[Boulevardier]

Thanks Argus25, your pointer to the PM5326 manual is very useful and generalisable.

Argus25 and Simpsons - on alignment by ear versus alignment "by the book", you are, of course, both right - it's horses for courses. If aligning large numbers on an assembly line, then you need a quick, repeatable method that gives the same results each time and doesn't rely on individual operators' ears, foibles, etc. If (like me) you're just doing it for personal use and you aren't going to make a habit of judging sound quality with laboratory instruments, then simpler techniques (or even "by ear") is probably more than adequate.

Me? For this set I just want a radio that's neat, cheap to run (batteries last at least a week or two under constant use), and gives sound quality that doesn't grate in any way. So, sibilance and some distortion don't quite cut the mustard. Thus my efforts to sort them. Just how "technical" I need to get to sort that is something I'm working through now. Maybe I will have to do a full realignment (I really hope not, but I've just got hold of an FM generator in case), but maybe simpler solutions (just focusing on the ratio detector, de-emphasis components, etc) will do the trick. Most of the electronics "stuff" I've been doing since I was a teenager has focused on LF/audio equipment, so RF, particularly VHF FM, is a new departure for me - thus the impression of floundering around a bit.

I'm really grateful for all the thoughts on here; I'm finding them all very instructive and useful, and I'm enjoying expanding my knowledge. I am currently trying to fit in the time to follow them up with time-sensitive commitments to other work (nothing to do with electronics).

Thanks again to all!

Mike