Realistic Navaho TRC-457

[Sporty Mike]

Hey guys, I just secured a deal with a friend of mine for a Realistic Navaho TRC-457 Base, I'm gonna pick it up next week.
Has anybody got one of these?? I'ts a sweet lookin base, how do they sound?? I think it has SSB, I'm excited about that!!
Well, I was just wondering if anybody had any experience with one, and wanted to share my upcoming purchase with the forum!!


Thanks,
An excited Mike

[Foxhunter]

Some of online reviews of the radio seem to be pretty favorable on the Realistic Navaho TRC-457 and it's sister unit the Realistic Navaho TRC-458. They're a fairly sought-after base radio and many guys like them, although I'm sure you'll find a few who don't see it that way and might have their reasons why. I'd like to see what the negatives are on this pair myself, from curiosity. But many have good reports on them. I've never used mine yet, but do have one. If it works and you got it at a good price, try it out and tell everyone what you think.

Foxhunter 351 NJ

[Sporty Mike]

Yea, it's definately a good price, with a few xtras!!
He said it worked fine, but hasn't been used in years, he said he was going to get it out tomorrow and fire it up and make sure everything was still working.
He said he had an antenna to, that I could have if I took it down, but he didn't know much about it, as it was at his dads.
But he said I could have it all for 20$!!!


Mike

[Remo]

wow, if it works, its a heck of a deal !!

[SlowNeasy]

That was my very 1st base radio... The tone is a wee bit bassy and that is the main reason I bought it...

Nice radio...

SlowNeasy

[Sporty Mike]

Yea, I like a bassy tone myself, so that's cool!!

Lookin forward to it,
Mike

[Remo]

i got a local here that has/had one. it sounded great! then he went and tinkered around with it, and it hasnt sounded the same since, actually it sounds like crap.
BUT.... before he messed it up, it was a great radio ! haha

[Sporty Mike]

Yea, that's why so far I have resisted the urge to tinker with my main talkers!!
I have a few beater radios that I use for "experimentation"

Mike

[Remo]

yep, been there, done that. i learned the hard way.
unless its something really basic like setting a deadkey,... i just leave if for my tech.

[Sporty Mike]

Yea, that's what he gets paid for right???

Mike

[Sporty Mike]

Picked up the base a little while ago!!! Everything seems to work, gonna hook it up in a little while and see how it does.

I'll be back with the reults.

Mike

[Remo]

cool ! please post up !

[Sporty Mike]

Well, I hate to say, I was a little let down. The radio functions fine, but 30 years of age I guess hasled to, shall we say, Sh*TTy audio!!!
The radio functions great, all the meters all the lights!! It TX's fine, I got good reports back from it....the ones I could hear!! The recieve audio is terrible!!!
Major background static, alot of cracking and popping everytime you turn a knob, I think this is common in old radios.
Is it just age that causes all that bakground RF noise and popping in the controls?? Can this be gotten rid of by contact cleaning the controls??
This base has SSB, and I'd really like to try out SSB, but if I can barely hear who's coming back to me, it kinda renders it useless!!!
Anyone who has info to help, I would greatly appreciatte it. Otherwise, I have a nice looking retro base, that dosen't sound near as good as my 20 yr old Cobra 25!!!!

Frustrated,
Mike

[Night Crawler]

Plug in an external speaker and clean the controls with contact cleaner.

[Sporty Mike]

10-4 on the ex. speaker, I tried that, no diff. But I'm gonna try it again after cleaning everything with contact cleaner.

I've never contact cleaned anything sensitive before, should I just spray it and let it air dry??

I don't wanna hit anything I shouldn't with air pressure, if you know what I mean???


Mike

[Night Crawler]

Spray it in and work the controls back and forth with the radio off then wait till it dries.
Repeat as many times as needed.

[Sporty Mike]

Thanx Night Crawler!!! That did the trick, although I made my own External speaker because the old Preidential one I had sounded like sh** too!!
So I made me one out of a Sony 6x9, with an enclosure, cleaned that Navaho up, and Man!!! Does it sound good!!!

Lookin forward to listening to SSB, It's a new ballgame for me!!

Anybody know a good power mic for this base, or do you recomend not using one.


Thanx again
Mike

[potter1]

I have one of these radios, it looks awesome, but the swr and power meters dont work, does anybody know where i could get replacements? might be cheaper than buying an swr meter, im going to make a dipole antenna ant im super excited to get this thing going, but the meters dont work

[Pioneer621]

Hello Sporty Mike,
The Realistic TRC-457 is a nice radio, I own one myself, as well as the Realistic TRC-458 the little brother with the same board (although it needs repaired & I have not tried to troubleshoot it in a few years) & I also own the President Washington with the old 858 board.

They are good SSB talkers, I always got great reports when using my 457, I use to talk to a local SSB guy & he always loved the sound of it & said if I ever sold it he wanted it, I think every time I talked to him he always complemented that radio! They receive & transmit pretty good, & seem to stay on frequency after warm up.

I have had mine for probably 7 maybe 8 years now. The only problem with it currently is more AC hum in the speaker then when I first got it, which is from the power supply filter cap going out, which I keep forgetting to get.

Mine was worked on by a local tech that use to live nearby, I normally always do all the work to my radios (which I already did other mods to it, but it needed a repair), but he had the MIC preamp I.C that needed replaced & he new what he was doing so I dropped it off & let him put the new part in.

He did a mod in there while he had it, since he was real familiar with that chassis, I think it was either in the audio limiter section or the or the MIC audio section, I don’t remember, I know he lifted two diodes & put a solder bridge across where they were on the PCB, which definitely made the transmit loud but still clear. I don’t think he defeated the audio limiter as it still seemed to limit from over modulation, & I don’t think he liked doing that to a radio.

As for the MIC; well these radios have a MIC preamp in there already (which is the upc592h2 I.C) which gives relatively high gain & makes even the stock MIC modulate the radio to full output, I can switch from a D104 to the stock MIC & the only thing that really changes is the tone & I am usually told they both sound the same. On this radio I think most people liked the sound of my Turner Plus Three desk MIC, although it has been a while so I could be wrong on which MIC sounded the best, but I think it was the Plus Three, but the stock MIC was great too.

I think the last time I used the radio I just used my D104-M6B hand MIC since it is easier to use then my desk MIC’s and takes up less space & it did a fine job on the TRC-457. But my stock RS MIC does a great job as well, so if you can find a stock MIC that has a good tone to it, I think it would do just fine, but if you wish to use a power MIC, you should not have a problem there either. There is an internal MIC Gain trim pot you can adjust if needed as well (VR6), in the President Washington they have wires ran to this location for the front panel MIC Gain.

Again, good radio, & I guess just try different MICS until you find one that works & sounds the best! Have fun! Pioneer621

[Pioneer621]

I have one of these radios, it looks awesome, but the swr and power meters dont work, does anybody know where i could get replacements? might be cheaper than buying an swr meter, im going to make a dipole antenna ant im super excited to get this thing going, but the meters dont work

potter1,
If the meters needles are frozen & won’t move at all, a lot of time you can CAREFULLY free them up with small precision or I guess like small screw driver for eye glasses.

You can take the meter out (take the clear face off if needed to get at the set screw), & there will be a set screw holding the needle movement in place, it usually uses a standard flat head style precision screw driver. You carefully work the set screw back & forth until the needle moves free again. There may be a set screw on both sides of the movement, sometimes adjusting one will do the trick, but you may have to adjust both.

I have been able to free up most meters like this & have only had a couple that I could not. I have done a bunch of the Cobra 25 / 29 meters as well as a Cobra 2000 GTL modulation meter. So if you’re careful, you can likely save them. But you do need a set of the real small screw drivers, which you can usually get pretty cheap.

I hope you find some replacements or can fix the original ones, can’t really hurt them if you’re looking for replacements anyway!

Pioneer621

[potter1]

Thanks pioneer621, i've got her apart at the moment, and i tried playing with them and never really understood how to free them. and (like a **Censored**) i broke the potentiometer for the clarifier so i have to replace that now. should be easy thought. my radioshack should have a new one.

[potter1]

thankyou so much, i got them unstuck they work perfect now, just gotta replace that pot, might you know what vr's to adjust to increase power output? or know where i can get a schematic or tuning instructions? i know its a uniden board, if I knew what uniden models use the same board it would probably be easyer to find. thanks

[Pioneer621]

thankyou so much, i got them unstuck they work perfect now, just gotta replace that pot, might you know what vr's to adjust to increase power output? or know where i can get a schematic or tuning instructions? i know its a uniden board, if I knew what uniden models use the same board it would probably be easyer to find. thanks

potter1,
That sucks the potentiometer broke! I actually did the same thing with the SWR potentiometer, woops! I went to pull the knob off & the shaft pulled right out, I couldn’t believe it, I was not even forcing it really hard. Then when I dropped it off at the local tech for the repair I described in my above post, he later told me the clarifier potentiometer came apart when he tried to get the knob off as it was not centered. I just chuckled & told him the same thing happened to me with the SWR knob. He had the exact replacement clarifier pot so he changed that out too. Must be something about those pots used as they seemed to break very easy, maybe from age as they are old radios.

Unfortunately Rat Shack may not have the exact potentiometer for your clarifier, although they may have the correct value, it is probably the type with the extra long shaft & big mounting hole, so you will have to cut the shaft & drill out the hole to make it fit, I know this from when I went to replace the SWR potentiometer, that’s all my local stores carried.

As for some of the adjustments:
VR8 is the AM Power
CT7 is the SSB ALC (POWER)
VR6 is the MIC GAIN
VR7 is the AMC (Modulation Limiter)

This radio uses the same board as the PRESIDENT Washington, the older Washington with the two push buttons on the right of the face & uses the upD858 PLL chip.

I seen a schematic online for the TRC-457 & I think or maybe the Washington, I forget where I found it at, but it is free online somewhere, I may have it saved on a disc somewhere, but not sure. I think it may have been a copy of the Sam’s service manual, so it is out there.

If you can’t find the potentiometer at Rat Shack, let me know & I will look & see if I have any spares, I think it uses a 20K potentiometer for the clarifier, but give me the exact value of yours just incase I am wrong. I have a few spare 20K pots, but they have the slot to where they have click in the center of the rotation so you know when it is centered, they would not be the greatest for SSB use, but would work, I don’t know if I have any regular pots, I would have to look. It may not be 100% original, but I will make sure it will fit with no problems.

Glad to hear you got the meters working! If your careful, you can usually fix them unless there in real bad shape.

Pioneer621

[Lost Ram]

Some of online reviews of the radio seem to be pretty favorable on the Realistic Navaho TRC-457 and it's sister unit the Realistic Navaho TRC-458. They're a fairly sought-after base radio and many guys like them, although I'm sure you'll find a few who don't see it that way and might have their reasons why. I'd like to see what the negatives are on this pair myself, from curiosity. But many have good reports on them. I've never used mine yet, but do have one. If it works and you got it at a good price, try it out and tell everyone what you think.

Foxhunter 351 NJ

The TRC-457 is a Uniden made radio, back in the day this was probably the most famous marketed radio they had. With a little work this can be a great sounding Vintage radio. I have always liked firing up my Vintage radios!!

[potter1]

thanks,
as i live in Canada, radioshack no longer really exists. its replacement sucks even worse. and i cant find the pot anywhere. mine doesnt have the click in the middls, but it is a 20k. i've found a few online, but not the right size. if you had one that would be awesome. i would happily pay you for it. when adjusting the VR for the power, the meter doesnt change, is this normal?

thanks.