Motorola SK80 - 1962 stereophonic

[Motorola minion]

No posts here since Dec 2, I must have missed a post or time accelerates as I get older.

Here are some pictures of a very routine repair in my garage simply because Its been tolerable this "winter".

This SK80 has a single preamp-tuner chassis (lighted knobs )and I have seen other 1962s where the preamp chassis is separate. Anyhow, I had to get inventive here to clean the pots without pulling out all the cables to the HS-968 3-ch 6V6 amp and reverb.

[Motorola minion]

Sorry no mpx adapter in this one. but many dont care about radio if there is a "media desert" - places with no decent original programming. Too bad, this FM receiver is as good as a Zenith and separates the strong adjacent from weak very well. AFC will tend to pull onto teh stronger station unless you tune away from the adjacent strong station and then switch on the AFC, then it locks in the weak one. I was getting wonderful jazz from PHL on 90.1 using a 10 element roof antenna with a much stronger station local on 90.3.

[William]

Early American cabinet and a nice looking one at that. I also see a nice looking Zenith in the back ground and Mr. Cat as your assistant.

One of these days I need to get after my Motorola 3 channel. I have the same looking controls as the one you pictured, Dave, but I have the 6BM8 am[ and the Drexel "Declaration" cabinet that looks like someone took a chain to it and then poured water on it.

Bill

[Motorola minion]

Early American cabinet and a nice looking one at that. I also see a nice looking Zenith in the back ground and Mr. Cat as your assistant.

One of these days I need to get after my Motorola 3 channel. I have the same looking controls as the one you pictured, Dave, but I have the 6BM8 am[ and the Drexel "Declaration" cabinet that looks like someone took a chain to it and then poured water on it.

Bill

That 6BM8 version is a unique one for Motorola, in a chassis similar to this one. I had one (SK54?) in my shop and it was picked up and sold before I could get to it.

[Motorola minion]

This console was pretty hard to test when my wife was home, even in the garage.
The volume at 5, bass at 5, treble at 5 - I had the garage door closed, walked about 100 feet away toward the mailbox and had to go back and turn it back to 3, bass-6, treble-6. It was heard so clearly, anyone driving by would hear it .

The loudness compensation is fair, so you need to re-adjust tone controls as volume increases. It has a slightly different personality than my '63 SK112, which uses the same tubes but has a 12" woof.

As always, when it was time for it to be picked up as done, it developed a new symptom that sounded like an output tube failing. After swapping tubes around, a gentle tap on one would cause this pop. After some poking around, I found the RCA plug into the reverb spring was not making good ground contact WHEW!!
Daisy the tabby supervises all work in the garage but goes outside when I am "UL-testing" consoles.

[William]

I had to check as I forgot what my model number is, SK52W. I seem to remember there are 6BQ5's in there too, maybe in the reverb amp? Mine is a 1960. I have been putting off the restoration because of the cabinet, it needs a total restoration too and I have not had the get up and go to do it.

Bill

[electra225]

Dave, all good electronics gurus are judged by the quality of their shop cat.......

Unfortunately, I have a shop dog. Sometimes a reluctant member of the team. He doesn't like lots of bass.

Daisy appears to be on the case right smartly.......

[Motorola minion]

I miss my dog, but she did hate my music. Rodents can really make messes in a garage and most cats are happy to help

[electra225]

We have two lazy, spoiled, entitled cats. Mittens thinks she is a princess, so she rules the roost. Percy is so fat he couldn't get a mouse if it committed suicide six inches from his nose. The dog doesn't like boomy sounds. Fireworks, hammering, the washing machine clunking, too much bass in audio. We have to turn down the bass on the car radio or he is not happy. Funny how small fuzzy animals rule the roost........