Loewe Opta Meteor - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

slidertogrid · 2nd Apr 2020, 2:54 pm

This set has been my lounge radio for more than a decade. I bought it at Harpenden Auction. I can't remember how much I paid now but I remember the set hadn't met reserve . Mike then said as the highest bidder I could have it for the reserve. I agreed and the set was mine!
The set had been worked on, there was a note from the previous owner saying it was working but needed further work. When I got the set home and tested it the only fault I could find was that the piano keys were a little intermittent but after working them between wavebands and pressing and releasing the tone keys it seemed to settle down and work well.

I was impressed with the sound quality and it seemed wasted in it's first location- the hall.
I found a small table in a charity shop that it fitted well this enabled it to go under the lounge window and there was space to hide my computer printer underneath.
The set has worked well for all these years and for all this time I never had the back off!

The faults however started to build up, firstly the dial illumination became dim one end of the scale, then the cursor lamp on FM failed.
More recently AM packed up and the reception on FM became poor with background hiss.
At this point I stopped using the radio and it has sat dormant for a year or so.

Well today I decided to have a look so I turned it round and removed the back.
After cleaning out the dust I spotted what looked like a capacitor laying loose on the chassis after a quick look on Google it appears that this is a rectifier..
I found that tapping the chassis caused various cracks and pops then AM started to work. The Piano key switches were playing up again.
I gave them just a touch of switch cleaner and then cleaned the valve pins
This cured all of the intermittent problems and the set came to life on AM and FM.

The other faults are going to be more of a challenge.. The reason the dial has gone dim one end is because the lamp holders have become brittle and have shrunk around two of the bubs blocking the light, the bulbs seem a little feeble as well, not the usual 6.3 volt beasties more like the candles fitted to the DAC90A !
The bulb in the FM cursor has failed and it looks like a fiddley job to replace that so It can wait until I tackle the dial lamps.
Other faults are that the tuning indicator only works on FM the Aerial rotator is almost seized up and AM tuning drifts from when switched on, However once it has been retuned it stays on station.
All of these faults I can live with I will probably tackle the illumination faults and leave the rest!
It sounds very good though I am listening to Gold on AM at the moment I only use FM for Radio 4 and sometimes the Classical station. I stopped listening to Radio 2 (apart from pop master when I remember) because of the horrible whiney crap they play these days. (No real lyrics, one line repeated Ad infinitum then finished off with lots of ooh ooh ooh.. you know the type of thing!)

Anyway I gave the set a bit of a clean and polish and it looks good!
It will probably have to wait another decade (if I live that long!) before it gets any more attention!

Rich

slidertogrid · 2nd Apr 2020, 2:58 pm

More pictures including the strung in rectifier disguised as a capacitor!

slidertogrid · 2nd Apr 2020, 4:14 pm

Edit .. I got that wrong the set is a Loewe Opta not a Nordmende! I don't know why I said it was a Nordmende! The badge is very small though..

Herald1360 · 4th Apr 2020, 9:59 am

Not very well disguised- it's got "gleichrichter" (rectifier) writ large on it!

Would look better neatly mounted through the chassis with a capacitor clamp though.

poppydog · 4th Apr 2020, 11:20 am

That's a really nice radio, be nice to see a restoration/repair of one of these big German sets on here. For some reason you never see any, or any interest in them on this forum

??

Regards Poppydog

dazzlevision · 4th Apr 2020, 11:38 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by poppydog

That's a really nice radio, be nice to see a restoration/repair of one of these big German sets on here. For some reason you never see any, or any interest in them on this forum

??

Regards Poppydog

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=141127

Edward Huggins · 4th Apr 2020, 11:40 am

Not only that, one of their virtues was to use sensibly sized speakers and often multi-speaker arrays. I don't know why British manufacturers somehow never really seemed to go for that? Usually it was a 6.5" Celestion and that's yer lot!

2nd Apr 2020, 2:54 pm	#1
slidertogrid Octode Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK. Posts: 1,898	Loewe Opta Meteor This set has been my lounge radio for more than a decade. I bought it at Harpenden Auction. I can't remember how much I paid now but I remember the set hadn't met reserve . Mike then said as the highest bidder I could have it for the reserve. I agreed and the set was mine! The set had been worked on, there was a note from the previous owner saying it was working but needed further work. When I got the set home and tested it the only fault I could find was that the piano keys were a little intermittent but after working them between wavebands and pressing and releasing the tone keys it seemed to settle down and work well. I was impressed with the sound quality and it seemed wasted in it's first location- the hall. I found a small table in a charity shop that it fitted well this enabled it to go under the lounge window and there was space to hide my computer printer underneath. The set has worked well for all these years and for all this time I never had the back off! The faults however started to build up, firstly the dial illumination became dim one end of the scale, then the cursor lamp on FM failed. More recently AM packed up and the reception on FM became poor with background hiss. At this point I stopped using the radio and it has sat dormant for a year or so. Well today I decided to have a look so I turned it round and removed the back. After cleaning out the dust I spotted what looked like a capacitor laying loose on the chassis after a quick look on Google it appears that this is a rectifier.. I found that tapping the chassis caused various cracks and pops then AM started to work. The Piano key switches were playing up again. I gave them just a touch of switch cleaner and then cleaned the valve pins This cured all of the intermittent problems and the set came to life on AM and FM. The other faults are going to be more of a challenge.. The reason the dial has gone dim one end is because the lamp holders have become brittle and have shrunk around two of the bubs blocking the light, the bulbs seem a little feeble as well, not the usual 6.3 volt beasties more like the candles fitted to the DAC90A ! The bulb in the FM cursor has failed and it looks like a fiddley job to replace that so It can wait until I tackle the dial lamps. Other faults are that the tuning indicator only works on FM the Aerial rotator is almost seized up and AM tuning drifts from when switched on, However once it has been retuned it stays on station. All of these faults I can live with I will probably tackle the illumination faults and leave the rest! It sounds very good though I am listening to Gold on AM at the moment I only use FM for Radio 4 and sometimes the Classical station. I stopped listening to Radio 2 (apart from pop master when I remember) because of the horrible whiney crap they play these days. (No real lyrics, one line repeated Ad infinitum then finished off with lots of ooh ooh ooh.. you know the type of thing!) Anyway I gave the set a bit of a clean and polish and it looks good! It will probably have to wait another decade (if I live that long!) before it gets any more attention! Rich Attached Thumbnails Last edited by slidertogrid; 2nd Apr 2020 at 3:07 pm.

2nd Apr 2020, 2:58 pm	#2
slidertogrid Octode Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK. Posts: 1,898	Re: Nordemende Meteor More pictures including the strung in rectifier disguised as a capacitor! Attached Thumbnails

2nd Apr 2020, 4:14 pm	#3
slidertogrid Octode Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK. Posts: 1,898	Re: Loewe Opta Meteor Edit .. I got that wrong the set is a Loewe Opta not a Nordmende! I don't know why I said it was a Nordmende! The badge is very small though.. Attached Thumbnails

4th Apr 2020, 9:59 am	#4
Herald1360 Dekatron Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK. Posts: 16,536	Re: Loewe Opta Meteor Not very well disguised- it's got "gleichrichter" (rectifier) writ large on it! Would look better neatly mounted through the chassis with a capacitor clamp though. __________________ ....__________ ....\|____\|\|__\|__\_____ .=.\| _---\__\|__\|_---_\|. .........O..Chris....O

4th Apr 2020, 11:20 am	#5
poppydog Banned Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Cornwall, UK. Posts: 849	Re: Loewe Opta Meteor That's a really nice radio, be nice to see a restoration/repair of one of these big German sets on here. For some reason you never see any, or any interest in them on this forum?? Regards Poppydog

4th Apr 2020, 11:40 am	#7
Edward Huggins Dekatron Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Southwold, Suffolk, UK. Posts: 8,340	Re: Loewe Opta Meteor Not only that, one of their virtues was to use sensibly sized speakers and often multi-speaker arrays. I don't know why British manufacturers somehow never really seemed to go for that? Usually it was a 6.5" Celestion and that's yer lot! __________________ Edward.