Q-tips– great for appealing cleaner on and getting in those hard-to-reach spots.

  Paper towels- I like to use for all application from wrapping speakers to keeping plastic from the sun.

 Brasso- Great for polishing and cleaning metal, you can also use it on plastic also. It’s not good for you so wash your hands after use.

Novus plastic polish 1,2, & 3 are good for making plastic look all shiny and new again, you can use Number 3 for deep scratches like when the previous owner uses a knife and scrawls their name onto the plastic.

Sctotchbrite 7447 hand pads, Works like steel wool but isn’t conductive. Great for polishing up rusty kickstands.

Emery board, sometimes it works good for taking the rust off kickstands of radios, then you can spray a coat of lacquer on it for best results.

 Toothbrush, the best thing ever made since tweezers, keep a few of them handy.

Paintbrush, I find it’s great to get the dirt out of the grills of modern (80s) clock radios.

Automotive applications, stuff like Armor All can work great for radio cleaning uses so can the wax and polish stuff from companies like Barret Jackson. They are pretty gentle as well as they are supposed to be used on cars, just don’t use Armor All on dyed leather.

Very Fine grit sandpaper, used to sand down the plastic on the radio if there are any nicks or scratches, be very careful you can easily wreak a radio this way. Look it up for more details.

Vinegar, cleaning corrosion off metal.

 73,

     Henry

The post What to use to clean radios? appeared first on Henry's Radio Repair.

Low volume, Bad electrolytic, see repair process below. Very common in transistor radios.

Scratchy audio, Volume control wiper needs to be tested and cleaned.

Distortion & squealing, possibly a bad transistor is also a cause of bad capacitors.

Not picking up stations, it could be you live in an area with bad reception or too much interference.

Dead, Check for broken wires and cracked circuit board joints try new batteries.

 About 90% of transistor radios can be brought back to life, with a replacement of the electrolytic capacitors. Most radios have 4 or 6 although some can have as many as 20. They take a couple of hours to replace and you have to have the proper tools to do it right. Here’s what you will need-

 30-40 watt soldering iron, flux, solder (no acid core solder!), solder braid, solder sucker, dental picks, tweezers, pliers, diagonal cutters, batterie(s), camera, Electrolytic capacitors, and proper lighting/ventilation.

     If you don’t have any of those things repairing your radio may be expensive to buy, not to mention if you haven’t soldered before you should try a soldering kit before starting on a radio. The tools mentioned above are just for a recap that doesn’t even include more testing equipment and tools for further troubleshooting.

  This means if you only want to get one sentimental radio restored it’s much cheaper to just get it restored by a technician.

However, if your willing to invest the time and money into fixing your radio I wish you the best of luck feel free to contact me if you get stuck. It is a fun and interesting hobby if you enjoy it.

       73,

       Henry

The post How to fix my broken transistor radio? appeared first on Henry's Radio Repair.