27-10-2012, 03:25 PM
It isn't so much a case of only being interested in sets with both AM and FM so much as there only being one station on MW that I've any desire to listen to, and I'm not mad keen on that due to the adverts.
My radios stations of choice are Radio 2 (VHF) and 6 Music (DAB) so the ideal sets have both FM and a Gram input. I find that AM-only sets just sit idle and a PCR is not small.
As I said I'm OK with radios that have clear data. In this case the circuit diagrams are hard to see; it's not even clear where wires are crossed or if they are joined. There's no layout plan so I didn't know which valve was which. To add to the confusion the set has six valves but only four are detailed and, again, the scan isn't very clear.
Add to that that a couple of the valves had no marks and I was pretty well stuffed; I don't have other sets which use the same types so I couldn't find out what they were, and what state they were in, by substitution.
The component list only gives capacitor values up to C30 and the circuit diagrams have ones with higher numbers.
Maybe I am a bad workman blaming the tools but think it's more a case of over-reaching myself.
Theory, in any area, is something I struggle with. A lot of people can design a circuit, woodwork project &c on paper but I just get in a mess when I try that. I have to get my hands on something - I'll draw it afterwards.
By the way, my radiogram has an unscreened 6K8GT and that works fine. Sets with 9-pin valves don't have screening, apart from E/UCC85s in FM front-ends so are they less prone to oscillation than octals by design?
- Joe
My radios stations of choice are Radio 2 (VHF) and 6 Music (DAB) so the ideal sets have both FM and a Gram input. I find that AM-only sets just sit idle and a PCR is not small.
As I said I'm OK with radios that have clear data. In this case the circuit diagrams are hard to see; it's not even clear where wires are crossed or if they are joined. There's no layout plan so I didn't know which valve was which. To add to the confusion the set has six valves but only four are detailed and, again, the scan isn't very clear.
Add to that that a couple of the valves had no marks and I was pretty well stuffed; I don't have other sets which use the same types so I couldn't find out what they were, and what state they were in, by substitution.
The component list only gives capacitor values up to C30 and the circuit diagrams have ones with higher numbers.
Maybe I am a bad workman blaming the tools but think it's more a case of over-reaching myself.
Theory, in any area, is something I struggle with. A lot of people can design a circuit, woodwork project &c on paper but I just get in a mess when I try that. I have to get my hands on something - I'll draw it afterwards.
By the way, my radiogram has an unscreened 6K8GT and that works fine. Sets with 9-pin valves don't have screening, apart from E/UCC85s in FM front-ends so are they less prone to oscillation than octals by design?
- Joe
