If you have one of the older classic transceivers, servicing and repairing them can be a real pain without the service manual…and the necessary extender cards, to lift your desired board clear of the others.  Service manuals are normally easy to find on line, but the extender cards are rare.  I’ve managed to assemble sets for the old radios I have.

Recently I acquired TWO old TRIO TS-900 transceivers from the early 1970s; one from a friend and the other from eBay.  The one from a friend is lovely and works well…the other is good but a bit grubby and needs TLC.  Note that these radios were sold under the Kenwood brand and Henry Radio in the USA.

I managed to obtain a download of the user manual which probably includes everything you need to repair a TRIO TS-900; the eBay radio came with an original well thumbed copy.  There is a digital copy of the more comprehensive service manual floating about, but so far I can’t locate a copy.  Can you help?

Incidentally, if you ever get the chance of one of these radios and have the skills to look after it, buy it!  They were the Rolls Royce of transceivers in their day and even have separate upper and lower sideband filters.

There is an eBay user ‘sparko6079‘ aka John Nery WA1ESO who makes and sells a wide variety of extender cards on eBay; just search for his user ID if the link above doesn’t work.  If you can get a set of manufacturer’s extender cards for your radio, do so.  John’s cards are a bit ‘agricultural’ in comparison to originals, and require finishing by you once they arrive.  John seems to make his cards by cutting a piece of copper board to size, milling separators on the board to make the tracks and then part soldering an edge connector on.  The copper is free to oxidise so you will need to apply a suitable protective coating.  Some of his boards are coated and the edge connector tinned; no gold plating like the originals.

John Nery’s boards are not perfect but with a little work can be ideal if you are caring for an older radio…a life saver in some cases.  John charges around $13 to put the board in a jiffy bag and post it.  My package had $3-23 crossed out in pen so I tackled John on this and he refunded $8-00.  The USPS is reliable and cheap…the expense comes because so many people scam sellers and claim they didn’t receive items.  Hence a signature is needed and the postage price soars.