Colt excalibur

Good evening, has anyone changed the bulbs for the am, usb or lsb mode on a colt excalibur? Just wandered if they are the same as the swr bulb etc. Thanks in advance.

Is that the big home base ?? if so then yes they are the same.

The same, but different


I don't get it Alan, when you open the radio the bulbs are plain to see. Flying leads on the meter bulbs and wire end on the indicator display. (Good luck stripping the flying leads off the bulbs without damaging them.)


Search for "grain of wheat bulbs" and you'll find various sources for them......model trains anyone?

Prices from pennies under the model train categories and pounds if an "official" radio bulb.

Of course, people suggest "upgrading" them to LEDs, but they never look the same again.

"B, B, B, Blinded by the light!"
(Bit of Manfred Mann for anyone old enough )

Thinking back some 35/40 years i fitted bulbs to the meters on the Marko Excalibur i had.
Couldn't find any of the correct ones so i soldered 12v fairy light bulbs in with the coloured paint scraped off and a blob of glue to hold them.
I had that radio for many years and they never failed.
Funny how i can remember that but not what i did yesterday.

Nice if you find the right ones Alan.
35/40 years ago most fairy lights were incandescent bulbs, they mostly seem to be LED's nowadays.

I've seen it all, broken glass in S-meters where someone broke the tip of a fairy light bulb trying to squeeze it in, to melted plastic where a bulb ran too hot as they fitted what they found. I've seen transistor drivers blown because they fitted the wrong rating bulbs to botched attempts at LED conversions, again drawing too much current. Most seem to think LED's run 'cool' as well and they flipping well don't if they're an over rated super bright!

I'm all for a soundly engineered bodge, but sometimes it goes horribly wrong.
(None of that knocking you Alan, just fair warning to all )



How the hell would I know?
I've owned two Excaliburs in my time, both obtained dirt cheap because someone had the golden screw driver on them. Both sold on for a massive profit after I finished restoring them.....

Thinking back that might have been the first time i ever opened a radio.
The one i had was the Marko Excalibur and a ham guy called Dick did every mod possible on it for me and i used it for years.
Only other thing i remember was rebuilding the power supply in it.
Can't remember where it went would like one again now for nostalgia but they fetch silly money now.

If it helps any, the typical type of bulb can be found here on ebay :-

eBay - 12 volt T1 80mA bulb

I'm not personally recommending this seller, just a typical example of how easy they really are to find.
That price is for two including p&p, some cheaper places will actually cost you more in shipping.

You sometimes find these being sold in batches of 10 or even 100 if you scout around and although overall cheaper you have to ask if you really need 100

As for the Excalibur, take the lid off and the bulbs are plain to see on the PCB for the front face. They even made it easy to replace them, you don't have to remove the front panel! Simply unsolder them, pop the new one in the hole with the leads suitablly bent and solder back up.

Sorry, couldn't find any pictures so this is just from memory.

HTH not just you Colin, but anyone else that may be looking around for these type of bulbs and fixes.

(I had to do my Yaesu S-Meter one recently and for a 40 year old rig that first bulb lasted quite some time! )


All the best,
Victor

Nice one Alan. Yep, think they were the same rig, came under various guises
Just looked at some of the silly prices, should've hung onto mine for much longer! Seems they have 'antique/collector' type prices to them now

Thank you for the replies. Those are the bulbs I will get. Best regards.