Delco R1128 Mess

[Boobtubeman]

Thanks Reece, ill keep that in mind when i get the second radio up and going..

While i was enjoying scanning the dial on my new restoration it happened....

"POINK!!" the dial string snapped....

Anyone near me have some dial string lying around?

5 feet if you can spare it... (may as well re string both radios)

Thanks....

Steve

Update: i ordered some from the dialcover site.....

[Boobtubeman]

A friend hooked me up with a new on/off/vol switch. Installed it in the scrap radio and IT WORKS TOO..

One problem... the shaft is 1/2" shorter than the others. Are there shaft enhancers available to compensate the loss? (and no im not talking about male enhancements hehe)

Steve

[Boobtubeman]

Anyone near by my area know how to peak and tune one of these radios?

I have the riders instructions on how to, BUUUUUUuut, i dont have a signal generator nor the know how.... No shops left around here can do it..

I have 2 identical R-1128s and they behave differently using the same antenna
Ive tried tube swaps between them and no difference...
Any help would be great
Thanks

Steve

[Old1625]

Originally Posted by Boobtubeman

Hehehe yeah i wasnt expecting to hear "calling all cars"

My roof antenna was a throw together.. It consists of a stainless steel whip bolted to a copper vent pipe (ex CB) and some RG26 A/U i had lying around as sheilded cable. Im sure its not matched but my dads ZENITH trans oceanic seemed to enjoy it

Mind ya, i just did a re-cap on it and dont have the tools or the knowlege to give it a tune-up if it needs one..
I just thought ide get some kind of reception even with a throw- together roof setup.. Trying to figure out if the rado is okay or i need to upgrade the antenna.. ?

Steve

A recap is usually indicated before any alignment procedure is taken, so it is possible you won't need to touch the alignment at all. All too often an "alignment-happy" tech will diddle the coils when the cause of alignment drift is aging capacitors.

Other than that one of the chief enemies of AM reception is the flourescent light. Most of us energy-conscious citizens have strayed away from Edison's lamp to the flourescent sub-ins, and these--along with their conventional tubular counterparts--wreak havoc on the AM bands, especially the lower frequencies.

Your lower shortwave band should have decent activity from 3MHz up, with less activity below that. Unfortunately most of it is in the form of SSB transmissions as a rule. You can sidle a normal AM broadcast radio next to this one and diddle with the dial to get its local oscillator to supply the needed carrier if you care to listen to the slopbucketers.

[Boobtubeman]

Thanks old1625

Both radios are identical in chassis and have both had FULL RECAPS...

One just performs better than the other under IDENTICAL circumstances

Both radios do well when it comes to SW bands but one radio seems to do poorly on the lower side of the AM dial. Not to mention one of these radios came off EBAY and when i opened it, i found someone had been in it before me and tinkered a bit, so i am presuming they might have turned a few variable caps.. Just thought perhaps a good tune- up might help

Steve

[Old1625]

Originally Posted by Boobtubeman

Thanks old1625

Both radios are identical in chassis and have both had FULL RECAPS...

One just performs better than the other under IDENTICAL circumstances

Both radios do well when it comes to SW bands but one radio seems to do poorly on the lower side of the AM dial. Not to mention one of these radios came off EBAY and when i opened it, i found someone had been in it before me and tinkered a bit, so i am presuming they might have turned a few variable caps.. Just thought perhaps a good tune- up might help

Steve

I once was visiting a young man, son of some of my brother's neighbors, who was starting out in antique radio resto. He was working on a large console, and had managed competently to recap the whole thing. But unfortunately someone had fidddled around with this radio before, and apparently had tightened up every loose screw they could find, so all the peakable circuits were way off kilter. The kid had no signal generator. And I didn't have mine with me. So I asked him to open up a well-working AM table radio and set it up with either an isolation transformer or find some blocking caps somewhere. I tuned the second radio to a strong local station and turned the volume down. I proximity-injected the IF signal from the final IF transformer secondary into the various stages of the old chassis, starting from the detector and working back up the signal path to the converter, peaking each IF transformer as I went. The next thing we knew the old chassis started working on its own account, pulling in a station from Boston. Inside of a half hour we had it all peaked, tweaked and stuffed back into the console cabinet it came from.

After the IF stages are peaked and aligned at the standard frequency for the set the sensitivity and station positioning relative to the #s at at the low end of the dial are usually dealt with by adjusting the inductance of the coils of each RF stage and the local oscillator by moving the ferrite slugs in the coils. The upper end positioning and sensitivity are usually adjusted by diddling the trimmer capacitors across the main tuning capacitors in the gang. One has to go back and forth between the low and high end and keep correcting until all is where it should be. It takes practice, and sometimes one runs into a set that does not have movable slugs in the coils, and a loop antenna instead of an RF input tank coil, in which case low-end tweaking can be much trickier. Usually one starts by making sure the local oscillator is tuned so that the stations fall on the dial where they are supposed to be.

I'm sure there is someone in your area that can probably lay hands on the radio and make it well if you feel you're in over your head.