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Old 16th Sep 2014, 9:57 pm   #1
vidjoman
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Default Pye FM2 Continental radio

After leaving the set on the shelf for about 10 years I thought it was time to give it some TLC. It was stripped and the chassis cleaned and also the cabinet which was in very good condition. Just cleaned the cabinet with white spirit and very fine wire wool and gave it a coat of hard wax polish. The plastic parts were cleaned with a dilute solution of Flash cleaner. Looks almost like new.
The chassis was stripped of all the usual suspect capacitors and all were replaced with their modern counterparts. During the replacement I encountered many resistors that were also in need of replacement. Some being over 5 times their correct value. The FM tuner which is inductively tuned, had 2 resistors replaced and also a 22pf ceramic capacitor as that read about 4 meg ohms. On powering up it worked on all wave bands but I think it needs a reasonable aerial on FM. All valves were original, as far as I can tell.
I discovered a fault with the tone control which is a simple capacitor from the output valve anode and a pot for control that goes to the chassis. It only cut the treble at the max setting and gave full treble across the rest of the travel. I suspected the control had burnt out and the set had been operated in the past with a faulty cap. The control is a dual concentric type in with the volume control so the chance of a replacement would be slim. I took it apart and sure enough there was a burnt section about 3mm in length. Careful cleaning revealed the track and it's thin paxolin backing had burnt completely through. I had in my tool kit a small phial of silver loaded paint that's been there about 20 years, so out it came. I had to build up the thickness with 4 thick coats of the paint, leaving 24 hours between coats to allow it to dry fully. On re-assembly it worked as it should except that at maximum treble cut there was a hum, but only in that position. As soon as the control was turned, even just off the earthy point the hum vanished.
The wiring was all original, exactly as it left the factory. I noticed that the tone control earthy connection was joined to the earthy connection of the volume control and that was earthed back to the small audio PCB by the screened cable that went to the grid of the output valve. I cut the link between the controls and earthed the tone control separately and directly to the chassis and the hum disappeared completely. In conclusion - there must be many of these sets that hum at the minimum tone setting as that was the way they were built in the factory.
Generally it's quite a nice, although quite large, set which has joined with the several Grundig radios that now reside in my living room. I have to admit - the Grundigs are more sensitive and sound better. I live in a poor FM reception area and it sorts out the sets with better sensitivity.
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Old 17th Sep 2014, 2:37 pm   #2
Hybrid tellies
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Default Re: Pye FM2 Continental radio

Nice job. It's a shame the British sets of this era were rather low gain on VHF/FM compared to their continental cousins.
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Old 18th Sep 2014, 8:13 pm   #3
vidjoman
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Default Re: Pye FM2 Continental radio

Just taken a picture of the Pye FM2 in the workshop.

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Old 18th Sep 2014, 9:22 pm   #4
Nickthedentist
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Default Re: Pye FM2 Continental radio

Wow! Very smart indeed.

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Old 21st Sep 2014, 12:21 am   #5
Colin Ames
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Default Re: Pye FM2 Continental radio

Very nice indeed!

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