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Old 09-25-2010, 09:16 PM
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radiotvnut radiotvnut is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Meridian, MS
Posts: 6,018
Panasonic AC/battery radio/phonograph

A friend gave me this Panasonic model SG-773 AM/FM radio/record player after it finally died completely. It will run on 120VAC or 6 D cell batteries. Several years ago, he asked me to fix a loud hum, which turned out to be a bad filter cap. The phonograph didn't work then and he said not to worry about the phonograph, as it had not worked in ages and he didn't have any records left to play on it even if it did work. He claimed he bought this sometime in the late '60's; but, who knows. If anyone else has any input as to when this was made, I'd appreciate it since I'm finding very little on the Internet about this record player.

The other day, he called and said it died and he wasn't fooling with it anymore. I plugged it in and I get no reception on AM or FM. In phonograph mode, the platter does not turn; but, I can turn the record by hand and hear faint, distorted sound from the speaker. At this point, I suspect a full recap is in order. The turntable plays at 33 and 45 rpm and there is a badge inside the record playing compartment that reads "solid state electronic RPM control". I have not removed the turntable platter; but, it appears to be idler driven and there is a button that is pressed down, when the lid is closed, which disengages the idler wheel. I hope the problem is not with the motor itself, as I don't know where one would find a replacement motor for this unit. The tonearm is fairly heavy and looks to have a cheap ronette cartridge with a needle that's held in place by a setscrew. I really don't think I want to play my prized records on this; but, it would be neat if I can get it operational again if for no other reason than to show kids that this was what people carried around as a portable music device before the days of MP3 players, Ipods, portable CD players, etc. And, battery operated record players are something that I don't find that often. All I have now is a mid '60's Mercury/Philips 3 speed portable, a circa 1980 Mickey Mouse two speed "close & play" portable, and the Panasonic that I just got. I bought the Mickey Mouse one off of ebay because I had one like it when I was very young.





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