vintage ge p-808e solid state am radio
 

hi all i got this radio that takes a 9v battery but the big one but upon turning it on there is bearly any sound from the speaker but i did find an rs2680 pnp transistor that is an rf-if amp that was shorted. could this be the problem or a known problem for these vintage radios. i get stations but cannot really here them and finding only this transistor bad im just wondering if anyone here knows these radios.

Have taken a peek under the PC board at the speaker? If it looks like no other speaker you have ever seen, I have a good idea where the problem lies.Please get back to us with your observations. :)

well i got the new transistor but the audio is very low as its trying to pull stations in but theres not much around me as far as am stations. i have to find out why its low and it has that weird type speaker and its intact.

The field magnets in those evolve back into iron ore frequently.Try using an earphone. You might get surprised. :)

ok its fixed and works the problem was one magnet was broken and cleaned out both magnets and replaced with 2 of those plastic magnets i trimmed and fit and crazy glued them in and presto, sound.

Spectacular.I never knew about that until someone ELSE pointed it out to me :)

its to bad it didnt have more volume but it is old and at least it can be put down and heard.

I dont know HOW one could find this out..............but I wonder if there is an issue with the polarity of the two magnets. Like their fields cancelling each other out,or in some other fashion keeping the armature from moving properly?Or, is the magnetic material chosen not as potent ?

I've got one of those radios. Got it with Plaid stamps from the A&P grocery store! I think it was 8 books of stamps. geezz.. talk about a lost era.

I took an old Eveready #266 battery, removed the innards, kept the terminals, and installed a regular 9V battery connector so it looks stock anyway.

that could be possible with the magnet strength or polarity but i did try the magnets 2 different ways. but it plays loud enough so ill leave it.

yes the 266 is a 9 volt battery but its 2500ah, thats alot so what i did was put 3- 9v batterys together with there clips and had another one of those big battery clips and soldered it to the 3 9v clips and it just plugs right on to the original battery clip. so to get 2500ah i would need 5 9v so i decided to use 3 and get around 1500ah. i used duracell and they are 500ah each which comes to 1500ah. energizer is 600ah. lost era,oh yes but i do remember those stamps.

I was going to say you should never parallel batterys because they can fail and leak but Duracell 9 volts explode all by themselves and make a mess.

The radio only pulls 20 mA when it's playing (I just measured it) so a standard 9V should last a long time.

Interesting about the speaker and the magnets gradually failing. Mine still plays loud and clear. Apparently they all don't lose their magnetism over time.