Bush TR130 success

[telstar]

Hi. I have been trying to work on my hobby of restoring my vintage radios since my mother died two years ago. It has been difficult to find the time to achieve this due to commitments in running the house.
For a while. I have had to put my Bush TR130 project to one side. The volume control had developed an irritating crunching noise upon switch on, and more noises along its track leaving only small parts of the track where stations could be received.
I put an advert for a replacement 5K log rotary control c/w d.p switch to replace the old one, but no replies for a while until traceypaper offered me some R.S ones (thanks very much, mate). This gave me some hope of starting this project again. Many people thought that it was the electrolytic capacitor that was to blame, but it wasn't. I had a word with another radio restorer, and he remembered trying to restore another Bush TR130 with a similar problem. He even tried re-juvenating the carbon track by using a pencil on it, but to no avail! Switch cleaner was only a temporary solution.
It was discovered that the radio had been used in a kitchen where it was exposed to a damp atmosphere which affected the control.
Removal of the old control was a bit tricky, the end of the shaft had a circlip in a groove, then the gear cog had to be removed from the shaft. The worst bit was trying to get the actual potentiometer out of the chassis. Once that was achieved, the newer(but smaller) replacement was installed, and another fiddly bit was getting the cog gear on the shaft (not much space to work in).I did not put a circlip on the end of the plastic shaft as the gear fitted tightly with that of the matching teeth of those on the thumbwheel control.
Anyhow, the result is no irritating crunching noise on switch on, or on other parts of the track as the control is advanced.

[G6Tanuki]

Good to hear you've got a TR130 back to life.

They were an iconic 1960s design, by Tom Karen of Ogle Design [who also did the Raleigh Chopper bike and the Reliant Scimitar GTE].

[60 oldjohn]

Hi Mike, pleased you have managed to get it fixed and working. That design was still been used in a modern cheaply made copy of the TR130 just a few years ago.

John.

[Julesomega]

These were elegant in both presentation and functional design. If anyone doesn't recognise the model number, here's a couple of pictures

[bobbyball]

Had one in that colour years ago when I was much younger (mid 70's!). Good sound. Have another now, and also the seemingly rarer black case model which also does FM. Can't remember the model number and it's in the storage unit at the moment!

Glad you got yours going Telstar, especially with the replacement volume control.

[telstar]

Originally Posted by 60 oldjohn

Hi Mike, pleased you have managed to get it fixed and working. That design was still been used in a modern cheaply made copy of the TR130 just a few years ago.

John.

Hi John. Good to hear from you. I am pleased with the results after being told that the Plessey v/c's were "faultless", and the results being the opposite. There is still a problem with weak reception on medium wave, and no reception on long or band - spread. These faults were concealed by all the noise caused by the volume control. The polystyrene coupling capacitor in the oscillator department (C41) looks to be damaged, so I may replace it with a disc ceramic or silver mica type as there is a bit of crackling on the reception. The tone control does not function. Anyway, it is on the move.

[telstar]

Originally Posted by bobbyball

Had one in that colour years ago when I was much younger (mid 70's!). Good sound. Have another now, and also the seemingly rarer black case model which also does FM. Can't remember the model number and it's in the storage unit at the moment!

Glad you got yours going Telstar, especially with the replacement volume control.

Yes, I feel that I have achieved something at long last

[telstar]

Originally Posted by Julesomega

These were elegant in both presentation and functional design. If anyone doesn't recognise the model number, here's a couple of pictures

Hi. Thanks for the supporting pictures of the Bush TR130

[telstar]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

Good to hear you've got a TR130 back to life.

They were an iconic 1960s design, by Tom Karen of Ogle Design [who also did the Raleigh Chopper bike and the Reliant Scimitar GTE].

Hi. Yes they are great looking. I have seen many of these radios in different colours

[G6Tanuki]

The TR130 also had a version with either a 'bandspread' setting to give easier tuning of the pirate stations and Luxembourg at the higher-frequency end of MW, or I'm sure I saw one with a dedicated preset "Luxembourg" button in place of the LW button?

All things considered, they were a great style-icon for the swinging-60s and from memory they were at one point the biggest-selling 'trannie' in the UK.

It's great to see that you've got your one going again.

[Hybrid tellies]

Great to see another Bush TR130 restored to life. I have always been impresssed by the looks and performance of these radios. I have the tan coloured model with full bandspread which shows Caroline.

[Paul_RK]

Fine little sets indeed. I've two of them here, one red and the other a tan one NOS in its box: also the Murphy equivalent the B818. I've always thought the TR130 must have been by far the better seller, but just last week our local auction had five B818s in a single lot in various states of disrepair - probably enough to make two or three good ones.

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

The TR130 also had a version with either a 'bandspread' setting to give easier tuning of the pirate stations and Luxembourg at the higher-frequency end of MW, or I'm sure I saw one with a dedicated preset "Luxembourg" button in place of the LW button?

There are always three wavechange buttons, and always LW and MW (unless there was an export version that differed). On early sets the third button was a Luxembourg preset, but on most examples, like this one,.it's for a tunable bandspread.

Paul