I've recently run across an old 70's multiband radio. It has five
bands on it. Air/Police High/Weather, FM, Police Low, SW1/SW2, and AM.
I can pick up shortwave 1 and 2 very well as well as FM and AM. The
problem is, I can hear FM stations on Police Low, but the biggest
problem is that I can't hear a thing on the Air/Police High/Weather
band. Are these bands dead or is something wrong with my radio?

Thanks for reading. :-)

In article ,
(Tom) writes:


I've recently run across an old 70's multiband radio. It has five
bands on it. Air/Police High/Weather, FM, Police Low, SW1/SW2, and AM.
I can pick up shortwave 1 and 2 very well as well as FM and AM. The
problem is, I can hear FM stations on Police Low, but the biggest
problem is that I can't hear a thing on the Air/Police High/Weather
band. Are these bands dead or is something wrong with my radio?

Thanks for reading. :-)


- Hard to tel what the problem is;
What Make & Model is the radio ?
Maybe someone has a manual that might help you understand the beast

I'm sorry about not giving you the model number. I believe it's AEL 1235 or
1255. I can't make out the name of the company who made it but it does say
Worldmaster on the front of it and the place where the logo is, is on the lower
left side. It has the bandswitch on the right side and you turn it.

I'd like to know if something is wrong with the radio or if it's just that the
Air/Police High/Weather band is dead. I thought at least I should get the
weather, but I don't get anything when it's tuned to 162.5 which is where it
says the weather is located. I've cleaned the bandswitch and checked the wires
inside to make sure one didn't come loose, is appears to be fine.

Please let me know what you come up with and thanks. :-D

Josey221 wrote:
I'd like to know if something is wrong with the radio or if it's just that the
Air/Police High/Weather band is dead. I thought at least I should get the
weather, but I don't get anything when it's tuned to 162.5 which is where it
says the weather is located. I've cleaned the bandswitch and checked the wires
inside to make sure one didn't come loose, is appears to be fine.

Hmmm. If you're anywhere near a city of any size, you shouldn't have
any trouble hearing the 162.5 weather. The weather transmitters are
(usually) running 1,000 watts which is a LOT of power for that
frequency. Have you tried tuning around a bit? There are seven weather
channels, maybe you just didn't stumble across the right one?

If that doesn't work... dunno. First thing I'd think is a dirty
bandswitch but you're saying you've already checked that...
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

I used some contact cleaner that I have to clean the bandswitch, but still
nothing. I do get FM stations on the Police Low band, but nothing at all on the
Air/Police High/Weather band. Is there anything else to check inside the radio
that could be causing it not to work?

Is there anything else at all that I could check, or is that band just dead?
Thanks again. :-D

(Tom) wrote in message . com...
I've recently run across an old 70's multiband radio. It has five
bands on it. Air/Police High/Weather, FM, Police Low, SW1/SW2, and AM.
I can pick up shortwave 1 and 2 very well as well as FM and AM. The
problem is, I can hear FM stations on Police Low, but the biggest
problem is that I can't hear a thing on the Air/Police High/Weather
band. Are these bands dead or is something wrong with my radio?

I believe most police radio service moved out of the range used by
aircraft quite a while ago. Many have now moved to 800MHz trunked
systems that are very difficult to follow without a specialized radio.
I believe aircraft are still in the same frequency range, though
transmissions will be difficult to catch unless you live near an
airport. If you can find a frequency list for a nearby airport, try
listening to the approach and departure frequencies for a while.
You're unlikely to hear the ground transmission unless you're very
close, but the transmission from the aircraft should be picked up over
a fairly wide area.

I'm not sure if the weather transmissions are still in the same range
as in the 70's. It could also be that you don't live near one of the
weather stations.

-- Jay

First question: Can you hear noise, or is it just 'dead'??

Next, tune around 156mhz where some of the high power pagers are,also in the
145-148mhz ham band, you should hear something there in the evenings.

Perhaps, some of the capacitors have dried out over time, leaving the
sensitivity something to be desired.

jw
K9RZZ

(Tom) wrote in message . com...

... is something wrong with my radio?


Ummm, broken antenna lead? AM-MW would rely on an internal ferrite
rod; SW1 and SW2 might use that antenna as well. FM stations from
88-108 MHz are flame throwers (witness that fact that "I can hear FM
stations on Police Low"), so you can hear them with no antenna. That
other stuff, might be inaudible if the antenna is not functioning. My
Radio Shack Weatheradio with the antenna not extended can't hear a
thing. Pull out the antenna, and the station at Manassas VA comes in.

I concur entirely with the other listers who suggest trying to hear
the NOAA weather stations, assuming you are in the US. Frequencies
(the first three are the most likely frequencies to hear):

162.550
162.400
162.475
162.425
162.450
162.500
162.525
161.650 Canadian
161.775 Canadian
163.275 Canadian

"Beloved Leader" wrote in message
om...
(Tom) wrote in message
. com...

... is something wrong with my radio?


Ummm, broken antenna lead? AM-MW would rely on an internal ferrite
rod; SW1 and SW2 might use that antenna as well. FM stations from
88-108 MHz are flame throwers (witness that fact that "I can hear FM
stations on Police Low"), so you can hear them with no antenna. That
other stuff, might be inaudible if the antenna is not functioning. My
Radio Shack Weatheradio with the antenna not extended can't hear a
thing. Pull out the antenna, and the station at Manassas VA comes in.


I didn't read the original post, but if they are having problems hearing
signals on VHF public service bands, one problem may well be the fact that
inexpensive PSB radios use the same FM detector for the PSB's as for
broadcast FM. The detector is of necessity broadband (~200 KHz) for the
wideband broadcast FM signals, which are 150 KHz wide (75 KHz deviation).
As most of the traffic on the PSB's is only 5 KHz deviation, the volume
level will be on the order of around 10% (rounded up) of that of a broadcast
FM station. If they are leaving the radio at the same volume as for AM or
FM, they may not hear a station at all. Best one can do on these radios is
to tune around looking for a quiet spot on the dial that will sometimes tell
you there's a signal there, then turn up the volume to see if it's a
transmission.

I can hear noise. I can hear the same noise on the Police Low band as well, but
I can tune in FM stations on the Police Low band. The Air/Police High/Weather
band, I can't hear a thing. Just can't figure it out.

I'm open to some other suggestions, if anyone has any to offer. I would really
like to try to get to the bottom of this. The capacitors being dried up that
j999w mentioned, is there anyway to test it with a multimeter? That's all that
I have. What can I test in the radio with the multimeter and how do you do it?

I know this may sound dumb, but it really helps. Thanks. :-D