How to hack the Radio Shack 20-125
What you’ll need:
A Phillips precision screwdriver
A flat head precision micro screw driver
A hobby knife or razor blade
1.
Take out the three case screws
from the back; do not take out the antenna screw.
2.
Here’s a picture of the back, do
not remove the antenna screw. JUST the
screw above the lift out stand in the upper center and the two screws in the
bottom left and right hand corners. Place the screws to the side.
3. Gently pull the FRONT CASE
(speaker side) apart from the back case. I always start at the battery compartment. If you
look at the battery compartment, use the following picture of the battery compartment as a guide. There are two clips,
one closest to the red ribbon and the one on the right in this picture. The one
on the right is where you want to focus on. In that pic there is a small
rectangle cut out w a circle underneath the rectangle. Get yourself a FLAT HEAD
MICRO SCREW DRIVER AND WEDGE RIGHT IN BETWEEN THAT CLIP AND JUST BARELY GIVE IT
A NUDGE W THE SCREW DRIVER AND YOU WILL FEEL THE CASE DISLODGE.
4.
Gently pull the FRONT CASE
(speaker side) apart from the back case. DO NOT pull the back case off from the
front case or your shortwave and light button will become dislodged and
possibly fly across the room. Be sure to pull from the areas of the front case
where your fingers aren’t close to any buttons as the pressure needed to pull
it off might rip a button off.
5.
Once the front case is off you
will be looking at a circuit board that has the inner function buttons of the
radio attached to this board. This board is snapped in place in all four
corners by clips (you’ll see them; they are similar to the battery compartment
clips.
Here
is a pic of what the circuit board will look like once you have the front case
off. Take in Mind, this one is torn
down, but you will see the board w the digital display on it. Focus on that.
6. You can’t tell by that picture
because that particular unit is missing some pieces as I have it torn down. But
pay ATTN the green circuit board w the digital display. At ALL FOUR CORNERS OF THAT BOARD IT IS
CLIPPED IN PLACE. Start at the top two
clips and undo those and you will be able to pull the board towards you. Once
you gently pull it towards you, look behind it and you will see this. Focus on the grey ribbon at the bottom, behind the board.
7.
See where the tip of the exacto
knife is pointing to? It’s pointing to where its labeled “MU” on the board.
That’s your mute wire. COUNTING FROM THE SIDE W THE SPEAKER, IT WILL BE THE 7TH
WIRE FROM THE LEFT. Always start your count from side of the radio that has the
speaker. You don’t want to cut the wrong wire! OR you can just look for the
wire connected to “MU” and cut that one. It’s pretty simple stuff.
8. Take an exacto knife or a razor
blade and slice down the sides of each side of it. Be very careful to not cut
any adjacent wires in that ribbon. I’d cut about a half inch down each side of
the MU wire. Take some tweezers and pull that little section you just cut out
towards you and slice it half with the blade. Completely severe the MU
connection. I like to cut a little square out as pictured to ensure it’s hacked
correctly.
Here’s
another look AT THE SEVERED MU WIRE FROM THE BOTTOM ANGLE OF THE RIBBON
9.
Now that the Mute wire is
clipped, gently fasten the green circuit board back to the clips in the
corners. I always start with the bottom two clips and then pop it in place with
the top two clips when putting it back together.
10. Now you should have a little metal
piece that holds the wrist strap in w the wrist strap (upper left corner if you
are looking at the face of the radio). I always like to put mine back in. This
is optional; I just think it looks cleaner w the wrist strap. So place that
metal rod in its slot, slide the wrist strap on (and make sure the metal rod
meets/slides into the slot on the other side of the case ) AND PRESS THE FRONT
CASE BACK DOWN ONTO THE REST OF THE RADIO UNTIL IT’S SNAPPED BACK TOGETHER ALL
THE WAY AROUND. It doesn’t take much force. Just make sure that you have the
green circuit board inside snapped back in place or the front case will not
seat correctly, and you will have issues w buttons not working.
11.
Pop some batteries in, turn it
on, and hold down the up or down sweep for a second or two and release and you
should now have a working ghost box! I like to set mine to “High tone” (which
is a button on the left side) and I also prefer to set it to LOCAL instead of
DX (button on right side of the radio) and the FM band SOUNDS AMAZING SET THAT
WAY.
12.
Now screw those 3 screws back in
and enjoy!
REMEMBER
PEOPLE! THE NEWER MODEL OF THIS RADIO, THE RS 2000125 IS NOT HACKABLE!
Here’s
a picture on how you tell them apart:
The above
picture, you see how the good one has the black label in the lower left corner
w the model 20-125. The bad one has NO BLACK LABEL and the model 2000125 is
under the flap. The bad one also has FOUR case screws and NOT 3 LIKE THE GOOD
ONE. So don’t walk into your local Radio Shack, see a stack of 2000125’s
sitting there and buy them out. You won’t be very happy if you do. The good RS
20-125’s are no longer being made but are pretty easy to get on eBay and places
where you can get used items. Happy
hunting and I hope this guide helps!
https://www.youtube.com/user/priaparanormal/videos
If
you need any assistance or have any questions at all, you can contact me very
easily at the facebook link above or shoot me an email to
ghostboxhacks@gmail.com
