RadioBanter - View Single Post - Hallicrafters s-38C question

March 2nd 04, 11:33 PM

(Chris Kilmer) wrote in message . com...
Hey folks, got a question: I just bought a S-38C and have replaced
most of the resistors. I will be replacing the rest of the capacitors
this week. I've also replaced all 5 tubes with new ones from AES. The
radio does work a lot better than it did when I first got it, but two
problems remain:

1) I only pick up 3 local AM stations (I live in downtown Washington,
DC.) Is this something I should be concerned about? I am new to all of
this, and I am still learning... but it seems to me that this radio
should be picking up more than 3 stations. I have a pretty big antenna
attached to it, so I'm pretty sure that's not the problem. Is living
smack-dab in the middle of downtown the reason why I can't pick up any
AM stations besides the local megawatt monsters? Or might the poor
reception be due to the fact that there are still 5 wax capacitors
that haven't been replaced? Bands 2 and 3 pull in tons of stations;
band 4 only pulls in a few but I'm not worried about that.

2) When I first got the radio, it worked but not very well. The
bandspread tuner worked fine, but after I operated it for a few hours
and then turned it off and started ripping out caps and resistors for
replacement, the bandspread didn't work the way it used to. Now, it
tunes just fine from 0 - 70, but when you turn it past 70 a very loud
crackle is heard, and then there's nothing but a soft buzz. If you
turn the knob back down below 70, the stations come back. Besides this
problem, the bandspread tuner works like a champ.

I've been having a great time restoring this thing, and learning from
my mistakes. I've got a shipment of the remaining capacitors that I
couldn't find at AES coming to me this week from Mouser... when I'm
done replacing those, there won't be much left to replace!

Thanks.
chris

Hello Chris,I think you should examine the RF coil assy. and check for
open circuit in BC input...think about this, If this receiver had an
external antenna connected and was sitting there on the BC
band,turned off,and a lightning charge came along it would most likely
burn out the BC RF coil,making it extremely weak on that band..I have
seen it happen many,many times. if the ant winding is open ,just take
some small wire,like 28 Ga. and wind about six turns on the form as an
antenna primary .. should work OK good luck W4PQW