...and Mike was rewarded for his compassion on a derelict RX with a heart of gold inside!

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

The poor little zapper.

Not tired of your videos and information. That cosmetic restoration effort paid off big! That looks really great. I'm looking forward to you taking care of the electrical restoration and hoping you give it an extra good alignment so it will work the very best it can.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching these! I have the Hayseed Hamfest replacement Electrolytic to go in and then I might bring it up on a variac.

Nice video. I'd like to find one to repair and keep in the living room to listen to and just enjoy. Thanks for sharing.

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

Yes but ask the XYL if that decor matches the room ambiance.

Nice done. Aluminium is very hard to handle when it has been oxidatet. I think you did a very good job. Thanks for the video.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Of course the NevrDull can not hep for pitted AL, but it can handle the surface stuff.

Wow.... I saw this very rig in Marlboro last week and just kept on walking. Well, I certainly learned a lesson here. Congrats on a great find & thanks for the video too. 73 de AB1DQ/James

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

And there we go! James saw it.

no I cannot get tired of your videos on these older radios, heck I don't even own one of these but you've spiked my interest, I'm going to try to find one and give it the treatment. I enjoy your teaching. Ive been playing with a Zenith Trans-Oceanic Royal 3000-1 receiver that really is a basket case, I think I'm going to part it out to folks that can use them ( parts are really difficult to find and I think it'll cost me more to rebuild it than it's worth. by the way try using Ballistol - it's a gun cleaning oil , but it doesn't harm plastics, rubber and even wood. over the last year or so, I've rebuilt two Kenwood TS-850s that were filthy! the one I think the original owner ( before my buddy got them - he's SK now and I inherited them) never bothered to wash his hands. the ballistol really cleaned up the knobs and nooks and crannies - UGGH what a mess they were ! the only problem is that the oil doesn't smell very good (*gag* choke). anyway thanks for the video, I hope I can get my hands on one of these cool receivers.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

The Trans Oceanics are tough because they are portables and have three way power and the older ones use battery tubes and odd circuits in tight spaces. So that is a lot compared to a simple Star Roamer or S-120 refurb.

The use of Never Dull is a good tip. I was unfamiliar with that product. Thank you.

You just sold a can of never dull

👍Well done Mike for saving the S-120. Amazing for $10. The Never-Dull polish looks like Duraglit Silvo you get in the UK. Also get Brasso for (surpise) brass. Have used this on radios as well as heavier duty automotive metal polishes. I have also sometimes used Silvo for removing scratches on plastics like bakelite (test on small area first).

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

AS always thanks for watching Steve.

I too would have saved that radio for $10. What a find, despite the rust and corrosion. Only negatives about the radio is it has no RF stage, only one IF stage and that it's powered directly off of the AC line.

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

Yes indeed!

These old tube receivers always fascinated me, but was always worried about the hot chassis and being bitten.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

They are not all the same. The S-120 is quite advanced in protection techniques compared to the earlier Hallicrafters sets.

Superb job on the cabinet, Mike! Amazing how good it is inside. I have a later S-120 with mostly Japanese parts inside: tubes, IF cans, tuning cap, speaker, output transformer. Here’s a $10 radio story for you: a few months ago I bought a 75A-3 for $10! No cabinet and missing a couple of knobs, but otherwise not bad at all. Haven’t gotten to it yet.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Love to make the viewers cry!

@superhet7281

11 ай бұрын

I forgot to mention the Star Lite A-120, a Japanese virtual clone of the S-120. Big difference is that it has an S-meter.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

@superhet7281 It did not take long for American manufacturers to evaluate Japanese parts quality and incorporate them, and later to take advantage of their production cost advantages. Ultimately, it was their low cost and innovative design to manufacture capability that took the entire radio market, save military and government contracted gear.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

@superhet7281 that would be a fancy add on. They likely put the meter on the AGC line or in series with the IF Amp screen. They would never would've committed a 5th tube!

That turned out great! Well worth the effort! Thanks for saving that great old receiver!

@K1OIK

11 ай бұрын

it does not work.

When I was 10 years old my next door neighbor let me borrow his S-120 for a couple of days. It had so much AC power leakage that when you rubbed your finger along the top you could easily feel the 60 Hertz frequency. Surprised it only has 4 tubes. $10 sounds like a fair price.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Well if you had reversed the plug you would have noticed that the tickle would go away and the hum would usually reduce as well. This effect was with a backwards plug and usually failing chassis to case protection cap.

Can the Rusty 10 Dollar Radio be Saved? I say yes you can ! The test equipment you own boggles my mind You not a regular fella :) You a bit more advanced Me I sub level when it comes to the the mysteries of the universe and everything it encompasses I think you worked as some sort of electrical engineer ? I really enjoy watching you videos though It wonderful watching a skilled person work their magic I built a crystal set from your videos Best working crystal set I ever owned I a avid qrp cw fan It not a easy endeavor for a fella who can hardly spell Best tu U and tnx

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Yes and I had a rule. Keep work removed from the hobby by at least 30 years. So no new stuff in the shack!

Not tired or bored with your videos, the S-120 or otherwise. This was one of my first receivers for ham or SWLing. It drips with nostalgia for me and was similar to (S-43?) I tuned the Russian Sputnik on while in Junior High School. I still have the verification QSL received when I mailed Radio Moscow a segment of the reel to reel tape I'd recorded near the 15 meter band. Thank you!!!

@n3jw34

11 ай бұрын

I checked my memory. Was a wrinkled-gray S-38E. Circa 1955!

@johnnytacokleinschmidt515

11 ай бұрын

That Sputnik experience stuck with you I'm sure....

Hopefully removing the honest patination will not negatively affect the collector value of this fine piece! - DE K1TB

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Ah yes. A reduction in points could occur per the grading recommendations. Let's start the bidding at 100 Zloty.

@ahchu3256

11 ай бұрын

Easily worth 100 Zloty and perhaps several Grosz more!@@MIKROWAVE1

That turned out very nice.

If you weren't to care about original color, those Rust-Olium Hammered finish paints are great to use on metal cabinets and chassis. They have a metallic green that looks vintage but nobody seems to stock it. I've used the metallic black, grey and brown on various things and it holds up pretty well.

@hestheMaster

11 ай бұрын

They no longer list the green as an available color. It may be discontinued but available on the web for $$$ .

@chrisharper2658

11 ай бұрын

@@hestheMaster I just saw that too, no longer on the Rust-Olium web site.

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

This sounds like a great trick to hide blemishes too!

NEVERDULL + and if you buy a roll of cork gasket material you could replace or add cork to future finds. Try looking up PENETROL paint additive as a rust stopper and a primer.

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

Not in the repair Biz but yes, you could make a job out of some radios that were widely produced and need help!

They call that Facebook marketplace mint. Give it a Craigslist paint job and call it good. 🤣👍

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Rare too.

I'm trying to figure out how the top could be so bad. The front also needing attention. But the back panel looking pristine, and so clean inside. I wonder if it was wrapped in something for years. Water has got in somehow, but only made contact with the top and running down onto the front. Maybe the water getting to it wasn't ongoing. I thought wrapped in something because it seemed to be dust free inside.

It looks clean enough inside where it matters. sand and repaint the cabinet. maybe cleanup front panel after masking with masking tape. It maybe a good radio to try the 6ak5 rfamp also. Mount it underchasis first for tests. should help a lot. Its a Good reciever and worth a restoration / enhancement. I have brought back several old radios from crosley, spartons, hallicrafter, hammarlund, RCA back from total junk chasis to fully working. I had to even make the oscillator coils in some cases

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

What is this 6AK5 alchemy? Did some conversion artist do up an article that adds an RF Amp underground?

@mohinderkaur6671

10 ай бұрын

simple mod to add a rf amplifier with a resistance plate load. same filament current. Worth a try should help a lot improve the sensitivty of that 6be6 converter.@@MIKROWAVE1

I think it came out awesome! Possibly better than your other one. That cork is sold as gasket material in auto parts stores if you did ever needed to replace one in the future. I hope to get to go to some ham festers and flea markets in the future. It's been years and I miss it. Thanks for sharing and 73's.

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

Ryan, I was hoping that somebody saw the poor thing piled on that table!

@W1RMD

10 ай бұрын

One thing I've done with Oil based paints is thin it 50/50 with mineral spirits and use a cheap automotive paint gun. This is really only economical with large projects. Also it really pays to use one of those little filters that screws into the air line that Napa sells the help keep moisture out of the paint. It really looks professional when it dries. Practice on some junk projects first. @@MIKROWAVE1

I wanted to go to that ham exposition. I'm in mass myself. KC1MTR

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

It was hot out and we fried a bit!

I have 4 of them, still waiting for them to KILL ME!!! With SRectumfires!!:) Maybe my bare feet on the tile don't ground well but, maybe a little tinlge, that's all. The radios know I"m here to help them.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Living with several S-120s. Dangerous in the house! Tripping over cords, overloading circuits, lightning, EMI - anything could happen at bath time!

@crosleyfiver8686

11 ай бұрын

You know how it is for a radio junkie, they here and there and in the kids closets. :) @@MIKROWAVE1

These old Halli get no respect and are left to rot in some outbuilding until the flippers get ahold of them and put these "rare, collectible" radios online for far more than the condition allows. I restored a 15$ S-40B to nice condx. working well and kept it for 5 years but recently sold it. I certainly did not recover my labor costs for a complete overhaul doing so. It needs to be an actual desirable collectible to start to make that worthwhile.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Yes, it is purely a labor of habit and challenge for many of us.

I wonder if that grey is the same as the grey on the Hallicrafters SX-115 and HT-32B lids. Mine are looking a bit shabby.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Hmm - dunno.

Great restore, I too had never seen Never Dull before your channel; it does some amazing stuff without being destructive. I’m interested on what you ended up on the couplate, whether you found or built one? Did you already do all the alignment on this one; hum comparison? 73…

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

I changed it out for 100% discrete parts and saw zero effect. So that was a waste of effort except to prove out that it can be done.

@SpinStar1956

10 ай бұрын

@@MIKROWAVE1 Ok,well you were suspicioning that to be a hum source and the other part (as I recall) was lead-dress/shielding and you have value in you assumed the manufacturer had properly dealt with hum in the design, so couplate replacement was more than reasonable. Do you think that careful sleuthing with a scope, taking hum levels could lead back to the loudest source? When I get a problem like this, (when I know it’s not a component-having dealt with stereo and guitar amps) if I have a second unit (like you do now) I make comparison measurements. Otherwise, I sometimes try using coax to see if I can reduce it. I used to hate it when you’d repair something, and when you gave it back to the customer, they claimed “It never hummed like that before”-because they forgot. Then you spend time fixing the engineering deficiency just to make them happy; then the next time you get one in, it hums the exact same way! The ‘audiofooles’ were the worst since they have ‘DC to daylight hearing ranges’ and of course perfect memories when it comes to how ‘their’ set used to perform! Automotive diagnostic technicians called this a ‘drivability-issue’ and they can have the same analogs of micro-surges to the transmission (‘supposedly’) shifting rougher or at different points; and plagued with the same type of expert customer! 73…

Is that radio the one that is meant to operate of 12V driving a set of 600R headphones , I wonder why they didn't use the pencil stub vacuum tubes and just use 2xPb Acid 6V lachie cells to power the unit so to keep the interference down and make it about the size of a 40 channel transceiver.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

You left off a zero. 120V. Unless you replaced the tubes with space charge equivalents and did some clever mods. For 12V.

Just bought an old radio, but it has bad cigarette smoke issue. How do I solve THAT problem.

@franzliszt3195

11 ай бұрын

Thank you. Very detailed and helpful directions. Next time I ask if it has smokers smell.@@SSN515

@tomsherwood4650

11 ай бұрын

Windex and also alcohol can dissolve the residues but Windex ammonia can attack some markings on dials, etc. so use something like Armor All cleaner that is gentler on that stuff.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Silica Gell? (DO NOT EAT)Teabags?, Incense, 120VAC Glade Difusser wired as a dropping resistor?

@Steve-GM0HUU

10 ай бұрын

😂Nicotine patches might help the radio quit.... Sorry, bad joke.

@franzliszt3195

10 ай бұрын

I bought another radio. I turned it on and nothing and they said it worked. I was about to blow up when the sound came on -- you see, its a tube radio. :)@@Steve-GM0HUU

Transformerless SW radios are not my thing. I will work on ACDC table radios and some have a SW band though. Nonmetal cases.

@MIKROWAVE1

11 ай бұрын

Hallicrafters went further with protection on this set. They not only did the internal ground bus separation from chassis. They also isolated Chassis from Outer case, and isolated the phone jack completely and isolated the antenna and Ground terminal using the primary of the input coils. So way safer than the old Halli Shortwave sets. And finally they sent in for UL testing in the lab.

@Steve-GM0HUU

10 ай бұрын

Used to restore old domestic sets and had a few AC/DC sets. Live metal chassis and front panel knob grub screws in contact with chassis! I remember one or two old radio/TV techs I used work with said, after servicing, they would fill the knobs' grub screw holes with beeswax(?) as a precaution. In the UK, we used to have some import/export "Universal" AC/DC sets. As they were designed for US 120V mains, to make them work on UK 240V, they had resitive line chords to drop 120V. I remember stories of folk who were unaware of this and replaced the "dropper chord" with normal flex. Of course as soon as it was plugged in to the mains the 120V set got the full 240V 😮.

Hmm # 2 oh well to slow....

Bing: elecurls > Parts, and you'll see MODs for that radio. --- I restored 2 of these and have a spare for parts. Biggest problem I run into is the tuning coils tend to stick, and when you try to turn the slug, they crack! erfff I used *DeoxIT D5* and left them to soak for 2 days. That seems to loosen them up.

@MIKROWAVE1

10 ай бұрын

Oh many of us have done that and cried out in strange tongues!