90 year old Sparton Model 254 AM Table Radio will this dinosaur work? Lets find out.
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Client brought me this old set. He said it "hums"
Wants it checked to see if it can be repaired. In part 1 I change a few parts to prove that all stages are functional. This unit features an electro dynamic speaker. When I was a kid I remember touching the wire going to the speaker plug of my grandmothers old westinghouse radio and getting the worst shock of my life. I didn't know then that the speaker had about 400 volts on that plug. Will never forget that one, just like I will never forget the magnetron power supply that bit me in 1986. You tend to remember being thrown about 6 feet and landing on a stack of TVs that had just been repaired!
I hope your customer wants to proceed. This is so interesting. Great content as usual.
Yes proceeding
Yes. Saw the live show last night. Thank you. Nice work too!!
I love tube type equipment especially Ham & CB Radio amplifiers. Once fixed correctly they can sound awesome on AM & Shortwave. -Cheers!
I have a 250 watt tube amplifier for 10 and 11 meters, I also have an old Yaesu FT101 tucked away and that will do about 200 watts, its a tube output. Those ones scare the crap out of me because the voltages are really high in there.
@@12voltvids Oh yes especially if they use a 6146B & 4CX 150 or 250 ceramic tube.
Very interesting. I like those vintage electronics made before was born.
Long before my time too.
Mr. Volts, how do you determine the polarity on these old sets, with the installation of new capacitors. I ask the ques. due to the fact there are no visible markings with the absence of a circuit board. MJ in B'dos.
With the exception of the 3 Atlantic Which are all contained in that metal can the rest of them are non-polarized. Now some will harp about the outside foilAnd that was more of an issue on the larger paper capacitors that were physically larger you wanted the outside foil of the low impedence or grounded side. This is because the Physically larger Bodies on the capacitors had more surface area and could pick up interference from outside the smaller caps have much less surface area so this is not as big an issue. But as far as polarity no, this is not important like on an electrolytic which will blow up if put in backwards.
On the canned caps usually the outside metal of the can is the negative side, and if that's not connected to ground it will be sitting on some kind of isolator. The later years they'd then slip a cardboard cover over the can if its a ungrounded cap so someone won't get a mild shock if they grab it for some reason.
That power cord got asbestos covered wires in it? If so is it a "curtain burner" cord?
No this has a transformer no curtain burner on this one.
I have a Sony Portable Battery 🔋 powered AM/FM it came out in 2008 and it still works!!! It has LED light indicators one green one for the battery level and one red one for the tune light for the signal strength from the radio station on that frequency for the FM signal it has a metal rod antenna model ICF-P26
Get back to me in 2098 and let me know if its still working.
where do u get schematics from?
Pacifictv.ca
No dust cover over the voice coil !!
So
@@12voltvids only thinking why the not put one in !! The voice coil kan be jamed whith dust ! I have my self putting a mild air compressor to blow out any debres off it , whith minimal pressure , to make it work as intended !
I think that's how older speakers were made.
The spindle om the speaker are probably totalt dry , a trick is to hit it whith some hair spray! It seems redickulesd but works !
Some old speakers have i sted off a spindle a membran instead ! But when i restored a speaker , whit a new kon , or only the rubber foam on the speaker , i always get the spindle a toucht of hair spray , its make it a liter bit softly ! And the speaker sounds like its purpose
Dave at least you do something before you run a set is change the bad caps first! Jim's Radio Shop doesn't do that every time!
I have done that on some of my old radios. Change all of them before plugging in, however the owner of this already tried to run it and if it was going to go poof it would have happened then. I started on dim bulb and there was no excessive draw, so even though I know there are bad caps, none dead shorted. Had that bulb lit up bright then I would have known there was a bad short. A little leakage isn't going to destroy components if only run for a few minutes.
I live in Kelowna BC and I get one AM station in Kelowna during the day at night I can get quite a view stations on AM
Oh they are down to one now. We lost 2 50KW stations last year when Bell pulled the plug.
@@12voltvids it's AM 1150 CKFR AM I think it was a Bell Media station in Kelowna BC
@@12voltvids it used to be Oldies 1150 now they don't have music on that station any more just news and sports and talk shows during Christmas they play Christmas music
@@12voltvids yes this is happening with AM 1150 news talk and sports station is no longer Bell Media it's being sold to Vista in Kelowna BC
Silver Mica disease??
They are still working. Owner says it is working great on a 20 foot antenna hanging out his window. You can go crazy and change all the caps but at the end of the day you have to do what the customer wants. If he wanted to spend 300 then sure change all of them and all the wiring. In his case he said make it work and make it safe. Is it as sensitive as it could be? Probably not but he isn't listening to shortwave from around the world, he is listening to local radio. There is noting on shortwave bands other than the god channels and i would sooner slit my wrists.
Enjoyed the video greatly! I'm currently in the middle of restoring a Sparton 6-26 right now.
I thank you Mr. Volts ⚡️ for your prompt reply to my ques. and my comment on the long Ants. I hold you in High Regard. MJ. in B'dos 😊
I remember my Dad running 🏃♂️ a mile long transparent length of electrical wire from one end of the roof to the other, just to pick up Radio Luxumberg on the Blaupunk tube set, back in the day. 😊
Longwire antennas are still used today. Not as much to pick up anymore as most of the shortwave stations shut down. I used to love listening to shortwave radio. Hear music from the BBC, Radio Australia, Radio Cuba. Loved all of it. Of course the holy grail was the pirate stations. AM DX was also something I did frequently. AM DX is now even better than ever because so many local AM station s are dark. In my area there used to be strong stations on 550, 600, 650, 690, 730, 800, 850, 870, 900, 980, 1040, 1130, 1200, 1320, 1410, 1470. 1550. Today there is 550, 600, 650, 690, 730, 980, 1130, 1200, 1320, 1470, 1550, 1600. Out of those 650 is sports, 690 the CBC (also broadcast on 88.1 now) 730 is traffic plus whitecap and lions games) 980 talk, 1130 News. The rest of foreign language stations. No music at all on the english AM stations. Frpm 17 local stations to 12. This opens up real estate to pull in distant stations.
Howdy 12v, noticed the new multi meter with heat cam!! how is it working out for you?? Bryan in EL Paso:)
Works great
Fix the chair!
Not possible without a welder as the bracket for the seat has broken.
Refurbishing these prewar radio's is an art that takes many hours.
The wiring is always past it's best and the old paper & wax capacitors always need replacing
along with dried out electrolytics.
If you have to buy new tubes (valves) they can cost a fortune.
I hope you get the go-ahead on this one.
I remember when Bing Crosby did his radio shows back in about the 1930s to 1950s the radio shows back in those days where on AM radio not FM
That's because FM radio had not been rolled out. They did have FM developed however as it was used from day one on TV. They started in 1933 in the 42 to 50MHz range, and then changed to the current 88-108 in 1946 which is when commercial FM broadcasting. The experimental stations were required to change frequencies by 1948, and existing receivers required re-tuning.
@shango066