1964 RCA 4RS34 AM FM Tube Clock Radio Repair IF Transformer SMD Silver Mica Disease Alignment

[@johnfranklin5277]

Back in 1974 I was 15 and was a dishwasher in a very busy restaurant. The next year was to be thier last as they decided to sell the place and retire. In the dishwasher room was a table top Zenith am fm radio , about this size here,, which was always on, in the corner of the room . I asked them if it stays or goes. They said, would you like to have it? I said sure, they said then it's yours now. I looked it up years ago and its a 1964 . I have never had any issues with it, all the tubes are Zenith, and 49 years later it still plays great!

[@jmanx360]

L727? If so, I have the same one. Great little radio.

[@_-_Michael_-_]

“Aaand the scope died so we need to drop it...” *drops the scope, scope starts working again* this is exactly that type of sh-tshow I want to see in Shangos videos and what I love about them. Funny, entertaining, commedy and you learn stuff and see old vintage tube gear. Love this so much.

[@BlueSkyScholar]

It is after all a Kick-a-sui scope.

[@Anddrew_]

They filter your comments section better than the water at Camp Lejeune.

[@waltschannel7465]

That's funny!

[@zakksrage]

Water filtration wouldn’t have helped Lejeune especially the water filter technology of that time period

[@zakksrage]

@@Hope4all2 I have been defunded

[@ceilingfanmusic6597]

Oooof lmao

[@danielknepper6884]

Basically if you are pro left they will not censor your comments. If you are a conservative or a right winger you can bet your comments are going to go into cyberspace.

[@joebrock9784]

Course you are, Siri because you’re an American patriot and I’m proud to watch your channel and Brad to the repairs and bringing this all equipment back to life

[@n2n8sda]

Hope you have a great 2023! Thanks for one more radio of 2022.

[@rotaxtwin]

You mentioned this was a cheap clock radio, but I was eventually given a similar 1967 vintage unit from a lady who still had the (non functioning) unit on her bedside table as a clock. It still had the price tag on the rear of the unit, $67.95. Story was that her husband bought it while she was in hospital giving birth to their daughter and at that time the purchase price was the same as their rent. She was livid! Unit had an open filament on one tube, EL 84 or EL86.

[@robinsattahip2376]

America was a much better place in 1967.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

​@@robinsattahip2376Rent would of still been a good chunk of a month's worth of wages. It never WAS any good.

[@strangeluck]

I'll just keep saying it: if AM is going away it isn't because you can't have it in electric cars. My 2015 VW e-Golf came with AM radio and it works just fine. Love your videos and commentary! Best wishes in 2023! 🍻

[@strangeluck]

Oh... Agree totally that Conrad should be brought back.

[@quantumleap359]

Yep, that AM radio excuse is a red herring. AM radio is going away because of iHate radio and its ilk. Profit before listeners.

[@Synthematix]

But thats a car from 2015, its now 2023, things have changed big time, medium wave is nearly completely dead here in England UK

[@strangeluck]

@@Synthematix What's changed?

[@joseppuig925]

Not incorporating AM in electric or hybrid cars is a good excuse to go cheaper on EMI filters in the car. Btw, disappearing analog broadcasts in favour of digital services makes it easier to control at a personal user level what contents are consumed.

[@joseflutzenberger5833]

Hello shango, you are rally one of this persons who speaks right throw my heart, we rally need more people and companys who took proud and converdence in their products. The quality goes in, bevore the name goes on! greetings from germany: Josef

[@directcurrent5751]

Here we have the last few hours of our first normal year in years. America still strained but one patriot corralled vintage tube electronics, which alone is commendable. But this champion of the platform went much further and invested many hours in the taping and final presentation of the project. When I meet you I will know someone with a great heart and wisdom.

[@rustymotor]

Happy new year! I have worked in the electronics service field (Medical and industrial) for many years but your skill set in working with TV and Radios is at the next level! I wish I had spent more time in the Radio industry, so much to learn especially with tuned circuits and RF alignments.

[@davepike6170]

I wholeheartedly agree with you about keeping the comments constructive and not vulgar or destructive. I always enjoy your videos.

[@hestheMaster]

Interesting line up of tubes. The 17C9 is a miniature tube ( Noval +1) with a center pin no less. Brings out a tube tester but swapping out a known good tube into the radio is best results. Struggles with the alignment because of bad connection in the oscilloscope. Next video may be an oscy repair! Like to see that. One bad IF can fixed.

[@8BitNaptime]

That's a weird pinout. Never seen that before. Guess it must be an "entertainment" tube and not an industrial tube.

[@hestheMaster]

@@8BitNaptime RCA used it in TV's in the 1960s.

[@zulumax1]

I had to go check my tube tester to see if it had a tube socket like that, and sure enough it does! All these years I have had my tester and I never noticed the center pin on the socket. Never knew there was a 10 pin miniature tube, now I do. Thanks for the info from he's the Master!

[@8BitNaptime]

@@hestheMaster Well that can mean only one thing: I have to find one of these tubes for my collection.

[@michaelmcdonald2348]

Never seen a tube with centre pin before. In Europe we mostly used ECC85 (or UCC85) for the FM tuner. I wonder if that centre pin connects to an internal screen.

[@davebruton5731]

I happened to see the image and name on your vid disruption , I'll never forget that clock radio . My folks had four of us kids and one bathroom , you can the problems . Our parents had this radio , theirs was maroon . But , we all knew the drill when it went off , both alarm and radio . Thank God for summer vacation from school , you could sleep thru it !

[@55benchguy]

I want to decorate a room in my place with all these old electronics. and lamps with Edison bulbs. Just to take a trip back in time.

[@briangoldberg4439]

Cool. I liked how you went through a bunch of different processes. Exploratory videos like this can be very good when they focus on the procedures used. Thanks for the good content.

[@zakksrage]

I could careless about how a radio sounds or what band I’m listening to but I love radio transmission and tubes. Loved the radio station tour

[@mosesarea51]

Been watching you for years, love the content here. Was glad to donate for the TV project, looking forward to more repair vids in 2023. F Censorship and the phony fake show that’s going on. Hope you have a nice EOL vid lined up for tonight😊

[@onefootinthegroove39]

I like that the first broadcast the radio played, albeit quietly, after sitting dormant for who-knows-how-long was about going to the moon. Very appropriate for a ‘60s radio.

[@onefootinthegroove39]

Aaaand shortly after references to a US-Russia conflict

[@mknm1349]

I just found the manufacturing location for this radio: 3324 E. Michigan St Indianapolis, IN. The complex was closed in 1995 and the buildings were torn down in 2017 as a blight reduction project. It's presently a vacant lot.

[@michaelturner4457]

That was RCA Consumer Products Division

[@michaelyancey3021]

Thank you for the videos. I fixed my first silver mica diseased Zenith IF transformer a few months ago, after seeing one of your other silver-mica videos. I always enjoy your videos - TV & Radio and ... whatever else you're fixing! Best wishes for a fantastic 2023, and all the best to you.

[@zulumax1]

I love it when he goes off topic. I would watch a plumbing home repair if he did it, and he did, and I watched it. Love his old 1920's house in LA. A diesel hit and miss motor repair in a mine? That was a cool one too.

[@michaelyancey3021]

Exactly!

[@1marcelfilms]

HAPPY ALMOST NEW YEAR

[@Forensic1Man]

Great forensic investigation to find and repair the IF transformer capacitor. You as such a good teacher!~

[@lowrybrock8272]

Always enjoy videos. That thing hums very well. I got a good laugh at the quality soldering in there.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

An hour now identifies as 48 minutes...

[@thatguywill066]

Think I've watched all of your videos and you inspired a new hobby for me .I'm not very good but I only work on cool old junk so no harm. The commentary is what got me hooked

[@soulnull]

It may be a wet day, but that sarcasm is as dry as ever. Love ya shangs.

[@bobbyk6585]

I vote for more hour plus video content. During this one I laughed/snorted so loud that I woke up my wife. A common risk while watching a Shango video.

[@compositeguy4696]

I’d like to wish you a happy new year! Been enjoying your content for many years.

[@davethewhitedevil]

Starting off another new year, watching your terrific videos. Please keep Em coming for all of us who enjoy them all. Your hard work & expertise doesn't go unnoticed thanks again & happy New year

[@dontknowbrian]

Never a dull moment! I think you could make watching solder hardening up be entertaining. Remember, RCA stands for really crappy attitude

[@Seiskid]

Happy days with the scope heater problem. Very entertaining. Getting the best S curve, or getting the least clipping on an over modulated signal both seem to work pretty well as tools for IF alignment. S curve is arguably the easiest to see what you're doing. Especially with radios that contain crystal filters that have drifted. Maybe I'm doing it wrong but I sometimes find I get better results aligning slightly higher or lower than exactly 10.7. S-Curve alignment makes it pretty obvious if this is going to be the case. I then like to like to jump back and have a look at a slightly over modulated signal as a check. Its very much a black art, but when it's correct the radio sounds like a charm.

[@mjg263]

Great tutorial, thanks! I don’t know why but I’d kinda like to see it all put back together and operating with the antenna hooked up and all, I guess just to see/hear how hot the FM is now under normal conditions.

[@SatoshiTajiri]

Happy new year and thanks for a entire decade of very entertaining videos.

[@fiddlyphuk6414]

My restoration and attempted hot-rodding of a 1930s Setchell Carlson has turned into more of a lab experiment than a dedicated restoration. Sunk far more money into it than any sane person should. I'd maybe do the same with a radio like this. Old radio restoration can become as addictive and expensive as drug or alcohol addiction.

[@kd5byb]

Totally understand. I've done the same. Very addicting.

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

Yes, radio restoration’s a lot safer. Happy 😊 and safe New Year, Your friend, Jeff.

[@kd5byb]

@@jeffreyhickman3871 You know, after I posted my comment I was thinking EXACTLY that...radio restoration is a lot safer than drug or alcohol addiction! :)

[@adamwheeldon]

shango time 👍🏻👍🏻

[@mikefinn2101]

Great Saturday viewing pleasure nice humor too love your comments. Yes love those commercials on side effects. Thanks

[@magicnotecolumbia78t]

Je vous souhaite une excellente année 2023 :)

[@dalen2dm]

Hi and Happy New Year! The 14gt8 is a tube that is used in my 1964 GE Pacer hi band VHF mobile radio. Fair Radio has used 14gt8's for $2.50 ea. Good place to buy parts. Have good coming year, enjoy your videos. Dale, NtwoDM, 73

[@walterbatman7949]

His masters voice Cool radio Thanks for the great video

[@fostercathead]

I love how you treat your gear!

[@Suddenlyits1960]

@Eric Ruud,That’s the “Stockdale” method. Named after the character Andy Griffith played in “No time for sergeants”. Of course he’d also spit in the back of them before “whomping” on them.

[@TonyButchT]

Thank you for all the interesting educational "adventures" over the year. Happy Healthy Peaceful New Year!

[@vicmabus1532]

The hum is the Conelrad station that went off the air. Pretty sensitive to pick that up!

[@connorm955]

True. Up until a few months or so ago, KZbin flat out banned non-youtube links and if it was a link to a youtube video, the comment would stay.

[@EdgarsLS]

When all modern components look the same with the black plastic packages, these old parts are very intriguing to look at

[@larrybragg7406]

I enjoy your videos! I've learned quite a lot!

[@Barbarra63297]

That exact clock was mom and dad's alarm clock for many years. Hope you can ressurect this one.

[@stevehead365]

Happy new year, here's to many more.

[@aristocrat_000G]

Thanks!

[@dannyboy366]

I agree, an off color joke is one thing but, being outright filthy or hurtful is another thing. This is a family channel. I trust my 11 year old boy watching Shango without me having to monitor a thing.

[@DonnyHooterHoot]

LOL

[@tompsheridantsheridant7354]

OKAY, **KAREN!!**

[@thetechgenie7374]

Don’t watch any auto mechanics, or have your boy hang around any shop. Tons of colorful language will be heard. Not good to be to sensitive as well.

[@dannyboy366]

@@thetechgenie7374 Teaching a child morals is not being "sensitive". There's a huge difference between "colorful language" and out right filthy language, wouldn't you agree ? In the future I don't desire for my son to be one of those "gang bangers" getting into trouble with the law. I think Shango is a good role model.

[@mianahmad5918]

Happy new year shango.

[@michaelturner4457]

Happy New Years, from Phuket, Thailand.

[@jimharmon3404]

That was interesting, you aligned both a radio and a scope at the same time. Yes it does suck when a piece of test equipment is faulty. I have one with faulty horizontal triggering that I need to fix.

[@Mark-qw8lc]

Happy New Year, Shango!

[@HappyDiscoDeath]

For what it's worth, I'm bucking the trend. I got an Eton Elite 750 multiband radio for Christmas. It does FM, SW, MW, LW, SSB, and VHF Air!

[@HappyDiscoDeath]

Oh, and my car is non-EV and a few years old, so it has an AM/FM radio.

[@LJJKD1947]

Not trying to be snarky by no means, but ,I think its kinda funny some vintage electronic restorers/resurrection experts who have done this for a couple of days encounter different tube types in regular consumer home entertainment electronics and have no idea what they are and have never seen these certain types.Heck,when I was a kid it seemed like all I wanted to do was read every kind of old electronic TV & Radio service and experimenter magazine out there,coupled with taking basically "garbage sets" or hand overs given to me to tear apart to learn (or maybe even get working)LOL.

[@tomj4506]

H-K short ! Same thing happend to Zenith AM-FM. Hum & dist on one band. BTW Sylvania had an odd ball tube lineup. Zenith had a TEN pin tube with a pin in the center of tube. ( 19T8 ???)

[@reacey]

Happy new year

[@nikelquint]

12:05 wasn’t something i was expecting to hear today lol

[@Kinann]

AM radio discontinuation is because manufacturers are unmotivated to filter the noise from their inverters. Before suppression spark plug wires then coil packs, we had the same eventually solved problem with IC engines.

[@alanpecherer5705]

The country really started going downhill post 1964. First to go was the introduction of 14 and 19 volt heaters. Now we have silver mica disease which we haven't seen in any radio after the 50's. Shameful!

[@tedbell4416]

See if this one stays. Clock radio make happy me joy joy goodness apple dumpling gang love radio sweetness, Happy New Year Shango

[@merlin1943]

Happy new year!!

[@davidhollfelder9940]

Very similar set to my ‘62 Westinghouse AM/FM radio. It turned out to be SMD in the discriminator coil/can, and an iffy IF that I redid as well.

[@flukep1228]

At less you got something going on AM and FM. In the SF bay the AM band have nothing. And we had a radio in the kitchen to play relaxing music on FM. Took it out because could not find anything on FM. Like what your doing on yoir channel. Keep up the good work.

[@BillEyles]

Happy new year my friend enjoy watching your videos

[@ryan61384]

I bet Shango fixes the old radios so he can listen to love line all night long.

[@EdgarsLS]

The peak point for the IF is the most silent probably because the AGC is overcorrecting, most radios I've worked on do overcorrect the gain for the IF.

[@transcanada9028]

If you we're to do a three hour video all the better. I'll take what I can get. Thanks. Also I love how much work you put into your endings. lol

[@SquantoTerror]

5:45 "The tele-zebler clock mechanism is zeblereasing."

[@Suddenlyits1960]

Of course. What else would it be doing?

[@WECB640]

I think this sums up the bandscan nicely. "You have debased my child....You have made him a laughingstock of intelligence...a stench in the nostrils of the gods of the ionosphere." - Lee De Forest

[@Magus1213]

They can’t block thanks! Happy New Year, friend!

[@jaut-76]

39:42 dropping the scope is sometimes how I fix my tube type ham radio gear, a heathkit hw101 with a cracked band switch needs a wack to get it to work again occasionally

[@Synthematix]

Happy new year mate, all the best for 2023

[@synk9350]

Shango could you mod one of those articulating mic stands thst hold position to fit you camera? Seems like the perfect thing for how you work.

[@scottlangille9900]

Comments working know.? Happy New Year's to you and yours thanks for all the great videos be safe

[@davidryan6616]

Happy New Year from Dublin Ireland 🙂🇮🇪☘️

[@RockeyDAproductions]

not near that old. but i use a solid state clock radio as my alarm for work. and i have been doing that since highschool (im a really light sleeper and the jarring sound of beeping alarm clocks makes me wake up smashing things in a panic)

[@OddJobFix]

totally agree with the video commentary. Let's see if this shows ;-)

[@matthewpage8108]

Oh yeah…. Oh yeah, bla, bla, bla, bla!!! Lols, awesome! Happy New Year Shango n’ fam.

[@KennethScharf]

Except for battery sets (where open filaments are common), tubes rarely go completely dead and will work to some degree. It may be necessary to replace a tube here and there for sets that are mostly 'asleep'. Exceptions are gassy or shorted tubes. Transistors OTOH don't just fade away slowly (except for some germanium types in portable radios), they just crap out. There are some interesting exceptions to these observations, such as 'sucked in' horizontal output and damper tubes. But those aren't tube failures, those tubes were murdered by the failure of a flyback or yoke. You need to do an EOL on that oscilloscope!

[@CEverett55]

I miss the old days when you would just put the spurs to it. No dim bulb, no BS... just slam!

[@nevillegoddard4966]

Thanks mate! Interesting video. The first of yours I've seen. I had fun! I have subscribed!

[@douglashoff95]

Something that is rare or non-existent these days. Actually made in USA. When they had the old logo and were called RCA Victor with Nipper and His Master's Voice!!!!

[@Pawelr98]

With AM band, over here we have the issue that we have exactly zero local Medium Wave stations, but we have one 1MW Long Wave transmitter. Since most radio manufacturers want to cover MW, there's no LW band on 99% of the radios. I only have vintage radios and my aftermarket car radio with LW. Typical stock car radio doesn't have LW band. There are also folks who convert MW band on modern radios to LW band (usually by soldering capacitors), to actually get some use of the AM circuits.

[@carsonthorpe6696]

I have one of these, I knew minehead filter, capacitor, problems, but when you got yours going, I tried mine again…nope definitely filter capacitors I’ll get back to it in a different day

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

Descriminator alignment... Primary for maximum amplitude and secondary for symmetry about the zero and "S" shape.

[@ACA332]

This was a good one thanks Shango

[@kevinkier6790]

Happy new year shango! you are the best

[@chris_vk3radio]

Happy new years all you "Shango066" Subscribers and keep on doing what we all love to do..

[@hitechredneck6366]

Hey Shango - have a look at 55:09. There appears to be a cracked solder connection just to the right of the new cap? Can't tell if it's a crack or a fleck of solder that landed on the existing blob after you added the cap.

[@jp040759]

INTERESTING REPAIR. I ENJOYED IT.

[@ultraproject2619]

Its possible to tune to 60 cycle hum if the local osc is off far enough, if the local ran around 455000hz then you'd get hum, the antenna and coupling caps wouldnt work great but you'd probably get hum.

[@kwacz]

When rebuilding the if cans what do you do if you dont know the value of the capacitor in the can?

[@JCWise-sf9ww]

You know what your doing is good on the 10.7 IF alignment, but did you forget there is a third IF transformer in the FM tuner? There usually is a test point on the FM tuner to inject the 10.7 mhz or use an insulated metal tube shield over the 17C9 for that too.

[@TheSoundrookie]

Happy New Year.

[@joebrock9784]

When I just put solid state replacements in there like you do and some of the car, radios and stuff

[@Synthematix]

A fitting EOL for this would be to drive over it with his front tyre whilst its turned on and tuned in to a mumble rap station, crushing it to powder, as its cars that killed AM radio in the first place

[@russellhltn1396]

I've seen my comments show up on a later video I watched. I refresh and it was gone. I didn't go back and see it disappeared from the video it was supposed to be attached to. I think Google's "reply" tracking is screwy.

[@kwacz]

I have found that most radios even after replacing resistors and capacitors still seem to wake up so i play them at moderate volume continuously for 2 hours. They seem to stay awake after that even if they sit for awhile. I dont know why. One though worked exceptionally well for 3 hours. Then i turned it on the next day and it had silver mica disease so bad it was unusable. Hmm. Will fix it this winter.

[@SquantoTerror]

25:41 "Erectile disfunction and diarrhea all in one pill? Wow that's awesome!"

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

Definitely keep you home Friday and Saturday night...