that took me back to the 80s and my first job out of school, pouring loose transistors into a vibratory bowle feed ready to have their legs spread and glued onto ammo tape. who would have thought we used to do that in the UK and have UK made smoke detectors.
9:16 I wonder if part of the reason for the Darlington pair was to make use of cheap semi-reject transistors; I heard that in the 1960, the consumer sector used a lot of transistors that didn't test well enough for military use.
When I was working on an old Channel Master radio, the FM band which was dead came to life when I turned on the flourescent desk light. But the rain reviving your radio tops it all. Thanks for many a great video Shango.
I just had a similar resurrection last weekend. I had my hands on a '69 Philetta radio which was completely shot on arrival. Then as I was looking for the situation, slowly it started to produce some distorted noise. Then started to receive, but still distorted audio from speaker. On scope it looked like one of the push-pull transistors was not working at all. On the audio out jack the sound was OK so I was listening to it some time with an external amp, and then when I just for curiosity turned up the volume again - the sound was perfect from the speaker. I did not changed nor touched anything. No magic rain nor teardrops were involved :) After this I just checked all electrolytics - they are still at their specs. So I just put back the backplate and use it :)
@@russellhltn1396 Actually there are no caps in the power amp which could cause simptomes like I've experienced. This was my idea anyhow as well but again I've measured them all afterwards and all tested OK
@@russellhltn1396 This is what I suspected, but there are no coupling caps in the power amp at all. There is only a (silicon) drive transistor and the usual (that time) germanium AC187K-188K pair as final stage; bias current is stabilized with an NTC and so on. On the scope it was clearly visible that the lower transistor is not amplifying at all (lower part of the signal was practically cut completely while the upper half was normal). I was already looking for a replacement AC187K then it started working... I'd say the germanium transistor had some beta loss which in a magic way came back. Other explanation I could not find...
I used to think storing vintage electronics in my unair-conditioned south Florida garage was bad because of the heat and humidity - now I realize it is the lack of actual precipitation that is the real problem. Thanks!
Another cool thing about those Energizer AA lithium batteries, they don't leak. They're not supposed to anyway. The ones I've used haven't, knock wood. I also like that they put out 1.8 volts brand new out of the package.
Very helpful video. I have a few vintage electronics that need repairing. Tomorrow's forecast is calling for rain. I'm going next door and ask my neighbor if he'll help me carry a few items out into the back yard.
Nice video. Looks inside very much like Standard SR-F412. Similar PC board etc. Even the leather case is almost identical. Only major difference is the earphone jack location and the number of transistors which seems to be only 6. Quite difficult to find exact schematics and very difficult to change electrolytic caps because there isn't much space to work. 😬 I once decided to change the coupling capasitor to the base of the transistor which drives the phase splitter transformer but the PC board was so crowded that I gave up because I did not want to overheat the transistor which was soldered to the same point as the other lead of that electrolytic coupling capasitor.
Remember those cheap early 70s GE transistor clock radios? Ya know, the low voltage units that had a power transformer? I fixed a few of those with no/ low-distorted audio by scratching a little graphite from a #2 pencil from base to collector on the audio driver transistor. Woke 'em right up!
It could be a cold solder joint I've ran a cross that before the water just bridged the connection the caps are probably ok it was probably stored in the attic for years cool little radio tho Shango
Just a thought, when rosin is left on a circuit cards it can turn into a somewhat conductive salt after a few years. I've only seen this a few times in my 40 + years in electronics but it can cause crazy things to happen ..or not happen :-)
Greetings from Turkey. This radio reminds me of the Standard sr-f408. When I was a little kid I had the SR-F408L model. It provided me with countless hours of entertainment.
@@shango066 Unfortunately no. These days all one can receive on an AM set is broadcasts from neighboring countries. During my childhood, living in Ankara, TRT-1 and TRT-2, the two government-run radio channels broadcasted in AM, on long wave. I think in most other cities like Istanbul, they used standard broadcast band frequencies (medium wave, as it was more commonly referred to here) At one far end of the Long Wave band I could hear what sounded like morse code and as a kid I always wondered what that might be. From what I learned from your videos many decades later, that was probably an airport beacon. Also, all radio and television broadcasting was under government monopoly up until the early 1990s when there were changes made to communication laws, allowing for private and commercial stations to exist. Many, many private radio stations popped up like mushrooms over a very short period of time. Early 1990s, and FM Stereo was more or less the norm. Almost every radio sold came with FM, so all of the new stations were FM. We never had the abundance or variety of stations on AM that the US had. As far as I know the AM band (LW and MW) only ever had the two radio channels I mentioned above. I also remember throughout the time when the government had the broadcast monopoly, there were only two stations on the entire FM band.
10:48 You got enough transistors there? I can understand why you decided not to work on it. Plus it looks like a pain in the arse to work on. Have you ever seen those tiny Soviet radios that ran on two NiCd button cells. You'd wonder what you were complaining about.
As everytime is very difficult to replace a germanium transistor with a silicon one 😬. Despite a bunch of them 😁😁. But when they become sick live them outside ⛈⛈🌧🌧. That’s the funny of germanium staff. 👍👍
Five thousand C945 NPN general purpose transistors! You know, I am itching to find out what would have happened had the soldered side of the board been face up when the transistors was poured? Well... Guess it's gonna be like that Kennedy thing... We'll never know :(
I think that problem was in AF stage, not in mixer. There were no hum, no change when you turned volume control. For example leaky C5 could block audio driver, because transistor Q6 is biased only by R21 150k. Also leaky C4 could act quite the same way in preamp.
So was this a 3 volt radio or a 1.5 volt? Either way, with that low of an electromotive force, a little resistance could turn things off in a heartbeat. No wonder a drop of rain woke that Admiral up!!
So the extra two transistors are in the audio stage. Interesting, a darlington preamp, and a weirdly biased driver followed by a conventional p-p output stage. I was going to guess that the extra transistors would have been used as a bias temperature compensation for the output stage, or as a separate local oscillator for the mixer instead of a self-oscillating converter stage. Maybe an untuned rf stage, though I think only Zenith did that. Bet the rain short changed the effective value of a resistor that moved in value over the years.
The weight of all those transistors mixed with rain water droplet weight fixed a bad solder joint. It may become louder when input voltage is increased...
Knocked out the 'tin whisker' in the converter. The Philips (Europe) equivalent was AF117, widely used in RF oscillator applications, notorious for the 'tin whisker' in germanium transistors..
It's kinda had the same problem like my 1962 Browni Radio (aka: Browni Hi Fi Super Deluxe HT-8100 - CBC Charles Brown Browni.) It's currently works after I replaced some of the Capacitor, it's only need Fine tune the coils. The Radio have pretty good sound the tuner is working , receiving some of the MW Station (2 in Hungary, 4 from Romania), and the Schematic is in the radio because there is no Schematics in the Interbet and that's odd...)
I have a vintage transistor radio in the garage that's totally silent - will have to wait with the troubleshooting, no rain in the forecast for the next 2 weeks :-(
The noise with the cracking is something I hunted down for a long time in my hi-fi amplifier. It is indeed a failed transistor. In my case it still worked but sometimes I had the noise. It became worse and worse with time looked in the schematic and found out it was a transistor marked that was notorious for failing. However in all my other speakers 4 more boards they still where all fine even after almost 40 years. So yeah it happens. Those germanium transistors are even worse. Mine had silicon transistors.
It's not wave, or drag soldered?!, that's unusual! Possibly assembled by a piece-worker?? No signs of pre heating before drag or wave flowing; early two-part adhesive - featuring etchant (on copper) used before adhesive parts A + B applied, then pressed and baked. Of it is, metal thickness will be 0.014-in, to 0.019-in; lo-nickel alloy copper. Lead-tension, clinch and suage method prior to soldering. "Hong Kong defense", starting to have their lunch eaten.
And that is true. For example alcaline fluids from leaked battery can be neutralized by using citrus acid etc. And acids remove normal rust and oxidation as well.
Let's make a CPU in RTL out of those transistors. Isn't it possible to save that vinyl case with vinyl care products with some estrogen and other nice softeners in them?
It looks like a near clone of this radio was sold by Radio Shack as a kit (www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/older-archerkit-transistor-portable-422572018) and later updated with an IC for the AF stage (www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/archerkit-am-radio-kit-28-4029-306339139).
Resurrection by baptism leads to immaculate reception!
Now THAT is funny
Hahaha, this is f'ing awesome! Your name is even better than your brilliant saying. 73 OM
Laughing my ass of in sunday 4:17 AM, well done!
"You can throw transistors at it all day and it won't help." Shango is a literal man!
Yes but things that fix themselves seldom hold up long.
@@rsattahip Agreed, they have that innate tendency to be flaky thereafter.
Wow Mother Nature is a smart lady! Knew exactly which transistor was bad!
Nothing like a little Fukushima radioactive Pacific rain to make all better!!
That was back when AA batteries were called "Penlights." I had one of those, but it had a leather case!
Never knew Mother Nature knew how to fix vintage electronics. Way to go!
10:40 Awesome repairing skills! Incredible! :)
All that lithium and aluminum sprayed into the atmosphere finally paid off!! 😂🤣👍
Pha Q Makes sense.
that took me back to the 80s and my first job out of school, pouring loose transistors into a vibratory bowle feed ready to have their legs spread and glued onto ammo tape. who would have thought we used to do that in the UK and have UK made smoke detectors.
9:16 I wonder if part of the reason for the Darlington pair was to make use of cheap semi-reject transistors; I heard that in the 1960, the consumer sector used a lot of transistors that didn't test well enough for military use.
When I was working on an old Channel Master radio, the FM band which was dead came to life when I turned on the flourescent desk light. But the rain reviving your radio tops it all. Thanks for many a great video Shango.
Another video after school, love it.
Yeah
I'm always impressed with how you're able to do electronic forensics
the rain over the pacific makes pineapple grow two directions. it apparently can fuse a bad trace as well. now THATS a lotta caps!
I just had a similar resurrection last weekend. I had my hands on a '69 Philetta radio which was completely shot on arrival. Then as I was looking for the situation, slowly it started to produce some distorted noise. Then started to receive, but still distorted audio from speaker. On scope it looked like one of the push-pull transistors was not working at all. On the audio out jack the sound was OK so I was listening to it some time with an external amp, and then when I just for curiosity turned up the volume again - the sound was perfect from the speaker. I did not changed nor touched anything. No magic rain nor teardrops were involved :) After this I just checked all electrolytics - they are still at their specs. So I just put back the backplate and use it :)
That sounds like caps reforming.
@@russellhltn1396 Actually there are no caps in the power amp which could cause simptomes like I've experienced. This was my idea anyhow as well but again I've measured them all afterwards and all tested OK
@@janosnagyj.9540 It wouldn't be a power filtering cap, but a interstage coupling cap.
@@russellhltn1396 This is what I suspected, but there are no coupling caps in the power amp at all. There is only a (silicon) drive transistor and the usual (that time) germanium AC187K-188K pair as final stage; bias current is stabilized with an NTC and so on. On the scope it was clearly visible that the lower transistor is not amplifying at all (lower part of the signal was practically cut completely while the upper half was normal). I was already looking for a replacement AC187K then it started working... I'd say the germanium transistor had some beta loss which in a magic way came back. Other explanation I could not find...
@@russellhltn1396 If you wanna take a look, it's a Philetta 280, SM could be found quickly by googling for it.
I used to think storing vintage electronics in my unair-conditioned south Florida garage was bad because of the heat and humidity - now I realize it is the lack of actual precipitation that is the real problem. Thanks!
"When the rain comes we run and hide our heads". Loved the video!
Another cool thing about those Energizer AA lithium batteries, they don't leak. They're not supposed to anyway. The ones I've used haven't, knock wood. I also like that they put out 1.8 volts brand new out of the package.
Pouring that many transistors on an AM radio might accidentally make it become self aware. Be careful!
Yes, or it will increase the sensitivity of the radio to deep state communications! 😜
HAL 9000's great great grandfather. hahaa
Exactly, we wouldn't want it to process all that AM band hellfire preaching.
Very helpful video. I have a few vintage electronics that need repairing. Tomorrow's forecast is calling for rain. I'm going next door and ask my neighbor if he'll help me carry a few items out into the back yard.
What the heck? How amazing! Take it at face value. I enjoy all your component and TV videos.
Beautiful radio. So clean and pristine. Made my day when you said a drop of rain made it work. LMAO Classic cleared on testing fix.
Rain as a troubleshooting aid! Amazing!
Nice video.
Looks inside very much like Standard SR-F412. Similar PC board etc. Even the leather case is almost identical. Only major difference is the earphone jack location and the number of transistors which seems to be only 6.
Quite difficult to find exact schematics and very difficult to change electrolytic caps because there isn't much space to work. 😬
I once decided to change the coupling capasitor to the base of the transistor which drives the phase splitter transformer but the PC board was so crowded that I gave up because I did not want to overheat the transistor which was soldered to the same point as the other lead of that electrolytic coupling capasitor.
I found that some transistors can fix themselves after accidentally being shorted out..
Those energizer lithiums are my favourite to use good choice s66
So many transistors!!! Cracked me up good this time nope still didn’t fix it !! Lol love his humor
6:08 It's a long time since I last did that local oscillator trick, that brings back memories.
Nothing like the magical drop of rain.
Remember those cheap early 70s GE transistor clock radios? Ya know, the low voltage units that had a power transformer? I fixed a few of those with no/ low-distorted audio by scratching a little graphite from a #2 pencil from base to collector on the audio driver transistor. Woke 'em right up!
Like it very nice a time when radios were made decent. Looks vintage 📻📻📻📻
I went to the radio museum website, where this is listed (with a question mark) as circa 1965.
divine , repaired , from heavan , gave you a inkling what it needs
Must have been a dry joint
I wasn't aware Admiral made a dehydrated radio.
Back in the day no one would have even tried to repair this radio.
It would have been deposited in the nearest trash can.
“ both positives up 2wards the airplane “ nice ! :D
I had one just like that, except that it was orange. Whenever I heard the world "admiral" I thought of that radio.
"Mother nature brought it back to life....."
*:Mary Shelley entered the chat:*
No surprise. In all the old films you throw water in the guy's face to wake him up from unconsciousness.
Christ, a broken hearing aid will get KNX from the South Bay.
Only if it has an aerial
"crackle pony"
Still in it's box,amazing
It could be a cold solder joint I've ran a cross that before the water just bridged the connection the caps are probably ok it was probably stored in the attic for years cool little radio tho Shango
What are all those unsoldered leads poking through from the other side?
14:00 - God intervenes and fixes the Radio for Shango because he knows he loves Radios so much
Very nice vintage am radio
Shango, it just goes to prove that it's better for it to rain
on your transistors than it is to rain transistors!:¬}
Just a thought, when rosin is left on a circuit cards it can turn into a somewhat conductive salt after a few years. I've only seen this a few times in my 40 + years in electronics but it can cause crazy things to happen ..or not happen :-)
Greetings from Turkey. This radio reminds me of the Standard sr-f408. When I was a little kid I had the SR-F408L model. It provided me with countless hours of entertainment.
Where was that radio made?
@@shango066 It was made in Japan. I still own it but I haven't powered it up in ages
Standard SR-F412 is almost identical inside as well:
www.radiomuseum.org/r/standard_sr_f412.html
It is from around year 1961 and made in Japan.
@@ShyMagpie are there am broadcasters still operating in Turkey?
@@shango066 Unfortunately no. These days all one can receive on an AM set is broadcasts from neighboring countries. During my childhood, living in Ankara, TRT-1 and TRT-2, the two government-run radio channels broadcasted in AM, on long wave. I think in most other cities like Istanbul, they used standard broadcast band frequencies (medium wave, as it was more commonly referred to here)
At one far end of the Long Wave band I could hear what sounded like morse code and as a kid I always wondered what that might be. From what I learned from your videos many decades later, that was probably an airport beacon.
Also, all radio and television broadcasting was under government monopoly up until the early 1990s when there were changes made to communication laws, allowing for private and commercial stations to exist. Many, many private radio stations popped up like mushrooms over a very short period of time. Early 1990s, and FM Stereo was more or less the norm. Almost every radio sold came with FM, so all of the new stations were FM. We never had the abundance or variety of stations on AM that the US had. As far as I know the AM band (LW and MW) only ever had the two radio channels I mentioned above. I also remember throughout the time when the government had the broadcast monopoly, there were only two stations on the entire FM band.
Is good to see someone who uses another radio to test oscillator stage...
Would rain work for tube sets too?
10:48 You got enough transistors there? I can understand why you decided not to work on it. Plus it looks like a pain in the arse to work on. Have you ever seen those tiny Soviet radios that ran on two NiCd button cells. You'd wonder what you were complaining about.
As soon as you cracked the case open - oh my GOD i had a strong urge to smell that thing
Water caused a capacitance circuit in the right spot woke up something dead. Blame it on the rain. Works for me.
seen that in other yt videos. B+ short to ground brings front end back to life
At 20:32 looks like there is a solder pad without any solder applied, just under the probe....
Recapping actually DOES fix most anything older & electronic, the VAST majority of the time!
That's a new one! Water curing an electronic circuit, eh? May I remain...skeptical? hehehe
The two AA batteries give it more current than a 9-volt battery - so the darlington trio makes sense given - they're all about building current.
As everytime is very difficult to replace a germanium transistor with a silicon one 😬. Despite a bunch of them 😁😁. But when they become sick live them outside ⛈⛈🌧🌧. That’s the funny of germanium staff. 👍👍
Five thousand C945 NPN general purpose transistors! You know, I am itching to find out what would have happened had the soldered side of the board been face up when the transistors was poured?
Well... Guess it's gonna be like that Kennedy thing... We'll never know :(
I think that problem was in AF stage, not in mixer. There were no hum, no change when you turned volume control. For example leaky C5 could block audio driver, because transistor Q6 is biased only by R21 150k. Also leaky C4 could act quite the same way in preamp.
It's a miracle! 😜👍
Transistor rain, Germanium rain, Silicon rain, I only wanted to see you, Underneath the Graphene rain... (Lyrics by PNPrince) :)
The stunt with all the transistors proves more is not always better i just about fell out of my chair.
the beauty of video, if it you didn't get it on tape it didn't happen! LOL
So was this a 3 volt radio or a 1.5 volt? Either way, with that low of an electromotive force, a little resistance could turn things off in a heartbeat. No wonder a drop of rain woke that Admiral up!!
3 volts
Two batteries 3 volt.
So the extra two transistors are in the audio stage. Interesting, a darlington preamp, and a weirdly biased driver followed by a conventional p-p output stage. I was going to guess that the extra transistors would have been used as a bias temperature compensation for the output stage, or as a separate local oscillator for the mixer instead of a self-oscillating converter stage. Maybe an untuned rf stage, though I think only Zenith did that. Bet the rain short changed the effective value of a resistor that moved in value over the years.
I think it's raining semiconductor dope in LA! 😆
That crackling means the radio came from Silent Hill and needs to go back. That thing is tiny.
The amazing rain cure!😊
Abominal soldering on that board.
The weight of all those transistors mixed with rain water droplet weight fixed a bad solder joint. It may become louder when input voltage is increased...
I noticed a printing date on the manual was 12-65.
(10:43)
Radio: Father, I require transistors for-
*Let it rain*
Wow, even God is on Shango's side.
Selective diagnostic rain.
Shango for president.
Seriously, great vid
Thanks for sharing.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
What
Knocked out the 'tin whisker' in the converter. The Philips (Europe) equivalent was AF117, widely used in RF oscillator applications, notorious for the 'tin whisker' in germanium transistors..
I like to watch your videos and I have learned quite a bit. BUT, when you start fixing stuff without doing anything, that’s way out of my league!
Can I ask you dear how can I get a schamatic diagram foe a radio if you don,t mind my regards
It's kinda had the same problem like my 1962 Browni Radio (aka: Browni Hi Fi Super Deluxe HT-8100 - CBC Charles Brown Browni.)
It's currently works after I replaced some of the Capacitor, it's only need Fine tune the coils.
The Radio have pretty good sound the tuner is working , receiving some of the MW Station (2 in Hungary, 4 from Romania), and the Schematic is in the radio because there is no Schematics in the Interbet and that's odd...)
the back of the board shows the battery contats show you had 1 of the batterys round the wrong way
Fun fact, sometimes these things can surprise us.
He just needed some water to start talking.
I wonder if the rain acted like a 9V battery to a shorted transistor and blew off the tin whiskers inside the transistor?
That an example of avalanche breakdown?
You need to bottle that Holy Water. It could be a big seller to restorers.
wow you must have magic rain in LA lol
I have a vintage transistor radio in the garage that's totally silent - will have to wait with the troubleshooting, no rain in the forecast for the next 2 weeks :-(
The noise with the cracking is something I hunted down for a long time in my hi-fi amplifier. It is indeed a failed transistor. In my case it still worked but sometimes I had the noise. It became worse and worse with time looked in the schematic and found out it was a transistor marked that was notorious for failing. However in all my other speakers 4 more boards they still where all fine even after almost 40 years. So yeah it happens. Those germanium transistors are even worse. Mine had silicon transistors.
Next time I try fixing some electronic gadget I'm going to simulate rainfall on the exposed PCB. lol
I spill beer on them.
Now, if someone can tell how many transistors that was?
God sent the Rains to fix the radio and its fixed!!!
It's not wave, or drag soldered?!, that's unusual! Possibly assembled by a piece-worker?? No signs of pre heating before drag or wave flowing; early two-part adhesive - featuring etchant (on copper) used before adhesive parts A + B applied, then pressed and baked. Of it is, metal thickness will be 0.014-in, to 0.019-in; lo-nickel alloy copper. Lead-tension, clinch and suage method prior to soldering. "Hong Kong defense", starting to have their lunch eaten.
acid rain clears all contacts
And that is true. For example alcaline fluids from leaked battery can be neutralized by using citrus acid etc. And acids remove normal rust and oxidation as well.
I bless the rains down in California..
Let's make a CPU in RTL out of those transistors.
Isn't it possible to save that vinyl case with vinyl care products with some estrogen and other nice softeners in them?
Needs some foreskin cream with adrenochrome.
10:40 LMAO Omg thats hilarious
It looks like a near clone of this radio was sold by Radio Shack as a kit (www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/older-archerkit-transistor-portable-422572018) and later updated with an IC for the AF stage (www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/archerkit-am-radio-kit-28-4029-306339139).
Nice case! Funny!
it would be interesting to know what the price was when
These things were not cheap
1 dollar in 1965 is worth almost 8 today