my sony transistorized is acting up help?
 

what would cause the audio to be low like the batteries are dead when their not? get 1.5 volts on the dsize i put in and 1.3 on the ones i took out help? this is my radio i use beside my bed at night. it was my gr grandfathers radio

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5210/5...9d7a04c7_b.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5121/5...33b75df7_b.jpg

It could be that the capacitors are failing. I know that the paper capacitors in most Japanese tube sets were real lousy, but I'm not all that experienced with transistor stuff to know if they were an issue.

That looks like a VERY early transistor set, and likely S0ny's first model......As such it is likely to be quite valuable, and you may want to avoid tinkering with it as you could devalue it that way.

There are folks here that know a heck of a lot more about early transistor radios than me, who will have better advice to offer. I'll defer you to their expertise.....

it is

forgot to mention its a tr-72
there not terribly valuable where i am as most of them wound up here.. mine was direct from sony unlike the ones that u find around here though

I noticed a yellow wire disconnected in the picture of the chassis. If this goes to the antenna, you will have weak or no reception except on very strong local stations, and even then I wouldn't expect much. It may use the antenna as part of a tuned circuit, so if the former is disconnected or missing, the radio will not work. Think of car radios. These absolutely will not work without an antenna, even if you are parked in the shadow of the tower(s) of a 50kW station.

I don't see anything connected to the loop antenna in your radio; I'd reconnect it. I wouldn't be surprised if you get all sorts of stations, at reasonable volume, after the loop is properly connected.

BTW, I noticed one Panasonic battery in your radio among three industrial-grade batteries of another brand. Mixing different types (brands) of batteries in radios, or any kind of battery-powered device for that matter, is not recommended. You mentioned that the batteries in your set aren't weak or dead, but if you have two or more different brands of batteries in it, one or more of the mismatched ones may be weak or even stone dead. I'd replace all batteries with fresh, new ones of the same brand. Again, it wouldn't surprise me if you get all the volume you want, and then some, from the radio with all new cells.

that photos from a yr ago. and that battery missmatch set lasted 4yrs but thats with speratic use. the batteries i have now are just wall mart cheapies

the yellow wire is 20feet long and works quiet well. it was added for when out camping in the midle of nowhere

anyhow the volume all the way up and its very dim even when not on a station turn it down and u can't hear anything

Changing those capacitors would be a fairly easy job. I'd start by changing all the electrolytics, and give it a try.

I just changed all the electrolytic capacitors in an EICO Cortina 3200 solid state tuner, made in 1967, and it went from barely working to a low distortion tuner with great sensitivity. The little electrolytics in your Sony are likely shot.

You could probably get most replacements locally. If you don't feel up to taking it apart, I am 100% sure you can find someone in Winnipeg to fix it at a reasonable cost if you're resourceful.

I'll wonder down to skullspace and tinker then with it

In case you were wandering, er, wondering, as I was,

http://www.skullspace.ca/

check hackerspaces.org to find one near u if interested

but be a bit careful, someone could really screw it up if they're not experienced with servicing electronics.
I am recapping a 'realtone 2424' just because, and it needs a lot of disassembly to get to the solder side of the main circuit board

I second that. One can often do more harm than good trying to modify or "repair" something that still works perfectly well. I learned that lesson years ago, when I first started in electronics, and ruined some perfectly good radios in the process. This did not carry over to televisions, however, because of the high voltage shock hazard :yikes:; the most I ever did to repair the many old TVs I had in the basement of my former home in the '70s was to replace tubes. I did replace an open fusible (sand) resistor in an old radio years ago, but that was about the only underchassis servicing I ever did on any kind of electronic equipment.

The shift from tubes to solid-state components ended my electronic-servicing days forever. I would not dream of trying to repair any of my solid-state gear today, as I am sure one needs to know special techniques to work on surface-mount technology as is found in just about everything electronic these days. I understand that one careless or even accidental (!) slip is all it takes to cause real problems on PC boards, from breaking the board to lifting printed circuit traces to causing shorts :eek: -- and heaven only knows what else.

What i really like about solid state stuff is it's so cheap to work on! 5 and 10 cent capacitors, 3 dollar power transistors, these are my kind of prices!