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Old 9th Apr 2021, 9:07 pm   #1
Radio Scotland
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Default Time spent repairing radios?

The one i'm working on at the minute has eaten up the past three days of my time as its fought me every step of the way, But its not grudged as i love messing with radios,

Be interested to know how long other members have spent working on one particular radio


Cheers
jay
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Old 9th Apr 2021, 9:19 pm   #2
Cruisin Marine
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radio's

I once has a badboy GEC 625 mobile. I used to go back to it in quiet times when I would grab it off the rack and try to beat the bad transmitter strip. I did everything I could, never beat it after many, many wasted hours. After I left that company, I soon realised it was a manufacturing fault (which I never suspected at the time thinking GEC were infallible) and realised the RF inter stage transformer must have accidentally been fitted back to front.
Why in God's name I never thought of that at the time - I shall never know.
It taught me a great lesson, sometimes, stand back and think laterally, or not think at all, and let the sub-conscious take over. We have all been there, and all can kick ourselves. Retrospect is easy in hindsight!
As for number of hours- TOO MANY!

Last edited by Cruisin Marine; 9th Apr 2021 at 9:25 pm.
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Old 9th Apr 2021, 9:47 pm   #3
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

Taking time off from it is exactly what i plan to do. Yeah sometimes its better not ponder on problems and let your sub conscious take over,

Thing is most of the probs i'm having with this i caused just by taking it apart. Broken wires, Band switch contacts & dial cord falling off etc. Starting to think it didn't want to be resurrected Its one of those jobs i wish i had never started. Where everything that could go wrong has.


Anyway glad its not just me lol.



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Jay
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Old 10th Apr 2021, 3:34 am   #4
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

It takes guts to think the impossible, but as the fictional detective said, once you have eliminated the possible....

There are badly made sets out there with all sorts of errors in them.

There are sets with terrible design errors in them.

If you meet either of these and don't recognise them, they will put you in an eternal loop. It's interesting to take a forensic view on fault finding. Unravelling things to find out how such an error could have been made and how such a faulty product could have been cleared for shipping. These aren't things a professional repairman would ever be allowed the time to pursue, but as amateurs we have freedoms the professionals can only dream of. They get the money and the fancy kit, if they're lucky, as compensation

David
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Old 10th Apr 2021, 7:13 am   #5
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

Now that I'm no longer in the Trade and I do radios and TVs for fun, it takes as long as it takes! Some radios have arrived in appalling condition and I make the decision (based on 45 years experience) to either 'go for it' or scrap it and use the useful parts in other sets. That largely depends on what the set is and how likely I am to find (or want) another. The little KB FB10 for instance is nothing special as a radio but holds some interest for it's unusual design. The first one I had never seemed to work properly. That one had a frame aerial (early type), very poor selectivity and the I.Fs just wouldn't align....and it wasn't caps inside the IFT's at fault. Extensive unofficial mods had been done and despite putting it back to normal, it just didn't work well. A second one came along at a boot sale.....much better condition, all original....no brainer, the first one was used as spares and provided a better cabinet, an output transformer and a wavechange switch. The replacement FB10 works really well and the original is now a carcass and has provided spares for other members here. Remember, you can't fix 'em all!
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Old 10th Apr 2021, 9:23 am   #6
Kevin Hoyland
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

Morning.
I have spent days repairing radios, But i sent to Germany for a large Saba Auto tuning radio when it came all the drive cords were broken and one of the was made of wire 4 or 5 cords all in. I spent over a week working with them. in the end i just had to walk away from it. after some time started back working on it with a friend so 2 sets of hands blue tack clips and so on in the end we did it.
But then the clutch would not work. Has some one has just said it takes as long as it takes.
Kevin
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Old 10th Apr 2021, 10:41 am   #7
Malcolm G6ANZ
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

As long as it takes. As said when you reach a sticking point, be it mechanical or electronic, just stop and do something else and come back to it later. I think I spent several weeks trying to replace the drive cord on a CR100 and almost the same amount of time replacing the surface mount caps on an editing VCR.
Since it's a hobby, for me, I can take as long as needed.
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Old 10th Apr 2021, 11:01 am   #8
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

It certainly takes longer these days.

Back in the 70's I barely had to change a wax capacitor and even pre-war wet electrolytic's had not yet leaked gunk everywhere.

I actually used new and recovered wax caps in some of my own projects.

1950's 10MΩ resistors were still in spec!

I have had a Cossor 222A on the bench for over 2 years now I just don't seem to get time to get back to it.

Depressingly some sets restored in the 1980's and 90's need doing all over again. A few weeks ago I went to demonstrate my A22 last restored in around 1986 the dial cord promptly broke and it blew a raspberry at me
To be fair it had probably not been powered up in 10 or more years.

There is currently over 100 Cossors (mostly pre-war) alone in the rountuit pile. I really need to give up full time work and retire

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Old 10th Apr 2021, 11:04 am   #9
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

It’s a very variable thing really, some sets are literally a quick polish and a handful of components and they are done in a couple of hours, others take months, or even years! I have an Ekco A22 on the go, started On it in May 2019, it’s still not finished! But it was a total wreck, looked like it had been in a swamp for 30 years, rust everywhere, damaged case, most would write it off as scrap. With the old vintage sets I find they are never really ‘finished’, they are always work in progress!

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Old 10th Apr 2021, 12:49 pm   #10
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

During my working days it was as quickly as possible, five minutes to an hour or two at the most. Today, in retirement, it can take several months, depending on how I feel and the condition of the wireless etc.
John
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Old 10th Apr 2021, 1:19 pm   #11
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

My RCA AR88 has been a "work in progress" for the 40 years it's been in my posession!

It's always worked, but every so often 'something' happens and so I do a bit of improvement/rework - whether replacing a couple more of the old carbon-composition resistors that have gone high/noisy, taking all the knobs off and cleaning them, or respraying the front panel for a third time...

It's not that the AR88 is intrinsically a 'high maintenance' receiver, just that it's now 75 years old and has been used regularly [probably at least 20 hours a week!] for most of the time I've had it, and the old girl occasionally needs a bit of fettling.

Other radios I tend to lose patience with a lot more rapidly: I'll do a quick capacitor/resistor-replace-and-realignment on a typical domestic set - maybe even rub-down/re-oil the cabinet and fit a piece of proper expanded-metal in place of a sagging speaker-cloth - but doing much more is uncommon, such radios just aren't worth the effort. More than once I've spent an afternoon fixing-up a radio only to then discover something like cracked cores/an open-circuit winding/shorted embedded capacitors (a horrible American disease) in IF transformers, and thought 'oh, sod-it' and stripped the radio for spares.
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Old 10th Apr 2021, 3:10 pm   #12
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

As long as it takes, I don't view it as a problem as I enjoy the journey.
If it's a big time consuming project, I'll do a few hours, maybe a day off and come back to it.
I very rarely start another set until I have finished the first one. A bit like decorating, one room at a time or you'll end up in complete mess!
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Old 10th Apr 2021, 3:31 pm   #13
Cruisin Marine
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

A good point raised above, nowadays it takes much much longer than it used to, the cap's used to mostly be fine way back (except those dreadful awful blue tant's that Pye fitted, they were dodgy after a year in equipment, like the PF70, PF2, Europa).
Recently, I have literally spent days recapping some stuff, it is soul destroying in time spent. But, has to be done.
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Old 11th Apr 2021, 1:18 pm   #14
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

Just found this thread & reading through the posts, most enjoyable!
This weekend I've been "re-visiting" a Defiant MSH902 which has been a part of my collection for about 2 years now. After about 5-6 hours it tends to go a bit distorted, it's a "fault" it's had since day one despite a NOS FC4 & AC2/PEN. It's taught me a lot, I had to reverse engineer it as there is no technical information about it. This weekend I discovered the IF is 117KHz with the aid of the scope I might add. It was a little bit out, initially (after warming up for about an hour) 119KHz. By experimentation I found it responds best at 117KHz. I know that in the 30's, when this set was made, the IF could be just about any frequency between 100KHz to 125KHz or thereabouts so I've gone for the best response. No doubt I'll be back in there at another time but it's working ok at the moment. I've have no idea how much time I've spent "playing" with this set but it must be around 150-200 hours by now. Am I fed up with it? Not a bit of it!
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Old 11th Apr 2021, 2:14 pm   #15
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobaltblue View Post
A few weeks ago I went to demonstrate my A22 last restored in around 1986 the dial cord promptly broke
Dial cord?
 
Old 11th Apr 2021, 2:46 pm   #16
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobaltblue View Post
A few weeks ago I went to demonstrate my A22 last restored in around 1986 the dial cord promptly broke
Dial cord?
Dial cord, cursor drive cord or just drive cord, Tuning scale drive cord also referred sometimes as just Cord.

Had I given it any thought I would probably have said drive cord.

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Old 11th Apr 2021, 4:06 pm   #17
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

My mistake, I forgot my A22 has a dial cord (the one that turns the dial) the capacitor drive is a metal contrivance. It would still work without the string thing.
 
Old 11th Apr 2021, 4:29 pm   #18
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

Back on topic (I like the gentle moderator nudge) I love finding faults, my sort of crossword with a tangible outcome. I get a great sense of satisfaction doing it no matter how long it takes, some of it is peering into the mind of the designer, most enjoyable.
 
Old 12th Apr 2021, 12:31 am   #19
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

IMHO it all depends on how attractive/desirable/useful the final product is, or how attractive/desirable/useful the intended recipient is! Quite a few of my recent overhauls get donated to my late wife's favourite charities where they have a 'Yesterday's Treasures' auction every year. Some of them go for much higher sale prices than I expected - if I had known that I would have put them up on our local internet auction site! I think elbow grease on the cabinet brings in greater rewards at auction than the internal performance.
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Old 12th Apr 2021, 5:43 pm   #20
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Default Re: Time spent repairing radios?

Hi. I have found the cure for my night insomnia is working on a set with no hope of a successful outcome, it's the 1950's Premier Radio kit radio. I am rebuilding this using the circuit of the champion TRF 784M radio but using the octal valve line up of 6X5 6V6 6SJ7 6K7. I am still looking for some parts but if I am successful I have another identical one to carry my nightly hobby. Both sets have nice cabinets to go into as ornaments so it will not be a total waste of time.
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