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Old 31st Jul 2010, 5:14 pm   #1
bassist1
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Default Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

Hi all.

On one of my frequent visits to the local recycling centre/dump, I found a rather dirty and forlorn Selena. It looked as if it had sat beside a 100-a-day smoker for 20 years, so brown and stained was the fascia. The remainder was covered in a thick layer of brown dust. It cleaned up OK but there are a few niggles:

1-FM does not work. At all. Not a peep.

2-The telescopic antenna is in 2 pieces. The first 3 segments have separated from the rest. Is it possible to find a replacement these days?

3-Although it had a mains lead with it, it will not work on mains power, but WILL work fine on batteries except, of course, on FM.

Having read some of the threads on this forum re. the Selena, I realise that most of these problems are common to this radio, so I'm not too bothered about the niggly problems. The cursor could be doing with a move to the right about 1/4 inch, as it reads slightly out.

I've found it to be very sensitive on AM. A good solid radio.

Just thought I'd let you know of my find. Keep 'er lit.
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Old 31st Jul 2010, 5:27 pm   #2
Darren-UK
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

Well done for finding one with a mains lead. Be careful though, those mains leads aren't exactly sturdy and could be why it won't work on mains. Remember that this radio has to be manually switched from battery to mains power. I think that's correct anyway, I have one here somewhere but can't find it at the moment.

You will only get another aerial off another set, eg there's no replacements available new. They're quite flimsy efforts and do break easily.

Are you not bothered about fixing the FM problem?
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Old 31st Jul 2010, 6:38 pm   #3
bassist1
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

Hi Darren.It's not that I'm not bothered,it's just that I haven't got the the know-how or indeed the facilities.It works fine on AM and that'll do for me.I've tested the mains lead with a meter and it seems fine.I've also read up on the matter on this forum and removed the batteries before trying the mains lead and it still doesn't work.Like I always say,it was taken to the dump for a reason!
I noticed a day or so ago that some one here was looking for a mains lead for this radio.As I really don't need mine so I PM'd him but have had no reply so far.His original post was towards the end of last year tho' so maybe that's why.So people,anybody that can use this mains lead is welcome to it.PM me.
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Old 31st Jul 2010, 7:08 pm   #4
bassist1
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

Mains lead spoken for.
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Old 1st Aug 2010, 12:05 am   #5
Zelandeth
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

Still got to get around to finishing sorting mine! Works perfectly aside for FM, which seems to be a common problem!

The best idea from what I've hard seems to be to go through the set and replace all the electrolytics on the signal panel (the one below the turret tuner), in a couple of other cases I'd read up on that restored normal FM operation. Upon close examination of mine, they were indeed physically leaky around the rubber bung at one end.

It's always been low down the priority list though, as I've other sets which perform better than this ever would have on FM anyway. The party piece of these sets has however always been the incredible AM reception, quite capable of outperforming many far more expensive sets on MW and SW.
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Old 2nd Aug 2010, 2:50 pm   #6
bassist1
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

Hi Zel, I'm like yourself, I'm not that bothered about the FM part. It works well on AM and that'll do for me. I'm also not nearly competent enough to even attempt the things you mentioned. I've tried hooking it up to an external long wire and the performance on SW is amazing.
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Old 2nd Aug 2010, 3:00 pm   #7
Darren-UK
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

These radios have an amplified RF stage, hence the good AM performance. FM performance could be described as 'OK to good-ish' but it certainly isn't fantastic in my opinion. It's a shame you don't feel able to get the set fully working though.
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Old 2nd Aug 2010, 3:02 pm   #8
Steve_P
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

Give the wavechange switch a clean - all the terminals. See what that does.

Cheers,

Steve P.
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Old 2nd Aug 2010, 7:49 pm   #9
bassist1
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

Already done that Steve.Hasn't made any difference as such,although there is a very very quiet N.Ireland station just audible with the volume full up.Probably BBC Radio Ulster.But that's all.
Hell,I'll open her up again and have another rummage!!Won't do anything stupid,I promise!

Darren,you have a PM.
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Old 2nd Aug 2010, 10:50 pm   #10
ronbryan
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

The Selena-Vega 215 FM IF is unconventional and uses a four stage band-pass filter.

On one example that I looked at, I found that one of the 24pF filter tuning capacitors had changed value, so that the filter was way off tune. This caused very low gain on VHF.

If you have a signal generator, try to see if the FM IF peaks correctly at 10.7MHz.

Ron
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Old 5th Aug 2010, 1:42 pm   #11
bassist1
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Default Re: Selena Vega 215 needs some TLC.

Ron....Signal generator FM IF.Nope you got me there.I am a complete noob as far as all this is concerned,like I said.I'm happy just to listen to AM every once in a while.Although I guess it would be nice to be able to open it up and have a rummage with a vague idea of what I'm doing.But I haven't,so I won't.
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