Cleaning out the closet yesterday, I came across this old relic of a radio
that I bought sometime in the late 1980s.

I changed the batteries and fired it up trying both the internal and
external antenna that came with the radio.

It has very good AM and FM reception but all I get throughout the SW bands
is noise. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not a very good radio?
I seem to remember getting lots of stations when I first got it 15 or 20
years ago.

Thanks,

Jim

jlicquia schrieb:

Cleaning out the closet yesterday, I came across this old relic of a radio
that I bought sometime in the late 1980s.

This is an approx. 1987...1989/1990 model.

I changed the batteries and fired it up trying both the internal and
external antenna that came with the radio.

It has very good AM and FM reception but all I get throughout the SW bands
is noise. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not a very good radio?

More likely, the respective preamp FET is blown. (Unless you happen to
have the attenuator switch in "LOCAL" position, that is.) This would be
Q7, marked as 2SK152-2. I *think* this is the same FET that not too
infrequently needs to be replaced particularly in older samples of the
ICF-2010/2001D (it has been rumored Sony got a bad batch of those,
though IIRC early 2010s didn't have protection diodes yet [which seems a
bit strange to me, given the older ICF-7600A did]). I doubt it's
anything more serious, given the signal path after the front end is the
same for SW and LW/MW.

I seem to remember getting lots of stations when I first got it 15 or 20
years ago.

The ICF-2003, sold as ICF-7600DS elsewhere, should still be a decent
performer today. It's more noisy and not quite as selective as newer
models when the AM ranges are concerned (the FM front end should
actually be better given its more discrete nature, and with the FM
filters replaced with narrower parts this might make a decent FM DX
rig), but the receiver concept [1] isn't bad at all.

Stephan

[1] http://stephan.win31.de/sony7600.htm#ICF-7600D
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could also be you are testing sw reception during the day - try in the early
morning hours or at night.
"Stephan Grossklass" wrote in message
...
jlicquia schrieb:

Cleaning out the closet yesterday, I came across this old relic of a
radio
that I bought sometime in the late 1980s.

This is an approx. 1987...1989/1990 model.

I changed the batteries and fired it up trying both the internal and
external antenna that came with the radio.

It has very good AM and FM reception but all I get throughout the SW
bands
is noise. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not a very good
radio?

More likely, the respective preamp FET is blown. (Unless you happen to
have the attenuator switch in "LOCAL" position, that is.) This would be
Q7, marked as 2SK152-2. I *think* this is the same FET that not too
infrequently needs to be replaced particularly in older samples of the
ICF-2010/2001D (it has been rumored Sony got a bad batch of those,
though IIRC early 2010s didn't have protection diodes yet [which seems a
bit strange to me, given the older ICF-7600A did]). I doubt it's
anything more serious, given the signal path after the front end is the
same for SW and LW/MW.

I seem to remember getting lots of stations when I first got it 15 or 20
years ago.

The ICF-2003, sold as ICF-7600DS elsewhere, should still be a decent
performer today. It's more noisy and not quite as selective as newer
models when the AM ranges are concerned (the FM front end should
actually be better given its more discrete nature, and with the FM
filters replaced with narrower parts this might make a decent FM DX
rig), but the receiver concept [1] isn't bad at all.

Stephan

[1] http://stephan.win31.de/sony7600.htm#ICF-7600D
--
Meine Andere Seite: http://stephan.win31.de/
PC#6: i440BX, 1xP3-500E, 512 MiB, 18+80 GB, R9k AGP 64 MiB, 110W
This is a SCSI-inside, Legacy-plus, TCPA-free computer
Mail to From: not read, see homepg. | Real gelesene Mailadr. s. Homep.