My Latest Find | Realistic DX-160 Communications Receiver | First Impressions

[@marka.2176]

I purchased a DX-160 in 1970 and enjoyed using it for many years. I'm very surprised to see that people are still using these, and the one you have there looks like it's in great condition. Let me alert you to a problem I had with it that gave me a nasty electrical shock. The main issue is that it had a metal chassis but not a plug with a ground. It had a capacitor that went from AC (if my memory serves me right) to chassis, and this capacitor cracked and shorted, and put AC on the chassis. So when I touched the chassis, I got a painful surprise. I replaced the capacitor, but in hindsight, I now think I should also have converted the power cord to 3-wire, so the chassis would be grounded. Maybe they just assumed that people would ground a shortwave radio. But once I fixed it, I got a lot of use out of it.

[@spacetimeengineering]

Thank you Sir, for sharing the experience with it. I am planning to open it up to carry out some service maintenance such as cleaning the Potentiometers, switches and will check the electrolutic capicitors as well and will replace the bad ones and also will add a 3 wire power cord to add ground to the chasis as kindly advised by your good self. It seems will be a good project to bring it to the specs and enjoy a bit. Many thanks for supporting the channel, much appriciated. 73s & greetings from The Netherlands

[@brunoprimas1483]

You could also use an X2Y2 safety capacitor that is made to not be able to fail 'short'.

[@ry491]

I have one of these here in UK . It has the matching speaker . Still works fine with original components . I did do the popular audio mod which did make a small difference . They are beautifully made and very long lasting . Such fun to use as well . They are quite sought after now and bring quite good money . The Trio 9r59ds is also a lovely reciever if you can find a good one . That is tube not solid state so does drift a bit . Hope you enjoy it .