Another Panasonic Multi-Band Mdl. RF-1600

[sanford12]

Went to a radio swap meet in Chicago IL. on Sunday to sell some stuff and I did. Now I need a way to spend some on the way home. This is one of 3 transistors I picked up at the antique shop I stopped at. The tag said it worked and was $29.99. went to the front desk and had the clerk plug it in. The controls were really dirty and if was being really fussy so I offered $20 and we settled on $22
Got it home cleaned it inside and out. With the controls cleaned it fired right up clear as bell. It still had the original ear piece and wire antenna for the shortwave and all the doors. It's in really excellent shape the only detraction I've found is the decorative piece of plastic for the treble slide is missing. As soon as I find out what color it should be I'll make one so if anyone knows drop me a line please.
This is a really good sounding radio. Much better than any of the SS Trans Oceanics I've owned and I've owned them all several times. It's really a pleasant surprise how well it preforms. I think I've found my new porch radio.

[Sandy G]

Kewl....Most of the similar sets I've seen usually have dings 'n' dents in the perforated grille; They are well-nigh impossible to ever make right. An afternoon w/a bottle of Windex, some rags/paper towels, & a few Q-Tips to really "Detail Clean" it would make it look pretty close new. Prolly make it sound better, too...A clean car always runs & rides better...(grin)

[Ed in Tx]

I have TWO if those! I also have the original service manual. My original RF-1600 that I got for Christmas 1968, cost my Dad as I recall $99.95 which was a good chunk of change then. I remember walking up to it on display and the #1 first thing that impressed me was the sound quality and the separate bass and treble controls. My second one, in much better cosmetic condition, I picked up at a ham radio swap meet about 10-12 years ago.

[radiosaurus]

Hello Ed. Saw your post of Oct 6, 2009 wherein you stated that you had an original service manual for a Panasonic RF-1600. I see that you are still an active poster in 2014! I recently obtained one of those cool beasts but it needs some TLC. It sometimes plays for about 30 seconds and then fades out completely. I am an E.E. guy with a pretty good test bench but am struggling to find at least a schematic, if not a more thorough manual. Any assistance you might be able to provide would be appreciated. Naturally I am willing to defray any incidental costs of copying or mailing, etc. -Dean

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by radiosaurus

Hello Ed. Saw your post of Oct 6, 2009 wherein you stated that you had an original service manual for a Panasonic RF-1600. I see that you are still an active poster in 2014! I recently obtained one of those cool beasts but it needs some TLC. It sometimes plays for about 30 seconds and then fades out completely. I am an E.E. guy with a pretty good test bench but am struggling to find at least a schematic, if not a more thorough manual. Any assistance you might be able to provide would be appreciated. Naturally I am willing to defray any incidental costs of copying or mailing, etc. -Dean

Sent copy of the RF-1600 schematic to your ARRL email address. Too big 299k to attach to a post here. Check your inbox. Good luck with it!

[zeeshan123]

Juliette was a brand name of a company (Topps import/export) who distributed tons of low-end Asian radios throughout the US in the 60s-80s. When I was in school, I worked for a similar outfit (Alaron) who did the same basic thing (Rhapsody brand.) Quality was hit and miss, more miss than hit. But, I digress...

In the case of Alaron/Rhapsody, we rarely had any information on the stuff we worked on; if we were lucky, we might have had a photocopy of a hand drawn schematic for any particular model, but I don't remember ever having much more than that. Since Topps/Juliette was likely dealing with many of the same OEMs, I would be surprised if things were much different in their repair department and that there's a good chance that there just wasn't any literature produced for most of their products.

On the bright side, most of that stuff is relatively simple and shouldn't be to hard to figure out. When new, that stuff was plagued by poor solder joints, broken PC traces and bad earphone jacks, so I'd expect to find that sort of thing in addition to a bunch of 30 year old failed electrolyitics.