Sunday, August 2, 2009

Radio update

A few weeks ago I was given a 60s shortwave radio kit. It is a Knight Kit Star Roamer and was partially assembled - I was tasked to finish it, and let the owner mess with it for a week or two. The instructions were very clear and 3/4 was done already; I just had to find a few spare capacitors and a diode (it was made at the time semiconductors were being introduced - vacuum tubes are still used for amplification). Unfortunately when I applied power, there was a loud 60Hz hum - I thought I could get away without replacing the electrolytics, but no...
In other radio news, the small Stromberg needs a new transformer (6v 10amp) and the big Stromberg needs at least one new 1/2 watt resistor. They didn't mess around with low power stuff in those days.

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