Selena Vega 215 (General).
 

No idea where this originally came from, how old it is, or what its background is.

...but it was free, has a nice wood frame, and a proper metal front, and plenty of bands...so I figured I'd have it!

Aside from a couple of less than dire scratches on the front and a missing cover on the volume control, it's in good cosmetic condition - even have the battery compartment cover!

What do I know about this set so far? Erm...not much. It's Russian, transistorised, has a ludicrously complicated looking band switching system (which feels more like an industrial mains breaker than a band selector!), and doesn't work. Yet.

Mains in allegedly doesn't do anything (though I don't have the lead yet to confirm this), and the battery input shows a dead short. Hoping that a short like that will be pretty easy to track down.

Anyone have any idea where I should start?

...and yes, this is my first radio.

First TV's...then a tape recorder...now I've got a radio too...this stuff is catching!

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Hi Zel,

Bearing in mind the dates Howard his given, I believe this shiney- fronted version appeared in 1980.

Like a lot of things from the former Eastern Bloc, these radios are rather over-engineered and this includes that rather cumbersome wavechanger ... commonly known as a 'turret tuner'.

Regarding the mains connector, the 215 came with two types; one was a peculiar type unfamiliar in the UK and the other, presumably on later models, was a standard Fo8 job to which virtually any modern Fo8 lead will connect. You're unclear, however, as to which type your radio has.

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

I do have one scrap example of the B215 with a Mashpriborintorg logo on the back and as Mash was disbanded in 1979 it's a little earlier than 1980. That particular example has a slightly darker grey handle trim and front and also has black tips on its aerial like the one in the pic above. According to a collector contact in the Baltic the export only B215 set was released around 1977/8, the B216 in 1979 and the B217 (for the German market) in 1980, the latter two being identical in appearance to the B215 but had different shortwave options.

Howard :)

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Thanks for the feedback.

I'll go take a look at the other thread there in a moment, I did have a quick scan through before I posted this thread, must have missed that one though.

As for dating evidence, this would appear to be one of the later "Tento" branded sets, it does not however have a standard "figure 8" power lead - rather a strange circular one I've not encountered before.

Right...now to give that power switch the once over...

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Look here...

http://langaitis.zenonas-old.radios....t/c144729.html

And the index to whole site is here...

http://langaitis.zenonas-old.radios.fotopic.net/

Put some batteries in, see if it works.

Cheers,

Steve P

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Sucess! Some amount of poking and prodding revealed two wires which had somehow ended up touching the chassis. Sorted them out - and it works!

Medium wave reception is...impressive. Far more so than any other set I've used (which, granted isn't saying much!), only problem so far seems to be that it's totally dead on FM. Think that'll need more investigation.

Funny enough...the first thing I picked up was a station playing 70s stuff...kinda appropriate!

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

These radios were sold in quite large numbers and often turn up. The mains leads are often faulty so you probably haven't suffered a great loss by not having one. Common faults are bad mains leads, bad PSU electrolytics, bad turret contacts, shorting tuning cap, broken knobs, blown bulbs. They work quite well overall - the sound quality is quite good and AM reception is really excellent (there is a tuned RF stage) but FM performance is mediocre for a set of this supposed quality in my opinion.

AM performance is so good that they were often used as cheap broadcast comms receivers by hard up teenagers in the 70s.

Paul

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

I picked one of these up at a local radio rally for £4
I'm having problems - when I put the batteries in it worked OK and then cut off completely - and I ,mean nothing.It's receiving - you can tell that from the tuning indicator so there's no problem with the batteries
Just wondering if anyones any ideas? I think I might ask people in my local radio club to see what they say
When it was working it was fine - seems quite a nice set actually

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Could be worth checking the headphone socket contacts, or try bypassing the socket with a speaker. Try the record output if it has one. If this works ok then it's an audio amp problem. Probably easy to sort out. Try plugging an earpiece into the headphone socket.

Biggles.

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Hi,

If the symptom is "no sound" and there's not even a trace of a switch-on "plop", it might be worth checking the speaker coupling capacitor. One of my Soviet sets had one which was completely open-circuit, it was the only component which needed replacement. Another set clearly had a replacement capacitor fitted (I doubt RRR bought components from RS ;) ) at some point in the set's past. As I have five Soviet sets at present and these are the only two repaired so far, I'm wondering if these electrolytics are a bit unreliable?

You don't need a schematic to find it; just trace the wiring from the speaker back through the earphone socket (check this, as suggested) to the AF amplifier. One side of the speaker will be returned to the common side of the power supply. The other side will connect to an electrolytic capacitor, likely to be 500µF, the other side of which connects to the AF output transistors, usually on a heatsink.

If this capacitor is the cause of the fault, it will be open circuit, so it's ok to bridge another temporarily across the old one - but make sure it's the right way round. A modern 470µF/16V will replace an original 500µF one (in Cyrillic it looks like "500MK 10B" for 500µF/10V), but is a lot smaller. I removed the guts of the original and hid the new one inside the old can on one set.

Cheers, Kat

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Thank you for your responses everyone - someone at the radio club has offered to take a look at it so am keeping my fingers crossed......:)

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

To save starting a seperate thread on these radios, I have what may seem a daft question.

Looking at the image in post #1 of this thread, there are three pushbuttons at top left of the front panel. What is the centre button ? is it an AFC control ? If so, presumably the button should be on/off switchable ?

I've today got around to dealing with one of these I picked up a while back and that central button has to be held in or it just springs out again.

As an aside, the 215 I've dealt with today was in disgustingly filthy condition. Someone had previously been inside mucking around with the cores and trimmers - some physically damaged as a result. LW was way off tune, FM barely worked and would only pick up my local station - just. I also found most of the contacts on the turret were literally black with dirt.

All ok now though, cleaned up and working well :) ( 'that' button excepted ).

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

HI Darren i gave my set to Kat some time ago but if i remember correctly one of the three buttons was for a dial light and i am sure that was the only one that was non latching.

Jay

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Hi Darren, that button is switchable on my set.

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Hi Jay,

The bottom one is the dial lamp and that is latching on my radio. This doesn't seem right somehow, soon kill the batteries if left on.

Hi Malc,

Just as I suspected, it should be switchable. I shall have to go back and investigate further; seems someone has swapped the switches around. Heaven knows why.

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Hi Darren. The buttons (top to bottom) are mains/battery, AFC, and dial light. They *all* latch on mine.

I suggest you scrap it and give the tone/vol/tuning knobs to me 8-\

Paul

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Hi Darren,
I can confirm that on both my Selena 215s of slightly different models all the buttons including the light latch on.

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

The buttons on mine are (Top to bottom)

AFC

Mains on

Battery on

Dial light

I have three of these, none has a light whose switch will latch down.

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Top to bottom on the 215 here:

1. Mains/Battery power on.
2. AFC (I assume).
3. Dial light.

All of the above latch. ...well...they did after I resecured the board with the switches on to the front of the set anyway!

Re: Selena Vega 215
 

Thanks for all the responses. Very odd; it seems the buttons and their latchability varied widely.

Whatever the buttons should or should not do, I intend to alter them so AFC latches and scale lamp doesn't (the scale lamp button, by the way, also operates the mains warning light :shrug:).

John (GJR11L), is your four-button job not a 212 ? I'm sure I once had a 212 with four buttons like those in your image.

Attached is an image of my 215. Sorry it's a bit out of focus. It has the 'Tento' name on the rear; as I recall this didn't appear on all of them (I've owned 215s before, but not for a long time).