Cleaning Up An Fm-900 To Make It Look Good - Philips FM92E Manual

8: Cleaning up an FM-900 to make it look good:

This assumes, of course, that you don't actually want your new transceiver to have that "lived-in" look.
Remember, a clean mind makes you radiate more and be the talking point of your shack.
Since most of these units have seen "active service" in commercial operations including fire brigade tankers and
the like, it is unusual to find one which is not absolutely filthy dirty. No problem.
The transceiver unit
Cover all electrical connectors with tape. Do not remove the top and bottom covers at this time.
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Get a paint brush, maybe 1 or 2cm in width, and brush out the worst of the dust from the grooves and
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channels.
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It may be necessary to cut the length of the bristles by half, to make a stiffer brush.
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Use a dampened sponge or cloth to finish cleaning as far as possible. Dampen your brush to clean in
crevices.
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If the unit is not scratched or badly marked, spray with furniture cleaner (Mr Sheen or similar) and wipe.
Another option is Armour-all or similar.
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If the unit is badly marked, obtain a can of auto touch-up spray (Holts or similar) and lightly re-spray the
unit. You may like to remove the covers for this, remembering to cover the electrical parts, of course. :)
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If you do remove the covers, place the screws on a cloth and spray them with WD-40 or similar.
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When the unit is dry, remove the tape from the connectors and lightly spray them with WD-40 or similar
and wipe off the excess.
The Control (Head) unit
Disassembly
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For this you are going to dismantle the unit.
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fill a sink (with a strainer in the plughole) or any container with warm water and detergent.
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If fitted, remove the mounting bracket from the control unit, and throw the bits in the sink.
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If the microphone connects to the front of the unit (directly under the "PWR" switch), prise it straight off
towards you.
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Remove the vol and mute knobs from the front panel. Just pull them straight off. Throw them in the sink.
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Flip the unit over, and undo the four screws from the back corners. Put them on a cloth and spray them
with WD-40 or similar.
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Lift off the back cover and throw it in the sink.
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There are two circuit boards in the control unit. They are connected by ribbon cables and need to be
removed together, along with the speaker.
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Undo five screws from the upper (back) board, and two screws from the lower (front) board, on either
side of the "Ext Spk" switch. (If fitted.)
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Remove the nut holding the "Ext Spk" switch (if fitted) and pull the switch back into the unit. Gently lift
the two boards out of the front panel, but only as far as is necessary to reach the screws holding the
speaker brackets.
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Remove the screws holding the speaker brackets.
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Remove the circuit boards and the speaker as one unit. On some units, note the position of the hard-
wired microphone connector cable.
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From the front circuit board, gently remove the "channel up" and channel down" buttons, as well as the
three blue buttons. Just pull them off. Throw the buttons and the front panel in the sink.
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using your cut-down paint brush, scrub all the plastic parts with warm water and detergent, in particular
removing all the gunk from the crevices in the front panel, then rinse and dry with a clean cloth.
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It may be necessary to brush the circuit boards with a clean paint brush.
Philips FM92E Conversion to 6 Meters: Version 3.9 Page 9