National Panasonic RF-5000

[speaker dave]

Originally Posted by mr_fixer

I love that radio, i bought one from a Nashville Radio Club member about 9 months ago, mine had the same problems. The problem was the band selector switches are supposed to have a rubber bumper which dampens them when they pop back up after you select another band or the off switch. well after 30+ years they squish, degrade or fall out. then the switch travels too far upward and no longer make contact to allow the next band to work. if you are having trouble on say, sw4 gently barely press the button of sw5 or sw6 and see if that band comes back to life it could be all the way up to the fm button. I used small pieces of surgical rubber tubing to replace the bumpers.

Mr. Fixer is right about this being a common switch problem. With mine the bumpers had crushed and turned rock hard. It wasn't hard to chip them off. Rather than individual dampers on each switch it is just as easy to run a single long strip of heavy foam across the shelf or ridge they all contact. Use the heavy neoprene type in an appropriate thickness. Piano felt might be a good choice here too.

Even with the fixes and replacement of several transistors in the output stage, I am not as impressed with the sound of my 5000 as the size had me hoping for. Mine also suffers from a lot of local FM breakthrough in the upper SW ranges.

Its pretty sensitive though on all bands and the loop SW antenna seems to work pretty well.

Regards,
David