In late April this year, I stopped at a yard sale, and there I found a Cobra CB radio, in great condition, forlornly sitting on a table full of junk. Inexplicably, since I have no interest in CB radio, I asked "How much?" and the person said, "A dollar. It works."

So I bought it. And it sat in my shed. I didn't have an antenna or anything for it. Then, in late July, I stopped at a Flea Market, and there was a nice new-in-packaging magnet-mount mobile CB radio antenna sitting on a table full of junk. "How much?" I asked, "10 Bucks" the person replied. "Too much." I said and put it down. "Fifty Cents" the person said. So I went home with an antenna.

Now, the radio and antenna sat on a different table full of junk all summer, waiting for me to order an SWR meter and some cable. I already have a nice 12VDC power supply and wanted to test it by my shed with the antenna stuck to a big hunk of sheet metal ground plane first.

Finally, in late September, I remembered to order the SWR meter and some related short cables and adapters. They arrived late last week.

And THIS EVENING I finally went out to the shed, set everything up, and I turned the power switch on the CB Radio on, and it immediately burst into flames. Sigh. Electrolytic capacitors do not age gracefully.

It got tossed out the door quickly, nothing but the radio was hurt.
I think maybe I'll just buy a new radio for $40.