Collins VHF-20 Aircraft VHF Transceiver / Transponder Teardown

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Күн бұрын

A teardown of a collins VHF-20 Communications transceiver likely from a falcon 20. Let's take a close look at the nicely hand crafted components and investigate its parts and how it works.

Пікірлер: 25

@EvilmonkeyzDesignz Жыл бұрын

Very cool to see the insides of this device! The RF power transistors are especially nice 😁 I couldnt find a datasheet for the TRW part, but found one for both of the Motorola parts. They are both NPN silicon Bipolar Junction Transistors. They are essentially the same, but the 2N5641 is only rated for 7W while the 2N5642 is rated for 20W. Very interesting!

@BGTech1 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for commenting. I’ve always wondered about those and their configuration. It would be really interesting to learn more about how it works.

@thomasives7560 2 жыл бұрын

Old Collins gear is amazing to take apart and see how much love goes into everything. Unlke today's gear, almost every component was hand-soldered in by somebody, then inspected by somebody else, and the unit would have gone through extensive testing before it was ever sent out. For those reasons, it was very expensive, but when you need to depend on your radio to get yourself and all the souls onboard your aircraft back home, it is worth it. If you do some searching, you can probably find the service manual online to understand the electronics inside this unit a little better. BTW, the 'blue chip' is a resistor pack, and the ceramic round trimmers are trimmer capacitors. Those trimmer capacitors are very nice/precise components and will last virtually forever, so it is worth taking them out when you scrap the unit. Great video, love the channel. Cheers!

@humphandhumbug 11 ай бұрын

I used to service these radios daily nearly 30 years ago. Gutted to see the way it had been deliberately damaged. The VCO was the most expensive part to replace, and if it failed, it often saw the unit BER. The VCO module is potted, so you can’t repair them. The two transistors at the front are the modulator transistors, and fed the power to the final two RF stud power transistors. The 20mhz module on the underside of the receiver board is the Intermediate Frequency filter which was 20MHZ. When in receive mode, the VCO would put out a frequency 20mhz higher than the tuned frequency. The two transistors after the tuning coils are the RF mixer which gives the product and the sum of the two frequencies; we only need the product, hence the filter. The line of transistors after this are the IF amplifier stages before it goes to the detector diode. The rest of the circuitry on that board is the audio amplifier and squelch cct. It’s amazing what you can remember after all this time. I also own a VHF-20, and have the manuals and a CTL-20 controller. At some point I’ll get it wired up and working, but remove the transmitter drive so there can be no accidental transmission.

@BGTech1 11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the great comment, I really enjoy learning about this stuff! It really is a shame someone purposely ruined this unit. It was a scrap years find, bought for scrap steel price. I’m still glad to have it though.

@wb8cxo 4 ай бұрын

I wanna buildup VHF/CTL-20. Got parts.... another someday project.

@TeardownOZ2CPU 2 жыл бұрын

WOW they drilled a hole all the way thru to make sure no one booted it up.. great score anyways, cool to see so much of the radio stuff made in flying -leads methode, no pcb's almost like a prototype, very expensive and time consuming for production, the blue IC's are resistors, thanks alot for the video.

@BGTech1 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching! You should check out the flight computer teardown I did. The point-to-point wiring in that box is insane

@msylvain59 2 жыл бұрын

Wow this unit was badly damaged on purpose, they wanted to be sure it would not be reused. It is the kind of condition I would sadly consider the unit is not worth keeping and I would scrap it, to keep the storage space available for something else. Very typical Collins construction, no lack of gold plated parts.

@BGTech1 2 жыл бұрын

This was a scrap yard find, bought for steel price. It’s unfortunate its in bad condition but I’m still glad to have it.