realtone 2424

[maxhifi]

made in Japan 4 band portable, the type with a padded black vinyl case, and a silver perforated metal speaker grill.

Made in late 60s or early 70s. Was my dad's, i used it through 80s until it became my workshop radio. It's covered in paint splatters and vinyl is torn. Chrome trim worn down to plastic, and antenna broken. Turned it on the other day and AM works but FM dead, and has 120 hz hum. Want to repair it for nostalgia/fun, looking inside it reminds me of the childhood wonder of seeing inside electronics for the first time. Glued in schematic long gone, long shot ut has anyone got one?

[mr_fixer]

Ok the AM works fine with no hum, Fm has no stations, no audio, but only hum? If that is correct, I'm thinking maybe an bad coupling cap, most likely and low value electrolytic, between the FM detector and first audio stage. Just a wild guess. don't sue me if I'm wrong!

[maxhifi]

I went ahead and changed all the caps. The main filter was 500 uf - I increased it to 4700 uf to completely kill 120 Hz hum. Probably overkill, but it was on hand. Sounds as good as a cheap late 60s transistorJapanese radio with transformer coupled audio can be expected to, actually not bad!

[maxhifi]

Snapped a couple pics of the radio. Looks awful, but works like new.

Been using it every day since I repaired it, it's amazing what changing capacitors can do, even the AFC works properly now. Using a straightened coat hanger as an antenna. You can see the 4700uF 50V electrolytic capacitor I tacked in there. I will probably replace it with something smaller so I can use the radio on batteries.

I am not even sure there was anything wrong with the labels, I just felt like putting my DYMO to use when I was a kid.

[NowhereMan 1966]

My grandmother had that same exact radio, it got me into shortwave listening. IIRC, it took 4 "C" batteries. I've been jonesin' for the name and band of that radio for the longest time so I thank you for posting this.

[maxhifi]

cool!
I was fooling around with it on SW a couple days ago, and it is surprisingly sensitive, even the coathanger picked up a number of foreign language SW stations. Mine is obviously physically in pretty sad shape, but the new caps made it work like new. I saw a couple of them on eBay recently, but with extremely expensive flat rate shipping.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

cool!
I was fooling around with it on SW a couple days ago, and it is surprisingly sensitive, even the coathanger picked up a number of foreign language SW stations. Mine is obviously physically in pretty sad shape, but the new caps made it work like new. I saw a couple of them on eBay recently, but with extremely expensive flat rate shipping.

It's been a long time but IIRC, my grandmother's 2424 was a very good performer as well. I had a lot of fun with that set. I credit that set with helping me to start my interest in shortwave radio. She passed away in 2010 at the age of 95.