On 01/06/2015 11:22 AM, Madness wrote:
Have this Sony ICF-36 four-band (TV/WX/FM/AM) portable from the
Goodwill. It works, but the band switch seems to be dodgy. It's a slide
switch, which works fine for AM, but for all the other bands, it needs
to be jiggled in order to receive the desired band. Otherwise, all I get
is static. Also, I took the radio part to spray some contact cleaner
into the switch, but it didn't help.

Another thing, the radio receives part of the FM band on the TV VHF-Low
band. Doesn't seem right, but that band is useless anyhow. The high-band
setting is still needed since WX shares its beginning.

Hello, and you've likely got worn and/or oxidized band switch contacts.
Whether or not contact cleaner (I prefer DeoxIT D5 spray myself) would
help depends upon whether the cleaner can effectively penetrate the
switch housing and what kind of shape the contacts are in.

As for the TV band setting picking up FM, keep in mind that analog U.S.
TV channels 2-6 covered a frequency range of 54-88 MHz and since the FM
BCST band covers 88-108 MHz there is most likely some overlap by your
radio's frequency band coverage. (Sometimes you wish for this on old AM
radios whose dials stopped at 1600 kHz rather than the modern 1700 kHz.)
Sincerely,

--
J. B. Wood e-mail: