Kit-built AES radio

[electra225]

I enrolled in an electronics course at a local community college in 1985 or 1986. My stepdad was still alive then and thought an electronics course would help me. Part of this course work was to build something from a kit. AES sold little radio kits, knockoffs of the Silvertone "Hopalong Cassidy" radio without the fancy trim. I built this little radio from an AES kit, I think it was something like $39.95 back then. I got it built okay, but ran into a roadblock when I tried to align it. I never did get it right. My stepdad, someone I consider to be near-genius when it came to electronics, figured out that the tuner was not well-fitted to the chassis and that he thought the loopstick antenna was inadequate for anything but strong local stations. His intention was to "redesign" the radio so it would work. Unfortunately, his cancer came back and he passed away before the project got done. I have been trying for the last almost 40 years to align this little radio, changed the value of certain components, but have had limited success. 550 comes in on about a fourth of the dial. 620, one of the stronger local stations, can barely be heard. Above about 800 khz, the radio works fairly decently. Below that, it's a mess. The tuning cap has two rotor sections, one wider then the other. Which should be the larger part of the tuner, the antenna section or the oscillator section? I wonder if I have the tuner wired backwards. It appears to me like the oscillator is not running at the right frequency at the lower end of the dial, not tracking right. I don't see what it would hurt to reverse the wires on the tuner and see what thay does. This is cute little radio, very simple, yet a pain to get running right. I think I remember conversations in the past about these radio kits not being easy to live with. I'd like to get it working right.

[electra225]

I found some of Sam's notes on this radio when I was building it and when we couldn't get it to align. He was going to try different values of capacitors in series with the antenna section of the tuning capacitor. He thought the trimmer on that part of the tuner was defective or inadequate. I have the adjustment turned down as tight as I can get it, but that's still not enough. The manufacturer of this radio was listed as "Galvin". An organization with the same name of Galvin started Motorola back in the 1930's. I don't know if there is a connection or not. I have a tuner in a parts set, but it operates backwards from this one. I'll keep looking.

[TC Chris]

Motorola was Galvin for a long time. As to the tuning cap sections, look at another one of your AA5s and see which section is the ant. and which is osc.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I did and it's wired right. The antenna trimmer just doesn't give enough adjustment for the dial to track logically at the upper end. 550 comes in all over the dial, riding in over the station selected. The oscillator is not tracking right. An external antenna helps with reception, but I think that's just a kluge, not a real solution to the problem. There are no padders anywhere. Just the IF cans and the tuner trimmers. I thought I had the installation and alignment instructions around here someplace, but they remain elusive. I think what I'll do is to align the IF like normal, run the dial up to 1400, tune the antenna trimmer for maximum smoke, then do the same with the oscillator trimmer at 600. Rock the tuner back and forth at both frequencies. I don't know what else to do. I haven't found a tuner that will work yet in my junk.

[TC Chris]

Isn't bending the tuning cap outer vanes a way to alter capacitance? Some were slotted to allow the adjustment. When I get home I could check my old radio repair books for instructions.

Chris Campbell