Galaxy Pluto DX88HL – Totally Dead

by MD0MDI
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Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio
Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

Some time back I was given an old Galaxy Pluto (DX88HL) Export CB Radio to play with but as I have been messing around with a few things of late I decided to get this old set out and see what it was like…

Just one problem, this was dead!

Now I was told when I was given this that it was a good working radio that had not been used much, now as far as CB Radios go, and especially export CB Radios such as this one, to find one that has not been played with is about as rare as seeing a Dodo walking down the high street in top hat and tails, OK, maybe not that rare, but still pretty much…

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

And except for the layers of dust, this radio does look a little on the clean side, though there are some oddities with this radio that get me thinking it has been looked at by someone…

The first being the strange screws? Normally these are black on Galaxy Radio’s, well at least on the ones that I had seen before that were brand new and straight out of the box, though this is my first time with a Pluto that I can recall.

The next is the crosses on the side of the radio and lines across where the cases meet! both of these are relatively silly and normally are put on by one of those so called ‘Rig Doctors’ that was once shown something and is now an expert at it! For every good technician out there, there are at least 50 ‘Rig Doctors’ and as far as I am concerned they cause more issues than they correct, and not one of them seem to know (or have the relevant equipment) how to align a transceiver even when they say that they can.

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

Looking at the back of the radio I cannot see anything out of the norm, so maybe this is untouched, One of my big hatreds is switches added to the back or sides of the radio, it is up there with using front panel switches to add extended bands or other features to a radio.

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

So opening the radio and having a look is the only option, and after looking around the insides and the back I was already sure about what was causing the issue, but I thought that I would test the normal stuff anyway, first off the diode across the power terminals, which I tested in site first and this came back as OK, so after a quick desolder I checked again and, yep the meter was correct, still not happy to trust the new fluke, even though it states it can do this sort of test in site I just prefer the old way.

After this there is another diode that I want to check….

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

Now after checking through the schematic and the wiring connections drawings, the next diode should not really cause a complete lack of power to the radio, but this was labelled D91 and was situated right next to where the power enters the main PCB, but on testing this also checked out OK.

So I was happy with this as the problem was staring me in the face anyway, but I will get round to this later after a few photos of the things that I was not happy with…

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

You have to love cut wires! a sign of the quality of workmanship of the last so called ‘Rig Doctor’.

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio
Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio
Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

The tell-tale signs of bodgers

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

Now why was that not fixed back to the side of the case?

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

Maybe because they snapped the head off the screw and then could not be bothered to extract it and put a new one back – Typical IDIOTS!!!!!

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

I forgot just how many capacitors I will need to replace to get this running again properly.

Galaxy Pluto 6 Band SSB CB Radio

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