Dear Mr. Thompson,

Personally I would not spend any more money on this receiver. Sixteen
years is a long time for ANY portable radio so my recommendation to you
would be just to use it "as is" for as long as you can and, when it
finally "bites the dust" altogether, just discard it (or try to sell it
to a collector of that model).

Now that you know that the radio may be on its "last legs," but is
still functioning on SW and MW, you have plenty of time to research
radios and decide what you want.

The Sony ICF-SW7600GR is indeed a splendid portable receiver as others
replying to you have said. Should you be interested in this receiver,
from time to time you might want to check Amazon.com for a sale price.
Last December I bought two more of these receivers (I now own five of
them) for $129.15 each and that included shipping. If you see it
offered for such a price, grab it. (Don't wait either - those sales
come and go very quickly.)

I don't know if you are interested in buying a more advanced receiver,
but, if so, there are quite a number available at prices which were
unheard of sixteen years ago. You may want to research some of them as
well.

In any event, you are lucky - your radio is giving you "warning" rather
than going dead completely and leaving you with nothing!

Best,

Joe

blair thompson wrote:
The FM tuning on my Sony has lost its bearings, but everything else
still works fine. It just bugs me that a function has gone south. A
local techie looked at it for $30, but thought I should probably take
it to a Sony repair facility for further delving into.

Is it worth it to throw more money at this rig? I bought it new 16
years ago, for $400 Canadian, and have been generally well-satisfied
with the radio, listening mostly to SW, Morse code, etc. Guess it
doesn't really owe me much of anything. But maybe I should be looking
at a rig with newer electronics, etc., probably for less dinero, but
the same overall features

Now this is the 7600, NOT the 7600GR...whatever that is...Is there a
difference? The 7600GR is generally well-regarded on the Eham review
site, by many radio amateurs.

Thanks for any input.
Blair
North Vancouver, B.C.