Hacker Hunter RP38A : Transistor Radio Repair : Radio Alignment

Hacker Hunter RP38A : Transistor Radio Repair : Full Alignment
The Hunter is a vintage transistor radio released by Hacker in 1970. Does this transistor radio need a repair? In this video I go through a full alignment of the receiver, from the IF section to the RF section. I describe in detail how you can do this with simple test equipment, namely a signal generator and a multimeter. Ideally, you would have a sweep generator, oscilloscope, multimeter and various other tools at your disposal but I have aimed this at everyone, beginner to expert.
At the end of the video I run through a demo of the completed unit and show that it does receive well and sound good in the proces.
I wish to thank Shaun from @The Mancave Workshop for sending me the radio in the first place and also Graham, @Radiocruncher for supplying the rear grille and feet.
Many thanks also to everyone who has subscribed and everyone who watches my videos. I appreciate you all.
@Radiocruncher :- / @radiocruncher
@The Mancave Workshop :- / @sweeneyttodd

[@passager01]

Hearing broadcast from the radio after repair or adjustment is pure joy. Hacker Hunter are beautiful radios inside outside and I wish to own one but they are so expensive on Ebay.

[@pd1rwk825]

It wasn't boring at all,. Very usefull. Keep up the good work.

[@VitalijusSeb]

Excellent work, George.. Best wishes from Klaipeda, Lithuania..

[@paul-c7541]

Not boring at all George ,nicely explained, I like the way you incorporated the setting up for everyone, there are many out there with meters will love this video, and it's how I was taught, before the then tight boss bought a wobbulator believe me back then they were state of the art electronics.

[@GeorgeChristofi]

I'm glad it fitted the bill. To be honest, its one of those technical tasks that frighten a lot of people but is actually straightforward if you know what the instructions are trying to tell you. I guess like you that at the time is was an analogue meter like an Avo or a VTVM but I thought using the digital meter which is what most people would have a better option. I also remember my Marconi being a state of the art test set with a 5 figure price tag and never thinking I would ever own one! Now I find just how limited it is, great for its design function of mobile and base transceivers but not the best for broadcast radio. I hope you had a good Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year.

[@richardyardley5127]

A really enjoyable series on this radio George. Very informative and very entertaining too. Thank you ☺

[@waynewayne3709]

Very in depth video..learnt a lot..

[@Northern-Rambler]

Brilliant video explaining receiver alignment, applicable to many domestic radios of the era. If you don't have the service data, don't twiddle!

[@GeorgeChristofi]

That has to be the ultimate bad thing for sure Victor... Twiddling without a clue.

[@Brettski777]

Finally. Thank you George .

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Was it what you needed for your one?

[@Brettski777]

Perfect thanks mate.

[@robtitheridge9708]

hi george i love the humour you put in your videos you are the Big Clive of the radio world.

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Thanks Rob. I find that so many radio people are so serious and get quite dull after a while so you need to enjoy the hobby. It just helps that I am mad as a box of frogs and enjoy silly things as well as doing the serious stuff. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

[@robtitheridge9708]

@@GeorgeChristofi and long may you continue .

[@trevorspice2122]

Hi George, great video 👍 i just found your channel and am very impressed mate 😊 Keep up the good work and stay safe ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐👍

[@lesliedymond9484]

Enjoyed the video George thank you sir

[@conundrum112]

Good stuff George.

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Glad you like it Harvey. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

[@conundrum112]

The very same to you George and your family.

[@Codeeze]

George, this years videos have been fantastic, I have been thoroughly entertained and edumicated. No more so than from this parting shot across the bow of a full - documented for posterity - alignment on the Hacker Hunter. Not only educational of course, interspersed with your wit and humour, which makes for a very cool channel. No wonder you passed the 1000 subs marker recently. Well done. It's been a pleasure to watch, and an even greater pleasure to meet you in person earlier this year. I'm looking forward to much more quality content from you - and more fire - please, more fire... 🔥

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Many thanks Paul. Sometimes it has been a trial to do the videos but life is like that. I'm glad you enjoy them and I will make more... and fire will feature in them... now to work out how to add colour to the flames without having to buy bottles of spirits!

[@lyntonprescott3412]

Excellent work George. Just what I need at the moment to restore my "adjusted" Hunter. Also managed to source the service manual for the RP38A.

[@acestudioscouk-Ace-G0ACE]

Hi George, thanks for a great series on the repair of this Hacker Herald. I have several Hacker radios, so a particular interest to me. I particularly like the way you explain the process which would help restore many radios. Good, basic work practices. I think the handle originally had a leatherette or padded leatherette insert but you probably know that! Thanks again.

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

Great example and nice to see the 2955 in action. Thanks for sharing regards Chris

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Thanks Chris. I had a choice of fudging the 2955 or dragging out the old advance sig gen and using the Tek scope.. Too much effort to find the other sig gen so I hung a 10dB attenuator off the front and hoped I could drop the signal enough. Seemed to work but will have to fix the thing soon. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

[@davidroberts965]

Well done George great job done I have picked up some great tips watching this series on the Hunter ( just need one myself now to have a go at) Looking forward to next years postings always educational with wit thrown in

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Many thanks David. I'm glad you found it useful and have learned some things from it. It is a juggling act between being detailed versus boring and I hope I am finding the right balance. I hope you have a great new year and hope 2020 brings you all the best things.

[@Radiocruncher]

Awesome video George and nice to see the Hunter aligned. I think you need to align a Grundig Satellit next! Congratulations on passing the 1000 sub mark and I’m sure it won’t be long before you hit the 2000. 73 Graham

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Cheers Graham. It's not a difficult job but a fiddly one to align most radios. Grundig... yeah, why not! I'm game for a laugh... Going to work on the 2000 for sure, just have to decide on the next video or 3!

[@buzz1973]

Great job George I've really enjoyed this series

[@GeorgeChristofi]

I am happy to hear that Buzz. I try and keep the videos interesting rather than the standard.. change caps, test valves, hey it sounds good ones which can get a little 'samey'. Merry Christmas to you and yours, Best wishes for 2020 to you.

[@SweeneyTTodd]

Hats off ( or gloves on heads ) to you Sir , what a wonderful fantastic motivating job Absolutely inspiring Best regards Shaun

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Many Thanks Shaun. I'm glad you liked what I did with the set after you donated it to the cause. Merry Christmas a Happy New Year to you and yours.

[@keithbrandaw7229]

George it sounds great 👍! Outstanding job !

[@keithbrandaw7229]

Keep up the good work !

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Thanks Keith. Trying to make things sound good is pretty difficult when you have no control over the third party in the middle. All I can do is my best. Glad you liked it and hopefully we shall see your next one come to life. Best wishes to you and your family for the Christmas season and I hope 2020 brings you everything you need and want.

[@LarryDeSilva64]

George I have really enjoyed this series and this was by far the most informative. But I always enjoy your videos. Merry Christmas to you and yours my friend.

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Thanks Larry. I did want this to be a more educational video because everyone can just change caps but you see very few step by step alignments in detail. Merry Christmas to you and yours and look forward to seeing you in the new year

[@Andrewausfa]

Hi George, very well done and I do hope everyone realises how much effort you've put into this. Not an easy subject alignment especially if you've not done it before and you view some of the manufacturers instructions with mentions of sweep generators, scopes, dummy aerials etc etc It can be quite confusing. Happy Christmas to you and the family.

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Many thanks Andrew. Alignment seems to be that taboo subject that is either done off camera or drags out into some boring long video that requires the top end test gear. I didn't want to go that route and tried to keep it as simple as possible test gear wise. Not everyone has a sweep generator (I don't!) or even a scope which is why the multimeter seemed to be a good tool to show that it can be done for very little cash. Hope you had a good Christmas and wishing a great 2020 with a bottomless wardrobe for you!

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Later than planned but finally here! This is the last part of this series. I hope you enjoy the video. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

[@YouAllKnowBob]

Hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and the best in the coming New Year! Radio sounds great! 👍👍

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Best seasons wishes to you and yours Bob. It is so hard to demo anything on youtube because I compress stuff, youtube changes it and then it gets played back on so many different things I'm sure we can all listen to the same song and have different lyrics to each other!

[@docholliday3150]

I've never seen the multimeter trick. That is good to know and could come in handy in a tight spot. I was definitely not bored and the radio seems to be very sensitive. Congratulations on the 1K subscriber mark and I look forward to your next video. Cheers from the Deep South USA. Doc

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Thanks for the feedback, its really helpful. You never know if the in depth stuff is too far in depth to keep people interested or not so I tried to keep it fairly short but couldn't cut it down without skipping too much. Hope you had a great Christmas and the new year is good to you.

[@OfficialTylerWhite]

Congrats on 1K my friend! This was great to see finished

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Many thanks Tyler. I tried to make it interesting for the non electronic people as well as provide a quite technical procedure for those who needed the info. Happy Christmas And have Great New Year to you and yours.

[@Wenlocktvdx]

Impossible to find Hacker and Roberts in Australia but watching nonetheless. Hope you hit greater and greater heights in 2020. Hmm, doesn’t look anything like the Jetsons, so much for that prediction.

[@GeorgeChristofi]

I hope you found it interesting and I'm sure one day a Roberts or Hacker will wing its way to you somehow. You are right.. Nothing like the Jetsons but at least we don't make widgets! Happy Christmas to you and yours, all the best for the coming year.

[@steelcity321pb6]

Hi George, I’ve enjoyed viewing this repair series: it has been very informative. I recently viewed your Regentone 99 table top radiogram: I saw all episodes in one sitting. There are, in my collection, four Regentone 99 radio grams. I’m not totally partial to them, or towards Regentone as a brand but, sometime during the New Year I’m planning to restore a Regentone 99 console radiogram. I mention this on the chance you might be interested when I begin the to upload the series onto You Tube. Cheers dear chap, and season’s greeting to you, and yours. Phil.

[@GeorgeChristofi]

I'm glad that you found it useful. I try and produce stuff that has some helpful part to it as well as the show and tell side of things. I certainly would be interested in your restoration of the console unit, I would love to have the room for a console because the sound is so much better. I watch people fixing things so I can learn too, you never can know enough. Merry Christmas to you and yours, hope the future brings you everything you need.

[@raceingdemon6464]

Very Clear And Educational And Funny Video That Your So Good At George !! Those Hacker Brothers Did Make Some Really Nice Sets !! Merry Christmas To You And Your Family George Have a Good One Amigo !!..Regards mike.

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Many Thanks Mike. I wanted the alignment to be a reasonably educational video because I have yet to find many step by step videos on the net of any quality. There are some for sure but not many. My humour comes from my madness and generally wanting to be 12 again... 53 sounds ancient to me.... Best wishes to you and yours over the Christmas season and hope the new year is good to you.

[@vihuelamig]

I have the same Hacker model. Very good radio indeed. Whilst I have a DMM (had a scope at one time) I don't have a signal gen. I might try an AM alignment 'by ear' but on a junk radio rather than my Hacker. Don't think it can be done on FM without a signal generator? Anyway, thanks for the video.

[@lyntonprescott3412]

Hi George Is there any way I could arrange some personal dialogue with you regarding the alignment process for the Hunter? I am having trouble getting the signal from the SG through the radio for both AM and FM to start the alignment process. Cheers Lynton

[@radiotvrepair1059]

Merry Christmas Goerge , where is radiocruncher

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Merry Christmas to you and your family too. Radiocruncher should be starting a live soon, I know the next scheduled one is the sunday.

[@GhulamghousDal-w4r]

WOW

[@Steveuk405]

it was not boring - far from it ! if you have to align Long Wave use Radio 4. I do cheat a little at put it at 200kHz or 1500m. C = FW is handy. C is the speed of light (Constant) F is Frequency in Herts and W is Wavelength in Metres. Have a good Christmas George!

[@GeorgeChristofi]

I didn't want to scare people with the maths on working out wavelengths! I Thought about tweaking it with radio 4 or the cheap chinese oscillator module but I didn't want to go too long on the video and bore people with repeating steps. Many Thanks Steve, have a great new year..

[@ricardforns4298]

Hi George, Thanks for this collection of videos, these are very instructive. Do you know Where I can buy a rear grille for a Hunter? Thanks in advanced

[@GeorgeChristofi]

The only supply apart from dead sets is to get in touch with Radiocruncher, Graham Stevens and he can 3d print you one. You can find him on youtube or email him [e-mail]

[@ricardforns4298]

@@GeorgeChristofi Thanks a lot George.

[@old64goat]

Hey George, I had to keep the volume down that 400 cycle tone was giving me a headache....LOL I would have used a resistor in place of the speaker, sorry I could not hear you. Merry Christmas George!

[@GeorgeChristofi]

I fully understand that Bill. I was toying with the idea of filtering it out completely but part of tuning the radio without test gear is hearing the tone change from pure to harsh. If it was just me doing it off camera... I would have just used the scope too! Merry Christmas to you and yours, All the best for 2020 and beyond.

[@SoddingaboutSi]

George, are you going to do FM too?

[@GeorgeChristofi]

I did do the FM section when I switched to the 10.7Mhz IF by lifting the wire, then through the antenna socket for 90Mhz and 100Mhz osc/ant setup. Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year. Need to see some more Christmas tree projects and mods on your channel!

[@greggsvintageworkshop8974]

Really great and informative video George! The radio sounded amazing to me so I can only imagine how great it is in person. What model is your scope? This process should work on either of Radiocruncher's give away radios then? Just in case? Heh Heh

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Hi Gregg. The scope in the video was the Marconi 2955 test set which is actually a full rf test station in a box. It does RX and TX testing but it is getting old and has a few technical issues that need sorting out to bring it into full working order. Yes, the process of alignment is pretty much the same across all of the hacker range, most of them have the same AM board fitted. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

[@tonybegood111]

Merry Xmas George. ..🎅

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Merry Christmas Tony to you and yours. Looking forward to some more of your music in the coming year.

[@_wave64_]

Aligning FM IF by peaking it up with a voltmeter (how about the ratio detector), and adjusting RF coil with a metal tip screwdriver? 😱

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Indeed. Normally I would sweep gen and fire up the s curve to balance the detector and I would be using ceramic trimmers but the whole point of the demo was to show that it could be done with the average home kit for beginners. Even the manual for the set gives out the instructions on doing it properly but showing that there is an alternative method that will get you close means that those without access to higher cost test gear can join in.

[@VintageElectronicsGeek]

Alignment is my favorite part of radio work for some dumb deranged reason! :) What model Marconi you have / use? I like Hacker & Roberts...I will add one to my collection one day. ~Jack, VEG

[@GeorgeChristofi]

Hi Jack... the marconi there is the 2955 communications test set. Mine is a generation 1 unit with the 30w input which puts it close to 40 years old now. It is pretty versatile because it covers 400Khz up to 1Ghz bots as a sig gen and a transmitter test set but because of its age has a few parts that need changing to bring it fully back to life. Hackers and Roberts are nice sets for sure but still lack the warmth of a valve set if I wanted to listen to jazz or big band. Merry Christmas to you and yours, look forward to seeing more from you in the new year for sure!

[@MrWasim100100]

why did your radio catch fire, in the end, oh no?

[@GeorgeChristofi]

I lit the alcohol. No mark on the set. It was just for effect to make the video stand out. The batteries have just run out since that day and I will replace them.