Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Alinco DR-1200T bulb replacement

About a year ago I purchase this Alinco DR-1200T 2-meter transceiver. A few of the bulbs had been burnt out (display) which is common to these transceivers. Jim, KD6QVO, and Lou, KE6EOI have an article that tells how to replace the bulbs with the 18V versions. Their article did not discuss the specific part number but through a little research I found that Mouser Electronics and Allied Electronics both carried these replacement bulbs.

Mouser #606-CM7220 (18V) $0.55 ea,
Allied Electronics #749-0032 (18V) $0.83 ea.

I went with Mouser, since they do not have a minimum order ($) qualification. Allied has the $20 minimum order.

The replacement took about an hour for the 5 bulbs. I had to remove the display from the PCB in order to extract the bulbs (although not necessary). I decided not to install the switch from Jim and Lou's article as my radio doesn't see that much use. The most difficulty was in replacing the three bulbs in the front as these were through holes solder on both sides of the PCB. These three bulbs also have blue filters (rubber covers) that should be removed and placed on the new bulbs to reduce bulb intensity.

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Source:

http://www.vectorbd.com/bfd/mods/dr1200t.2 (Jim and Lou article)
http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Keyword=606-CM7220 (Mouser bulbs)
http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=749-0032&SEARCH=&ID=&DESC=7241 (Allied bulbs)