Turned out 2 of the old Spectra's I have still work. Must have been static between the earphones. So for now I'm fine, and I did replace all the caps years ago. But there's still something wrong with them, when they unsquelch, they click. If they work right they don't do that. It was my experience that replacing the 'warp board', the PLL circuit, fixed the problem, but of course that stuff is now unobtanium. I'll use them until they die, or I do, hard to say which will come first at this point.
Thanks for the hints.