A local guy has an immaculate R8
for private sale for about 400 (US)
The only downside is, he is a smoker
and the R8 has been exposed to
8 or so years of cigarettes.
He claims to have replaced the
encoder -- are there any other
issues that I should know about?

Colin -


/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
www.coffeecrew.com Colin Newell's Daily Grind
rnewell AT vcn DOT bc DOT ca
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Dear Colin,

If the seller is local to you, you can go over to his house and try the
radio for yourself. If the radio was well-taken-care-of, there should
be no problems.

Cigarette smoke does not cause any real damage to radios. The tobacco
odor will dissipate over several weeks and should be totally gone in a
year or less. If you're really concerned about the odor, leave the
radio outside for a few hours each day (in nice weather only!). That
should accelerate the dissipation of the odor.

Best,

Joe

Check the functioning of all keys, switches and controls. Unless you
can put up with the smell, I would keep looking. I turned an otherwise
immaculate Yaesu 7700 back because it reeked of stale cigarette smoke.

8 years of exposure to cigarette smoke is a long time, and it gets into
every nook and cranny.

Cigarette/pipe/cigar smoke wont have enough affect on the radio to worry
about.Computers are affected much differently by smoke though.It can and
sometimes does do a lot of damage to computers.It is best to not smoke
(better still to not smoke at all,I smoke like a choo choo train) near
computers.At least buy/use one of those air cleaners that helps to trap
smoke particles.
cuhulin

There's a very good chance it will develop lung cancer down the road!

There's a lot more to what cigarette smoke does to a receiver than smell.
It gets into every control, key and contact. I bought an NRD-525 that must
have been exposed to smoke. Several of the keys won't make contact, all the
variable resistors are noisy and it's just about unusable. About the only
thing that can be done is to replace the bad resistors and switches and
clean all the contacts. Not a small job.

John Reed

Dear Colin,

If the seller is local to you, you can go over to his house and try the
radio for yourself. If the radio was well-taken-care-of, there should
be no problems.

Cigarette smoke does not cause any real damage to radios. The tobacco
odor will dissipate over several weeks and should be totally gone in a
year or less. If you're really concerned about the odor, leave the
radio outside for a few hours each day (in nice weather only!). That
should accelerate the dissipation of the odor.

Best,

Joe

I guess I never though cigarrette smoke could have much affect on
radios.But after looking in my ash tray (small sardine can,the best kind
of ash trays,they won't break and they last forever) at the ashes in
there and the smoke,I have changed my mind.I wouldn't want to pour a lot
of smoke particles or ashes in my radios and my computers.I am going to
have to do something about my smoking or lessen the chances of cigarette
smoke getting into my good radios and computers somehow.Some stores sell
a type of cigarette ashtray's that has a charcoal filter and a little
battery powered fan in the base of the ashtrays.The fan pulls the smoke
down through and out of the charcoal filter.If I can't find an ashtray
like that,I am going to make one myself.
cuhulin

I have an HQ180 that was owned by an extremely heavy smoker. The entire
radio was yellow/brown from smoke. Clean up was not all that bad and it has
had no problems since I have owned it which is now going on 13 years.

"John Reed" wrote in message
...
There's a lot more to what cigarette smoke does to a receiver than smell.
It gets into every control, key and contact. I bought an NRD-525 that
must
have been exposed to smoke. Several of the keys won't make contact, all
the
variable resistors are noisy and it's just about unusable. About the only
thing that can be done is to replace the bad resistors and switches and
clean all the contacts. Not a small job.

John Reed

Dear Colin,

If the seller is local to you, you can go over to his house and try the
radio for yourself. If the radio was well-taken-care-of, there should
be no problems.

Cigarette smoke does not cause any real damage to radios. The tobacco
odor will dissipate over several weeks and should be totally gone in a
year or less. If you're really concerned about the odor, leave the
radio outside for a few hours each day (in nice weather only!). That
should accelerate the dissipation of the odor.

Best,

Joe

"John Reed" wrote in message
...
There's a lot more to what cigarette smoke does to a receiver than smell.
It gets into every control, key and contact. I bought an NRD-525 that
must have been exposed to smoke. Several of the keys won't make contact,
all the variable resistors are noisy and it's just about unusable. About
the only thing that can be done is to replace the bad resistors and
switches and clean all the contacts. Not a small job.

John Reed

I've cleaned out computers owned by smokers. What a nasty mess! Just think
what goes into the lungs : (

DeWayne


Dear Colin,

If the seller is local to you, you can go over to his house and try the
radio for yourself. If the radio was well-taken-care-of, there should
be no problems.

Cigarette smoke does not cause any real damage to radios. The tobacco
odor will dissipate over several weeks and should be totally gone in a
year or less. If you're really concerned about the odor, leave the
radio outside for a few hours each day (in nice weather only!). That
should accelerate the dissipation of the odor.

Best,

Joe

wrote in message
...
I guess I never though cigarrette smoke could have much affect on
radios.But after looking in my ash tray (small sardine can,the best kind
of ash trays,they won't break and they last forever) at the ashes in
there and the smoke,I have changed my mind.I wouldn't want to pour a lot
of smoke particles or ashes in my radios and my computers.I am going to
have to do something about my smoking or lessen the chances of cigarette
smoke getting into my good radios and computers somehow.Some stores sell
a type of cigarette ashtray's that has a charcoal filter and a little
battery powered fan in the base of the ashtrays.The fan pulls the smoke
down through and out of the charcoal filter.If I can't find an ashtray
like that,I am going to make one myself.
cuhulin

I bought a Kenwood TS440s a few years ago. I forgot to ask if he was a
smoker. The smell was absolutely sickening. I cleaned it up and still could
smell it. PU!

DeWayne