Retuning radios

[TomoHawk]

In the U.S. (Ohio area) is there any place that can tune or retune radios? I haven't had my stuff checked in a while, and I have some airplane radios I'd like to change over to use for boats.

thx

[toesup]

You might be as well contacting the manufacturer of your radio's and see if they have a local (to you) service agent. The radio's may well have to go back to the manufacturer (US) though.

Its may be cheaper to replace the aircraft radio's with surface frequency radio's rather than have them converted... if they can be converted that is.

[TomoHawk]

he manufacturers of the transmitters I have won't retune them, because they prefer to sell you a whole new system, which isn't required if you just change the frequency range on the TX.

Most popular transmitters like Futaba or Hitec can be retuned to a different range, but only approved radio techs can do it.


The question was who are those service people?

[toesup]

I'm pretty sure the manufacturere of the transmitters I have won't retune them, because they prefer to sell you a whole new system.

Most popular transmitters like Futaba or Hitec can be retuned to a different range, but only approved radio techs can do it.

The question was who are those service people?

http://www.futaba-rc.com/service.html
http://www.hitecrcd.com/pages/support/34

[TomoHawk]

Will Futaba service other brands of radios? Will Hitec? I don't have any Futaba or Hitec stuff to tune.

[toesup]

Will Futaba service other brands of radios? Will Hitec? I don't have any Futaba or Hitec stuff to tune.

:eek:

Can i have a clue which radio's you DO have?

[ThrustTugKeith]

Theres a guy named Tony, down in Florida (cant remember the company name, darn it) that may help. I talked to him awhile back, asking about a repair on the ancient Futaba I use with the Tug (broken toggle switch). Maybe CG Bob, or Patmat, may remember what I'm referring to. If I figure out the e-maill addy, I'll post it here.

S.

[Prins Willem]

Try looking up amateur radio (ham) repair shops in your area. They may retune your radios. No repair license is required to work on R/C equipment so maybe a TV/Radio repair shop could do it too. I looked up amateur radio for my area and this site came up. They have a store in Cleveland if that is near you give them a call. I know they have been in business in Milwaukee as long as I can remember.

http://www.aesham.com/

[steveciambrone]

I had a guy in Texas convert my Ace Micropro 8000 to a surface frequency he did advertise in Model Aviation back then. The trouble was getting the correct Crystals, hard to find. You will need to be able to get FM or AM crystals for your radio. Retuning from 72 to 75 MHZ can be done on most radios usually without any other component change but the crystal. If it is an old AM radio then it is best not to even bother.

It was easy when I converted my Futaba Super 8 radio to surface, ordered the RF deck on a 75mhz frequency from Tower and a Surface Receiver to go with it. The RF deck is removable from the radio. Extra surface receivers could also be purchased from Hitec.

Look at the cost of retuning a transmitter and RX first. It might just pay to change to 2.4Ghz and sell the old stuff off.

Thanks
Steve

[steveciambrone]

Try Radio South R/C

www.radiosouthrc.com

They have been around forever.

Steve

[fooman2008]

try these guys I worked for them a lot of years ago and they had someone who could retune radios for surface freqs, pretty good shop too.
http://www.hobbyworld.biz/index.html look under Orange Park Hobbies
Foo

[TomoHawk]

I looked up amateur radio for my area and this site came up. They have a store in Clevelandhttp://www.aesham.com/
Those guys aren't very friendly, and they don't service r/c boats!
They only sell ham radios, not r/c radios, and don't service r/c radios. Try asking on rcgroups.com to see if they know of a place for service :eek: Yeah, right...
The guy told me to take my boat to the local hobby store to fix it. :mad: And that was after I emailed them asking if they can tune 75 MHz r/c transmitters.

With all the libility crap going on now, I doubt a TV repair shop would even bother with you, unless the guy did r/c stuff on the side. I might make some calls, if it starts snowing (again.)

:mad: but thx I will have to box up all the transmitters and ship them somewhere across the country (or back to China??) , instead of just dropping them off llocally.

[Prins Willem]

It should not be this difficult to find somebody to fix 72 & 75 Mhz radios. They are not exactly cutting edge tech. Any competen tair, marine, CB or police radio tech should be able to do the job easily. It just seems to me that a company like the one I suggested would take in some easy jobs to keep the techs busy, especially in this economy. They must be doing very well.

Tomohawk sorry for the bum steer. I hope you keep us posted on your progress. Ask around and maybe you can find a local radio repair person (CB, police/fire, marine, aviation etc.). The cops of fire dept. might tell you who fixes theirs.

[TomoHawk]

I'd check with Ace radio to repair the Nautical Commander.

There's a Hobbytown USA nearby, maybe they know of somebody to tune radios.

[CG Bob]

I work at the HobbyTown USA in Mentor, and we usually tell people to:
1 - send the unit back to the manufacturer's authorized service center
2 - try Amatuer Electronic Supply
3 - depending on the age of the radio, buy a new one

[Prins Willem]

I work at the HobbyTown USA in Mentor, and we usually tell people to:
1 - send the unit back to the manufacturer's authorized service center
2 - try Amatuer Electronic Supply
3 - depending on the age of the radio, buy a new one

CGBob,

You may want to reconsider #2 as that was the suggestion I gave Tomohawk and he got a less than warm response. Maybe the world needs a few more electronics technicians and a few less politicians and personal injury lawyers.

[mfr02]

The manufacturers go to considerable expense to certify that their transmitter works to parameters as required by legislation to ensure a safe level of working. Re-tune it and the certification is void. In the event of a problem, the person in charge of the device, and/or the person who modified it, become liable for the consequences and another lawyer books an expensive holiday.
If the transmitter uses a separate tuned module, and a replacement module is available (like some of the top end Robbe and Futaba TX's), this can be done and certification is still valid.
Re-tuning RXs is unlikely to be worth the time spent thinking about it.

[TomoHawk]

I contacted several radio sales/repair places, and


1- They don't sell or service radio controlled models.
2- They don't service r/c radios, only the radios (ham, cb, etc.) that they sell, if anything.
3- You can't use 72 MHz radios for surface models (huh? wasn't the goal to convert to 75 MHz?)
4- Why don't you just buy a new radio set on your frequency?
5- Just get a new $500 spectrum radio for each model.

So you can conclude the service people are overly myopic, and without a lengthy explanation of what you're trying to do, they just hear or read some words (i.e. "have a 72 MHz transmitter," and "model boat") so they don't care to understand what you're getting at anyway. :confused:

That and I think the only guy in Ohio that used to service r/c radios retired years ago, and it costs $50,000+ (HUH!??) to get into the service thing yourself.



So you get to buy used transmitters on eBay or someplace else. :(

thx everybody :)

[TomoHawk]

I contacted the major manufacturers like Hitec and Futaba, and I was told by each that you can't retune the 72 MHz transmitters to 75 MHz. They are now all built (overseas) specifically for that frequency range, and that's that. Thye only thing you can change is the channel crystal. For two channel models, you are limited to the cheap $40 radio sets, and if you want to use your old airplane radio for your boat- forget it, and throw it away to buy a new $500 GHz one.

thx

[CaptLee]

Tomohawk Contact Radio South in Fla., he can handle the switch and is pretty quick at it. Sent my 6 channel in and it was back within two weeks(Calif to Fla and back via UPS). Does good work too!! There is a place in Texas called Dumond that have had good feedback on but have never used them personally. Most makers would rather sell a radio over fixing one. If in the market for 2.4 ghz take a look at the DX5 for $99.95.

[TomoHawk]

Thx, I will see what they can do, but like I said, all the new stuff isn't supposed to be adjustable or tuneable.

[steveciambrone]

Tomohawk Contact Radio South in Fla., he can handle the switch and is pretty quick at it. Sent my 6 channel in and it was back within two weeks(Calif to Fla and back via UPS). Does good work too!! There is a place in Texas called Dumond that have had good feedback on but have never used them personally. Most makers would rather sell a radio over fixing one. If in the market for 2.4 ghz take a look at the DX5 for $99.95.

I used Dumond before and they provided good service.

Thanks
Steve

[TomoHawk]

Dumond R/C Service Co. 6731 Bridge Street #224. Fort Worth, TX 76112. Tel: 817-457-6685 sorry, no website information.