Westinghouse Travel Clock & Radio
 

I bought this for $3 yesterday and I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out if its possible to get the radio to work. I don't know anything about transistor radios but this one was in too good of shape to pass up for the price. The alarm clock still works with the buzzer so even if I can't get the radio to work its still really cool.

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Thanks for looking

-Jason

You will have to open it and see if the radio is getting power. There is probably a power transformer and it should put out a few volts ac. That in turn gets rectified by a couple of diodes to provide a few volts dc.

If there is no power, look for the switch that supplies it. If there is power, you will need to see if the speaker is good, if the transistors are receiving power, and all the usual troubleshooting procedures.

Look for burned components; sometimes a resistor has opened. Chances are, it's just one bad part causing the problem.

That radio is strictly battery operated. You probably have to clean slide switch that selects radio-off- alarm.

Ah in that case you are right. Probably a connection issue. It may have been dropped and the board could be cracked.

I have two of those, the radios don't work in mine either, I am annoyed more at the moment that the metal "spring" catch is broken on both. Just for the record, I have two or three desk sets with clock and radio, and two or three Lumina Series desk lamps/radios and one has a removable pocket radio.

Good suggestions above. Lots of times the problems are with connections, not components going bad. Check the battery contacts and any wires going to the battery, clean contacts and use an ohmmeter to check wire continuity. Something could be cracked as noted: with battery connected and set "on," gently flex board and push on parts of it with a pencil eraser end, see if a connection is bad.

I ended up getting it working! The battery in it was thought to be new but it turns out it wasn't. I cleaned up the inside a bit and there were two screws on the bottom that appear to be some kind of ground screws that were both not connected. The nut for the one was loose inside and the other was supposed to be connected to the battery wire and it was not. I put everything back together and it turned on. There isn't really any reception but I am going to try it outside later tonight to see if I can get anything.

The clock still works and keeps time so I will still use it for an alarm clock.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

-Jason