A 1965 Heathkit stereo tuner pulled out of a recycle bin and rebuilt
Hackaday's Al Williams wrote up a restoration that I found oddly satisfying: a Heathkit AJ-43C stereo tuner from around 1965, rescued from a recycle bin by RCD66, who documented the whole job in a YouTube video.
The tuner was in rough shape. Every electrolytic capacitor tested bad, which is no surprise for a unit of that age. Rather than chase individual faults, RCD66 chose a full rework: most of the parts were pulled and replaced, and the germanium transistors were tested so that any that still measured good could go back in. Several of the circuit boards got attention, and the original zener-diode power supply was swapped for a more modern design.
Al Williams calls the full rework the smart approach for a unit like this, and I tend to agree. When everything of one type is dead, replacing the lot is quicker and more reliable than fixing them one by one. The kit originally sold for $130, so there is something nice about a part of that history being saved from the junk pile.
The article does not say how the finished tuner sounds, so you have to watch the video for that. In the comments, one reader pointed out the separate AM and FM tuning knobs, the three-gang AM tuning capacitor, the multiple dual-tuned IF stages and the trimmable stereo demultiplexer, and suggested replacing the FM RF input transistor to improve sensitivity.
For anyone who collects or repairs old receivers and tuners, it is a good reminder of how much careful engineering sits inside these 1960s kits.
Source: Hackaday
The tuner was in rough shape. Every electrolytic capacitor tested bad, which is no surprise for a unit of that age. Rather than chase individual faults, RCD66 chose a full rework: most of the parts were pulled and replaced, and the germanium transistors were tested so that any that still measured good could go back in. Several of the circuit boards got attention, and the original zener-diode power supply was swapped for a more modern design.
Al Williams calls the full rework the smart approach for a unit like this, and I tend to agree. When everything of one type is dead, replacing the lot is quicker and more reliable than fixing them one by one. The kit originally sold for $130, so there is something nice about a part of that history being saved from the junk pile.
The article does not say how the finished tuner sounds, so you have to watch the video for that. In the comments, one reader pointed out the separate AM and FM tuning knobs, the three-gang AM tuning capacitor, the multiple dual-tuned IF stages and the trimmable stereo demultiplexer, and suggested replacing the FM RF input transistor to improve sensitivity.
For anyone who collects or repairs old receivers and tuners, it is a good reminder of how much careful engineering sits inside these 1960s kits.
Source: Hackaday
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