[RetroHacker]

I've finally gotten around to fixing this set. It's a Montgomery Ward Airline console combination AM/FM radio/phono. The chassis is model 94BR-2741B The set is a side by side combo, with a 12" speaker and a four speed record changer. The chassis is a small transformerless thing with a voltage doubler power supply.

I found this thing on the side of the road several years ago, and it was just the right size for a space in my bedroom. Where it sat dormant. The tubes were all missing when I got it, and this was a major stumbling block, because it uses a 12BA7 pentagrid tube - that I don't have, and hadn't been able to find (until a couple days ago). Once I had the tube, there wasn't anything stopping me from fixing it, so I charged ahead and recapped it - I didn't even bother to try it first, several caps showed physical signs of being bad, and the cord was brittle and broken in many places. I replaced all the paper caps, two of the electrolytics, the power cord, and the upgraded the selenium stacks to 1N4006's. Lacking any 300v electrolytics, I opted to leave the main 4-section filter alone for now. After an initial false start thanks to a simple wiring error (always power the set up the first time with a dim bulb tester!), it actually worked! It plays OK on AM (although not great, some squeals between stations hint at misalignment), but the FM is very garbled and distorted, with poor sensitivity. I was able to get one station in clear enough to understand some words, but everything was garbled. There is a small amount of background hum that I'm sure new filters would take care of.

Now, the problem. I don't have the schematic for this. Nostalgia Air doesn't have it. Thus, I don't have alignment instructions - I also need the dial cord stringing info too, since the dial cord is broken. I also haven't ever had to align an FM set, and I haven't worked on many - so I don't know if my garbled audio is caused by misalignment or by something else.

Any suggestions on where to go from here?

-Ian