 18 Channel capable
Dates from the 1980's ~ 1990's period
Model: TRC-450-18
Analog AM, SSB (USB/LSB) HF Transceiver
Frequency range: 27Mhz (fixed channels totalling 18 in number)
Readily modifiable for 10 metre use
RF power output: 4W maximum
Internal speaker fitted ** See note below about this though!
An array of nice shiny buttons and knobs across the front panel with that eerie Red glowing channel display - looks very "techie" in an old sort of way!
All the usual front controls you would expect on such a transceiver ...
Power ON/OFF - Volume
Clarifier (BFO for SSB)
RF Gain
Squelch & Display dimming concentric control
Channel select rotary switch
Mode selection (AM-USB-LSB)
PA-CB-MON Slide switch selector
INTERNAL-EXTERNAL-BOTH Speaker slide switch selector
RX signal strength and TX power output display uses a small, backlit horizontal analog meter
On the rear:
PL259 Antenna connector
External Speaker connector (3.5mm jack socket)
External PA speaker connector (3.5mm jack socket)
DC (nominally 13.6V) is supplied to a male 3 pole socket, I am NOT including the matching plug but I do have it available HERE
I have listed the plug separately as I have a few different REALISTIC transceivers but only ONE DC lead has been found in my box of tricks
ITEMS NOT SUPPLIED:
A microphone is NOT supplied
DC power plug is NOT supplied
Mounting bracket and thumb screws are NOT supplied
DIMENSIONS:
184mm wide x 260mm depth x 58mm height
WEIGHT:
1.8Kg (Steel casing)
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
NO physical damage to the "two part" steel body or the front panel
NO damaged knobs or controls
ALL labelling is clear and easy to read on the front panel
Some light "spot marks" to the front panel/knobs - these are all made from that tasteless plastic with a metallic Chrome-like finish - pseudo metal!
Light marks/no serious scratching to the Black metal casing at all
I took a quick look inside the unit (easy to access by removing 8x side screws to lift off the top & bottom covers), all clean
TESTING:
Enough of the "static" this is the part that really matters!
Using a 12V DC supply I had on hand with a simple adhoc antenna fitted...
SPECIAL NOTE
While the transceiver works as it should WITHOUT the microphone plugged in, there will be no local audio from the internal loudspeaker unless you have a microphone plugged in. A trap for newbies!
Plug in a REALISTIC microphone (or hard wire the connections yourself) and the internal speaker will come alive.
Power ON (rotate the Volume control) and the very retro RED display comes alive! All segments of the 7-segment digit display are working.
Started off receiving with the mode set to AM - all good so far, white noise with some "atmospherics"
I found another AM transceiver to use as a 'signal source" and absolutely no troubles receiving the signal and hearing the modulation
Switched modes to USB, all fine here too although just a lot of atmospheric noise heard.
I am not convinced the "Clarifier" is working properly, I couldn't hear any detectable "beating" as the control was rotated with a signal present - not sure about this one.
Lastly I went to LSB and the audio level drops considerably, I can still hear "off air" noises but the level of the audio is much lower - possibly a problem here
Display dimming control works fine
All controls were without "rotating noise" EXCEPT the mode switch which is a bit noisy when switching modes - this is a sealed unit so I cannot get inside to give it a clean up.
Next I attempted to "key up" (transmit) and here is a problem - checking with a frequency analyser I can see NO RF output at all, on any channel.
I had a closer look at the PCB and I think "someone" has begun a small amount of work on this board, just a couple of solder pads look like they have seen the tip of a soldering iron.
It may have been me, thirty odd years ago, I really have no idea as my memory is such these days that I can bearly remember what happened yesterday let alone 30 years ago!
So, if the project is simply a "service and restoration job" then the TX side will definitely need a look at, plus a good alignment check on the receiver wouldn't hurt either.
If being converted/modified to the 10 metre band, there seems to be a fair amount of information online about how to go about this anyway.
Service manuals (with schematics/alignment techniques etc) also seem to be freely available online.
I am over with servicing, no test gear to speak of, bad eyes these days so I am not about to go fault finding .... that is the new owner's task
So there you have it, a real antiquity from the world of Citizen Band AM-SSB analog communications equipment - offered as a fun project for those who have the required technical abilities (and test equipment!)
