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The "Astro
Commander" walkie-talkie
(Also known as the "Space Commander") |
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It would be too bad if the HA-70c walkie talkies
never worked again, so let's fix them. |
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The idea was to replace the four electrolytic
capacitors, then go after the transistors, which is exactly what was
done.
But first I eyeballed the circuit boards, and I found something
weird on the first one I opened. |
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WHAT THE DICKENS?! What happened to this
resistor? It figures, this is the unit with no warranty card, or I
would return it to Lafayette! |
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The other side of the circuit board has an amazing
amount of solder on it.
The manufacturing process was probably all done by hand, and very
quickly. |
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The broken resistor, four capacitors and a
transistor were replaced. This unit now works as well as it ever
did.
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In the second
unit there was a wire that wasn't soldered to the volume control. It
was just sitting on it.
The catalog stated, "Completely Wired With Volume Control". Wouldn't
that imply "Completely Soldered"? |
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Some of the old capacitors are only rated at six
volts! Time marches on - the new ones are rated at 50 volts,
but are the same size. On the right, a 30 MFD cap tests at 728
picofarads. That's .000728 MFD. It is deceased. |
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Soldering the green wire onto the volume control
and replacing the capacitors brought the second unit back to life.
Not only do the two HA70C's talk to each other, they are
(unsurprisingly) compatible with the HA70d version. |
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| I entertained the idea of replacing
every resistor, capacitor and transistor in one of the
HA-70C walkie-talkies. Considering how cheaply they were
made I'd have the finest one on Earth, but what good would
it do me? Who would I talk to? |
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BOX ART MYSTERY |
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I found this picture of the box on the web. I
wasn't able to contact the website owner, and now I can't even find
the site.
What the heck is the astronaut holding in in hand?? |
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| In the 1970 catalog, the
walkie-talkie was called "Astro Commander" again. What is
interesting is that the top drawing captured two members of
the group "Devo" when they were youngsters. The middle
drawing shows it being used to teach a deer to do headstands
and other cool tricks. None of the people in the drawings
are in outer space or engaged in activities pertaining to
spaceflight, so they must be talking to someone who is. |
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Here's something very funny. The
text above is from the "Swap Shop" column of Electronics
Illustrated, January 1968. This guy wants to
swap his six dollar Astro Commander for a Hallicrafters or
National receiver. You can guess how that probably worked out.
This is the same issue that has the article on "Cheapie
Walkie-Talkies" mentioned earlier. This adds irony to the
humor, since he would have had no idea the walkie-talkie
article would appear in the same issue as his request.
Guess what - He's still around. His name is James Dean. He's
70 years old (as of 2022) and still lives in New Orleans.
Check out the walkie-talkie article on Page 73
here. |
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Now it's time for me to go into orbit around the
moon in a Gemini space capsule and talk on my Astro Commander. If
you don't hear back from me, that pesky heat shield failed on the
way home. |
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| If you found this at all
entertaining, try clicking
here.
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This broadcast is now concluded. Tune in again tomorrow; same time, same
channel. |
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