Hey gang! Lately, at a thrift store, I picked up an old 80's GE Radio
with AM/FM/VHF High bands. I've salvaged a few radios before, but this
one has me stumped. I turn it on and on all bands, the sound is VERY
low at the maximum volume. I shot some contact cleaner into all the
controls, and still nothing. I mainly picked up the radio because it
was a small one that also had the VHF high band.

I did open it up in the back to check the battery contacts, and someone
had left old batteries inside and it was a mess. Needless to say, it
was such a mess that it had pretty much destroyed the contacts, but
this one runs off AC as well. I checked inside and it was made in 1984.
Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong here?

I'm just a beginner here, but would like to fix it possible.

Jim

wrote:
I'm just a beginner here, but would like to fix it possible.

Power supply problem?
Bad speaker?
Corroded headphone jack?
Open audio coupling capacitor?
Leaky bypass capacitor?
Resistor changed value?
Semiconductor open / shorted?

Have fun.

I'd start looking for an open electrolytic coupling capacitor in the
final output stage. Is there one in series with the speaker, like 1000uF or
so? In a very Low-power application, it could be as low as 100uF, I
suppose...

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hey gang! Lately, at a thrift store, I picked up an old 80's GE Radio
with AM/FM/VHF High bands. I've salvaged a few radios before, but this
one has me stumped. I turn it on and on all bands, the sound is VERY
low at the maximum volume. I shot some contact cleaner into all the
controls, and still nothing. I mainly picked up the radio because it
was a small one that also had the VHF high band.

I did open it up in the back to check the battery contacts, and someone
had left old batteries inside and it was a mess. Needless to say, it
was such a mess that it had pretty much destroyed the contacts, but
this one runs off AC as well. I checked inside and it was made in 1984.
Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong here?

I'm just a beginner here, but would like to fix it possible.

Jim

" bravely wrote to "All" (18 Feb 05 11:47:17)
--- on the heady topic of "Volume Problem - Please Help..."

ra From:
ra Xref: aeinews sci.electronics.repair:10882

ra Hey gang! Lately, at a thrift store, I picked up an old 80's GE Radio
ra with AM/FM/VHF High bands. I've salvaged a few radios before, but this
ra one has me stumped. I turn it on and on all bands, the sound is VERY
ra low at the maximum volume. I shot some contact cleaner into all the
ra controls, and still nothing. I mainly picked up the radio because it
ra was a small one that also had the VHF high band.

ra I did open it up in the back to check the battery contacts, and
ra someone had left old batteries inside and it was a mess. Needless to
ra say, it was such a mess that it had pretty much destroyed the contacts,
ra but this one runs off AC as well. I checked inside and it was made in
ra 1984. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong here?

ra I'm just a beginner here, but would like to fix it possible.


Jim,

Since you mentioned it had batteries it reminds me of a portable
sw/vhf receiver I repaired this fall with similar symptoms, very low
volume. It turned out a solder joint had broken around a resistor leg.
Try signal tracing from the volume wiper.

A*s*i*m*o*v

.... Modulation in all things...