Superradio III
 

My Superradio III just died, after being on 24/7
for around 20 years. I think the varactor
governing tuning failed.

I'd been using it to stream to a distant room what
my computer was streaming and sending to a small
FM transmitter.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Superradio III
 

On Wed, 06 Jun 2018 07:50:49 -0400, Ron Hardin wrote:

+AD4 My Superradio III just died, after being on 24/7
+AD4 for around 20 years. I think the varactor
+AD4 governing tuning failed.
+AD4
+AD4 I'd been using it to stream to a distant room what
+AD4 my computer was streaming and sending to a small
+AD4 FM transmitter.

That's pretty good+ACE You going to repair it?

Superradio III
 

On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at 4:50:55 AM UTC-7, Ron Hardin wrote:
My Superradio III just died, after being on 24/7
for around 20 years. I think the varactor
governing tuning failed.
My knee-jerk prejudice is that it is a bad electrolytic capacitor.

Next, I would look for RF leakage from the local oscillator. If you do not have a suitable oscilloscope, you could use another radio.

However, if you are right and you do not need to be able to tune other stations, you could replace the varactor with an old-fashioned variable condenser.

Superradio III
 

Frank wrote:

On Wed, 06 Jun 2018 07:50:49 -0400, Ron Hardin wrote:

+AD4 My Superradio III just died, after being on 24/7
+AD4 for around 20 years. I think the varactor
+AD4 governing tuning failed.
+AD4
+AD4 I'd been using it to stream to a distant room what
+AD4 my computer was streaming and sending to a small
+AD4 FM transmitter.

That's pretty good+ACE You going to repair it?

Am DX has been pretty much ruined for years by IBOC, which gives you 3 times the interference and no
way to null what interference you hear.

I used to have an 8-element active array with 7 phase shifters and could easily null out two close
stations on a frequency to hear a third distant one, but you have to be able to tell which station is
which. IBOC noise is indistinguishable by station.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Superradio III
 

On Thu, 07 Jun 2018 13:34:28 -0400, Ron Hardin wrote:

+AD4 Frank wrote:
+AD4APg
+AD4APg On Wed, 06 Jun 2018 07:50:49 -0400, Ron Hardin wrote:
+AD4APg
+AD4APg +-AD4 My Superradio III just died, after being on 24/7
+AD4APg +-AD4 for around 20 years. I think the varactor
+AD4APg +-AD4 governing tuning failed.
+AD4APg +-AD4
+AD4APg +-AD4 I'd been using it to stream to a distant room what
+AD4APg +-AD4 my computer was streaming and sending to a small
+AD4APg +-AD4 FM transmitter.
+AD4APg
+AD4APg That's pretty good+-ACE You going to repair it?
+AD4
+AD4 Am DX has been pretty much ruined for years by IBOC, which gives you 3 times the interference and no
+AD4 way to null what interference you hear.
+AD4
+AD4 I used to have an 8-element active array with 7 phase shifters and could easily null out two close
+AD4 stations on a frequency to hear a third distant one, but you have to be able to tell which station is
+AD4 which. IBOC noise is indistinguishable by station.

Most of my local AM stations dropped IBOC years ago. There's only a couple left spewing that trash. Guess I'm lucky.

Couple of months ago, I stumbled across my old AM Stereo tuner while looking for something else. Plugged it in, and whaddya know, WLS was still broadcasting their stereo pilot. Good for them+ACE I suspect they're not actually broadcasting stereo programming anymore but I didn't feel like listening to their babblers long enough to confirm it.

Back to the original topic, is the GE dead, deceased, an ex-Superradio?

Superradio III
 

On Wed, 6 Jun 2018, Ron Hardin wrote:

My Superradio III just died, after being on 24/7
for around 20 years. I think the varactor
governing tuning failed.

But you haven't really described any problem. Varactor tuning is hardly
gonig to fail magically. If the voltage isn't there to tune them, then it
won't work. I suspect something else. You imply that something on the
radio works, but since there are no details, who knows?

Michael