Some help with my Tekefunken radio

[Phil Nelson]

If the radio basically works, then replacing all of the tubes is a waste of money.

I have a Telefunken Gavotte 9, similar to yours but not quite as elaborate.

It's possible that you have no antenna connected, or something misconnected. In that case, of course you would have poor reception including cruddy audio.

If you can post a photo clearly showing the back, maybe we can help you sort things out.

It's also good medicine to replace the old electrolytic and paper capacitors in any radio of this vintage. The article at http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm provides info about replacing capacitors.

Note that European radios like this often have quite cramped circuitry and use small components. You may also be looking at a schematic that is in German (duh) and which uses somewhat different symbols than American schematics. Not a good starting project if you have never done this kind of work before.

Originally Posted by radix39

maybe you can recommend a good place to get it fixed somewhere here in NYC.

You could contact a nearby radio collector club and ask for a recommendation. See the list of clubs at http://www.antiqueradio.com/clublist.html.

The NJARC is a very active club, which sometimes runs clinics where people can bring in old radios for on-the-spot diagnosis/repair.

[Chad Hauris]

In addition to these other good suggestions, we have seen woofer foam degradation and other problems with speakers on Grundigs causing bad sound.