First off, I'm very unknowledgeable about shortwave radios.
I have a Realistic DX-440 that I hadn't used in over 6 years.
Whether I power it on by batteries or ac adapter, it won't receive
_any_ frequency. Any band that I scan, it won't stop. I have the RF
set to "max". It won't even receive local AM or FM radio stations when
I tune them in. There is no sound when it's scanning, but I do hear
static when I stop a scan.
The signal strength indicators flash for a second when I first turn
the radio on. But there is never _any_ signal indicator during a scan
or even when I manually tune to the frequency of a local radio
station.

Any help/suggestions appreciated.

Joe

wrote:
First off, I'm very unknowledgeable about shortwave radios.
I have a Realistic DX-440 that I hadn't used in over 6 years.
Whether I power it on by batteries or ac adapter, it won't receive
_any_ frequency. Any band that I scan, it won't stop. I have the RF
set to "max". It won't even receive local AM or FM radio stations when
I tune them in. There is no sound when it's scanning, but I do hear
static when I stop a scan.
The signal strength indicators flash for a second when I first turn
the radio on. But there is never _any_ signal indicator during a scan
or even when I manually tune to the frequency of a local radio
station.

Any help/suggestions appreciated.

Joe

replace the 2 AA cells. These control everything in the DX-440. I got
the ats-803A version of the same receiver.
rw

Thanks for the quick reply.
Forgot to mention in my first post that the first thing I did was
replace the old AA cells. No joy.

Thanks.
Joe

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 03:23:19 GMT, Rein Wiehler
wrote:



wrote:
First off, I'm very unknowledgeable about shortwave radios.
I have a Realistic DX-440 that I hadn't used in over 6 years.
Whether I power it on by batteries or ac adapter, it won't receive
_any_ frequency. Any band that I scan, it won't stop. I have the RF
set to "max". It won't even receive local AM or FM radio stations when
I tune them in. There is no sound when it's scanning, but I do hear
static when I stop a scan.
The signal strength indicators flash for a second when I first turn
the radio on. But there is never _any_ signal indicator during a scan
or even when I manually tune to the frequency of a local radio
station.

Any help/suggestions appreciated.

Joe

replace the 2 AA cells. These control everything in the DX-440. I got
the ats-803A version of the same receiver.
rw

wrote in message
news
First off, I'm very unknowledgeable about shortwave radios.
I have a Realistic DX-440 that I hadn't used in over 6 years.
Whether I power it on by batteries or ac adapter, it won't receive
_any_ frequency. Any band that I scan, it won't stop. I have the RF
set to "max". It won't even receive local AM or FM radio stations when
I tune them in. There is no sound when it's scanning, but I do hear
static when I stop a scan.
The signal strength indicators flash for a second when I first turn
the radio on. But there is never _any_ signal indicator during a scan
or even when I manually tune to the frequency of a local radio
station.

Any help/suggestions appreciated.

Joe

The microprocessor can go berserk. Last time mine went crazy I took
someone's advice to remove all the batteries and leave it overnight. I tried
removing them for a few minutes and it was still bad so I did remove them
overnight and the next day it was fine.

HTH

--------
Snotty

wrote in message . ..
Thanks for the quick reply.
Forgot to mention in my first post that the first thing I did was
replace the old AA cells. No joy.

Thanks.
Joe

If the radio was stored with the batteries installed, you may have
corrosion on the battery terminals; very common problem. Remove all
the batteries and clean the terminals; careful scraping can remove
most of the corrosion, then touch them up with a pencil eraser (yes,
it works!), then re-install the batteries and try again. By the time
you clean things up, the radio should have performed a "reset", so it
should be good to go. If it still doesn't work, there's a much more
serious problem inside, so take it to your local RS store and send it
in for service.

G'luck!

By the time you clean things up, the radio should have performed a "reset",
so it
should be good to go. If it still doesn't work,

One time when I had to clean up corrosion in my DX-392, it acted crazy at the
beginning. So I did what I was instructed to do when replacing my Casio watch's
battery: With the AA cells out, short their positive and negative contacts to
each other for a few seconds.

Sometimes, just putting the cells in, then out, then back in will smooth out
operation, too.

Even with above, though, FM was slow to lock up after tuning. During several
days, it got better and better to where it became normal. Even then, noise from
my computer or its monitor sometimes causes the FM frequency to shift slightly.

By the way... If you have another SW receiver to listen to WWV with, or an
accurate timepiece, seat the last AA on the hour. Then your clock seconds will
be in sync -- at least for a while. :-)

Bill, K5BY

Ahhh....I have replaced the AAs and I still can't receive any
frequencies. Like I said, I don't have much technical knowledge.
What's this shorting of positive & negative contacts? And might it
help? I've taken out and re-installed the AAs many times now and it
hasn't helped. I can even take out all the batteries (Ds and AAs) and
run it off electricity and it still won't tune in any stations.

Thanks,
Joe

On 15 Sep 2003 04:34:54 GMT, (WShoots1) wrote:

By the time you clean things up, the radio should have performed a "reset",
so it
should be good to go. If it still doesn't work,

One time when I had to clean up corrosion in my DX-392, it acted crazy at the
beginning. So I did what I was instructed to do when replacing my Casio watch's
battery: With the AA cells out, short their positive and negative contacts to
each other for a few seconds.

Sometimes, just putting the cells in, then out, then back in will smooth out
operation, too.

Even with above, though, FM was slow to lock up after tuning. During several
days, it got better and better to where it became normal. Even then, noise from
my computer or its monitor sometimes causes the FM frequency to shift slightly.

By the way... If you have another SW receiver to listen to WWV with, or an
accurate timepiece, seat the last AA on the hour. Then your clock seconds will
be in sync -- at least for a while. :-)

Bill, K5BY

wrote in message
...
Ahhh....I have replaced the AAs and I still can't receive any
frequencies. Like I said, I don't have much technical knowledge.
What's this shorting of positive & negative contacts? And might it
help? I've taken out and re-installed the AAs many times now and it
hasn't helped. I can even take out all the batteries (Ds and AAs) and
run it off electricity and it still won't tune in any stations.

Thanks,
Joe


Check the buttons on the front panel carefully. Do they all pop up back to
the normal position? Do any of them feel less springy or kinda "strange"?
I don't know if a stuck key would cause this problem with your radio, but
it's worth considering.

Frank Dresser

wrote in message . ..
Ahhh....I have replaced the AAs and I still can't receive any
frequencies. Like I said, I don't have much technical knowledge.
What's this shorting of positive & negative contacts? And might it
help? I've taken out and re-installed the AAs many times now and it
hasn't helped. I can even take out all the batteries (Ds and AAs) and
run it off electricity and it still won't tune in any stations.

Thanks,
Joe

You need the AA batteries for the computer even if you're running off
AC! Try taking out all the batteries and leaving them out overnight.
Then replace them and try again.

"Shorting the contacts" will presumably discharge any capacitors that
are charged, but this charge will "decay" if the power is completely
removed for a long enough period of time (like overnight).

If this doesn't help, someone has fried the sensitive FETs in the
front end (RF stage) of the radio. RS can fix it, but I bet you can
save money at a local shop.