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Old 14th Oct 2014, 3:22 pm   #1
Miguel Lopez
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Default Restoring my old Soviet radios

Hello everybody.

I have a little collection of radios from the Soviet era.
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...hp?albumid=376
The only working one was an early VEF-206 which was the first radio that we had at home. This one has the dial graduated in meters (wavelenght), instead of frequency. I have a second VEF-206 with dial in frequency, a Selena B210 (the second radio that we had), a VEF-221 and several small radios based on the Radiotehnika 625.

Recently I began to work on the restoration of any of them. The problem was the Germanium transistors which are very hard to find. Luckily I had several 1T308 transistors from the 90s and I tried with them on my second VEF-206. I used them in RF as well as IF, replacing the P423 and the P422 that it originally fits, and the result was very good. The radio is working very well. The MP40 and MP41 for the audio section are relatively easy to find, scavenging other old equipments.

Then I thought that I could be able to do the same with the Selena. As my Selena is at my parent's I decided to try with the Selena of my father-in-law. I replaced the faulty GT322A transistors that it fits and the result was very good too. The AM RF section of that Selena is operational right now. I have to work on the AF amplifier yet, but I keep on the track. You can see the two 1T308 (hat type) at the center part of the PCB.

20 years ago when I began at the College I dreamed with been capable to repair Soviet radios. Today I think the moment has come. Well, Carlos Gardel said that "20 years is nothing", so, maybe I'm not so delayed.
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 3:45 pm   #2
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Well done Miguel. Interesting story and interesting sets. Keep it going..
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 4:02 pm   #3
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Assuming you do speak Spanish, Hola a mi tambien me gusta la tecnologia de la union sovietica.
I lived in Russia for some time but didn't have an interest in radios back then as it was a long time ago. I was some time in Tver and later spent some time in St Petersburg. Actually I had a good Russian friend who liked to listen to the Beatles on his reel-to-reel Soviet tape recorder and the sound was really great.
I really don't know much about Russian design but I do know there's a really good institute in Tomsk where they take students in radio electronics.
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 4:02 pm   #4
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Well done I too enjoy working on these soviet era transistor radios. Don’t be put off trying Silicon transistors in place of Germanium often they will work fine and give you more choices if you are using salvaged parts. I often replace the likes of the AF117 with a general purpose silicon PNP transistor with good results.
keep up the good work.

Jay
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 4:13 pm   #5
Miguel Lopez
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorWest
Assuming you do speak Spanish, Hola a mi tambien me gusta la tecnologia de la union sovietica.
Siendo cubano, por supuesto que hablo español. Saludos desde la isla.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jay_oldstuff
Don’t be put off trying Silicon transistors in place of Germanium often they will work fine
Hi Jay.
Yes, I have tried that too. My older VEF-206 has 2T326 Silicon transistors on the IF amplifiers. I have also tried 2T363 and BC177. They work fine, but they don't work on the RF section. On the audio pre-amplifier they work fine too.
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 4:37 pm   #6
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

One day you'll have to tell us about radios in Cuba. Speak any Russian? Ochen rad vas videt zdes!
I am actually working on a GDR radio now when time allows and am assuming it is Soviet Union manufacturing or at least East German. I have heard of Zvezda radios but, as I said, know very little about design. Most of my own sets have germanium transistors - the Mullard ones have a nice audio sound such as 0C49.
Good luckl.
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 5:05 pm   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorWest
Speak any Russian? Ochen rad vas videt zdes!
Nop, sorry
My only knowledge on Russian it's to replace the Cyrilic letters for their Latin equivalent and "imagine" the meanning. I also know a few words of Russian but very, very few.

Radios in Cuba

From 1959 to early 70s they were most Chinese. Some of them were manufactured (assembled) in Cuba. That was in the valve era.

From the early 70s to early 90s, they were Soviet made mostly; beginning with the VEF-206 and ending with the VEF-221 and Selena B215. Again, some of them were assembled in Cuba (Siboney, Nocturno, Juvenil80, Taíno74, Pionero). All of them copies of a Soviet one. That was in the transistor era.

From early 90s to present, most of them are Chinese again, althought there are some Korean and Western ones, but most of them cheap Chinese radios.
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 5:10 pm   #8
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Soviet radios were exported to Western Europe in large numbers, and the Selena B210 in particular is quite common in Britain (the export version with 88-108 FM). They aren't known for poor transistor reliability so I'm surprised you've had so much trouble. Common faults that I can think of:

Faulty mains power cable
Bad contacts on the huge turret tuner
Mechanically misaligned tuning capacitor
Hum from the mains power supply
Faulty dial bulbs

These radios have outstanding AM performance (for a domestic set) because of the amplified RF stage.
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 5:28 pm   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Miguel Lopez View Post
From early 90s to present, most of them are Chinese again, although there are some Korean and Western ones, but most of them cheap Chinese radios.
Maybe this is similar to Britain in a sense. As I understand it, the British companies somehow lost ground with the change from valve to transistor. So, lots of teenagers in, say, 1963, were listening to Japanese pocket transistor sets. Whereas in Cuba you were clearly getting radios from the USSR. Who knows maybe it was cheaper for Cuba to import sets from Russia just as it was pretty cheap to buy the Japanese sets.
From experience in Russia I imagine the Soviet radios would be pretty big, heavy but with very good sound quality. I've seen a lot of Russian electronics as I worked for a while in a technology institute in St Petersburg and we had pretty huge, old-fashioned equipment.
Thirties Stalin era radios would be interesting historically.
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 6:40 pm   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulSherwin
They aren't known for poor transistor reliability so I'm surprised you've had so much trouble.
Hi Paul. In fact, Selena was the best radio in Cuba during their time. Signal transistors were good on any model, from the electronic point of view. Their main problem was that their leads were iron made (MP40, MP41, GT322, P422, P423, etc) and they got rusted until they finally break, usually very close to the transistor body.

Not sure if this was related to the high humidity in Cuba, but that was the main fault on Soviet transistors during those times.

The other problem with Selenas in Cuba was the little square-shaped red capacitors. We know them as "micas" althought some people say they are ceramic. Those capacitors tent to fail very often, I think by the same reason like the transistors leads.

That was not a problem when you could get spares, but with the fall of the Eastern Bloc, spares went away. And then, when the transistor's leads broke, the set was finished. There are a lot of radios on that condition in Cuba.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorWest
Who knows maybe it was cheaper for Cuba to import sets from Russia just as it was pretty cheap to buy the Japanese sets.
Payment was not a problem inside the Eastern Bloc, so the words cheap and expensive are not representative on this example. They sent us the radios and we paid when we could, if we could. It was that way for everything during the Soviet era. That's why today we have a huge debt with Russia, dating from those times. Russia forgave 90% of the debt cause they know we can not pay it.
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Old 14th Oct 2014, 9:10 pm   #11
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorWest View Post
I am actually working on a GDR radio now when time allows and am assuming it is Soviet Union manufacturing or at least East German.
There's actually quite a bit of difference between East-German and Soviet radios. Just as with Western sets, each factory or country had its own distinctive design details and philosophy.
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 1:49 pm   #12
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Here I want to share some details of what I did to the VEF-206. I had to replace some parts with other cause there wasn't originals available.

First I replaced the wiring of the PCB by long ribbon type wires. That allows me to work on the PCB outside the radio. I did the same in my other VEF-206 and it work fine.

Then I had to replace te speaker. It had no speaker at all. I had a 12 ohms speaker, which is not the best for this purpose but it works. I built an aluminium piece to fit that speaker on its position.

Then I had the power supply block without the "guts". Surely when I was younger I used that PCB to supply something, but I can't remember. I built a PCB to fit the available space and supply the VEF from mains.
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 4:59 pm   #13
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

You will already know the base at Lourdes was opened again as a Russian base and part of that is some deal made over the debt owed by Cuba. The Lourdes base originally was a base where radios were used for spying and so forth.
You may also be interested to know there's a big radio technology university in Tomsk Russia. They take students from all over the globe and it seems to me a very friendly place to study.
If you ever need any help with the Russian script on your radios, just ask. Also I'm curious if the Soviet radios are actually worth any money compared to European models, British or American sets.
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 5:06 pm   #14
Miguel Lopez
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

The re-openning of the Lourdes base is a fake. Now there is the University of Information Technology on that place.

Today, a Soviet radio is a "hated" piece of technology by most Cubans. Some others (like me) likes them, but just a few. The price could be very low if you find any in working condition. Most of them were dumped due to lack of spares but mostly for been "an ugly Soviet stuff". Sad things of this world.
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 5:33 pm   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Miguel Lopez View Post
Today, a Soviet radio is a "hated" piece of technology by most Cubans. Some others (like me) likes them, but just a few. The price could be very low if you find any in working condition. Most of them were dumped due to lack of spares but mostly for been "an ugly Soviet stuff". Sad things of this world.
There must be a reason the Soviet sets appeal to you? So far as I'm aware, a lot of these electronic goods were produced to meet targets in factories. Factories in Russia had production targets to meet. In the Stalin time, not meeting a target could land a company worker or boss in a Gulag (for sabotage, (or "wrecking"). Therefore, production was sometimes rushed to meet the targets and sometimes the products were substandard.
To be honest, I take your point a lot of the Soviet radios may have been "ugly" but I think a lot of the British sets were also either too big or cumbersome. The British valve sets could be nice to own but the transistor sets were often made like womens' handbags and I think they lost out to the flashy Japanese pocket models.
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 5:41 pm   #16
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Just a note to members: can we please avoid any discussion of Soviet, Russian or Cuban politics in this thread. This is an open forum and we don't want to cause any problems for Miguel. In any case, such subjects are off topic here.

Miguel, nice work on the VEF206 as usual.
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 5:45 pm   #17
Miguel Lopez
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorWest
There must be a reason the Soviet sets appeal to you?
Nostalgia maybe. The Soviet times were good times for us.
I remember how happy we were at home when my father bought the VEF-206. It was the first radio in our family. I was 8 or 9yo. We took it with us when we went to the beach, using the car battery as PSU. Then, when I was 10, my mother gave me (as birthday present) my Taíno 74 (Cuban copy of Soviet Orbita-2).In the late 80s my father bought the Selena B210. By those times I got interested in electronics.

Then when I went to the College, I took the VEF-206 with me and I listenned to it a lot while studying at nights. Batteries were scarse, so the Taíno 74 was almost all the time out of service until I built a PSU for it (that was one of my first electronic adventures).

We were humble but very happy during the 80s. Nostalgia from good times.

Now, as Paul says, let's keep focus on restoring radios.
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 5:54 pm   #18
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Is it practical to solder a small wire to the stub left of a rusted transistor wire, it may need a bit of rubbing down first. After all it's worth a try, the rest of the transistor would be OK.

When it comes to nostalgia, my favorite set is a 1960's Perdio, very basic, it works (and has been repaired, those where the days when a reapair was cost effective) and must have been the first radio for many people here in the UK.
 
Old 16th Oct 2014, 7:40 pm   #19
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Hi Miguel,

Nice collection of Soviet radios!
I also have quite few of those, among them three Vef 204/206 radios.

As for replacing the RF-amp transistor with a Si one in the 206, one need to change the bias setting for that transistor if a silicon is used.
Simulations show that changing R13 from 2.4K to 8.2K would give the same collector current for a Si transistor as for the original Ge one.
I have not tried it, my radios are working fine with the original transistors.

Nowadays, if I use them, I use a PP3 type 9V battery put into a foam block in the battery holder. I added the clip-type connectors to my radios.

Peter
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Old 16th Oct 2014, 8:10 pm   #20
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Default Re: Restoring my old Soviet radios

Miguel, in post 10 you said:--
The other problem with Selenas in Cuba was the little square-shaped red capacitors. We know them as "micas" althought some people say they are ceramic. Those capacitors tent to fail very often, I think by the same reason like the transistors leads.
Years ago when I played with a lot of Grundig stuff, they used little matte black 0.1UF capacitors in their tuning modules. If they were on a supply rail, they behaved, but if on a high impedance section with no "amps" flowing, they regularly developed leakage which could stop the circuit. Later they seemed to change to the same ones but dipped in epoxy or similar, and they were usually OK.
I assume they were ceramics and simply absorbed (or adsorbed) water, becoming leaky.
I learned to replace on sight with better stuff which I bought at a radio rally in a pack of 5,000 or so. Still got some!
Les.
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