"Patrick" wrote in message
news
Looks like it has some good stuff in it that I'm interested in
learning about. Is it worth the 20 bucks? If not, any other good
reads?

Hi Patrick.

It covers basic repair information for those with no technical background.
If all you want to do is tinker in your own radios and pass the difficult
jobs to a real tech, then it will do fine. If you want to really get into
repairs and mods, you should look for a book that covers at least basic
electronics and radio theory.
With the theory, you can work out the rest.

The trained monkey approach may be fine if you are just tinkering with your
own equipment and can only hurt yourself, but it really helps to understand
more of why things are as they are so that you don't do repairs or mods that
seem OK but can cause serious problems.
It should always be remembered that high voltages can kill, so mains sets
and tube amps can be dangerous. Basic safety needs to be learned if you want
to look at any such equipment.

One fine example was a repair I once saw, where the complaint was that it
was "not getting out well". The strange thing was that it was putting out
about 7 Watts, but not getting as far as a 4 Watt radio.
The problem was a modification inside that caused it to spread it's output
across not only the CB band, but also Amateur frequencies. I am sure that
the "rig doctor" involved saw no reason why his circuit should not be
used... it seemed to work. Basic theory would have told him what would
happen.


Regards,

Peter.
http://www.citizensband.radiouk.com/
http://www.electronics.radiouk.com/