In the year 2022 I bought a small series of FM-3600 (RT-3600 transceiver family) parts. It was a mix and match batch, so everything was cleaned, tested and new assemblies are made. One RT-3600 transceiver was rather nice, but the connector was broken. I has some incomplete RT-3600 transceivers, so I planned to use one of the connectors as a donor one for the 'nice' RT-3600.
On the image above are the two U-183/U audio connectors visible that are used for a handset, headset or similar audio device. The top one was damaged and therefore not usable and water could enter the enclosure via the damaged connector. A outer circlip pliers is used to unscrew the nut. A hammer and chisel could be used, but the chances of damage is much higher and the nut wasn't that tight so the pliers worked fine. The nut was removed and the connector could be removed.
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The RT-3600 is pulled out of it's enclosure and the two top bolts of the front panel are removed. The result is that the front panel can tilt to create better access to the working area. The two audio connectors are at the right of the front panel as seen on the image below.
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The wire connections are documented and it's clear that the two connectors are linked directly and together they're fed with five wires. A detailed image of the working area is shown below.
By using a soldering iron and a set of tweezers, the wires are desoldered. With the soldering iron and a manual desoldering pump, the excess of solder is sucked from the wires to get the wires fresh for soldering. The freed connector is pulled from the front panel and replaced with the donor connector.
A lot of effort is taken to wind the wire ends around the connecting pins. This is done by wrapping the wire ends around the pins using tweezers. This takes time, but the soldering is much easier this way. After finalising the wire wrapping, the wires are soldered finalizing the electrical connections.
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After finalising the soldering, the front panel is brought back to it's original position. Beware not to damage the 'fork' for upper/lower band switching, be gentle and help the mechanism to fall into place. The two screws are fitted again and the RT-3600 is put back in it's case. The repair is done and the result is rather nice. The RT-3600 functionality is back. The original conenctor color is green and the replacement one is blue. Well, I don't care. ;-) The functionality is back and that's my main goal. Job done. :-D
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