RCA 3-BX-671 Short Wave Radio Repair - Part 1/2

[@glynnhm0lsg308]

I've been a subscriber of the channel for a while, I thought you would have more subs than you have, still a good number but your channel is one of the best repair channels on KZbin, and deserves to be well up there on subs, ppl need to spread the word of your channel , brilliant content and production keep it up cheers from glynn

[@jeffking4176]

This is the first time I’ve seen your videos. I’m new to collecting radios, although I’ve always been into Short Wave listening and AM DXing. Even though most of the people who watch your channel, know tons of technical stuff, I don’t, so I appreciate you explaining things. I have no equipment for repairing them myself [yet], I have to “ farm” them out to be repaired. (And I still can’t find anyone who does transistor radios). I have subscribed. 📻🙂

[@boredwithusernames]

On the subject of listening to Short Wave Radio back in the day, I really miss doing that. I have fond memories of pulling in all sorts of interesting broadcasts from around the world, first on a home made set then on an AOR-3030 with sidebands so I could listen to the Radio Hams. Who out there remembers the old "numbers" broadcasts, a mysterious mechanical voice just repeating numbers for no apparent reason? I also miss the old broadcast stations like the Voice of Russia, Radio Sofia from Bulgaria... fond memories of a forgotten time... Just thought I would share that here ;) Thanks for the video, I love watching these sets being repaired and restored.

[@robertcalkjr.8325]

Thanks Tony! I nearly jumped out of my chair when I saw the VTVM! Very nice!

[@killerrr3211]

Just picked one of these up for 10$, no extra tubes and the edges are a little worn. I actually got a Trans oceanic royal 3000-1 from my grandad and I use it pretty often. A cool pair I'm happy to have. 😀

[@dl7majstefan753]

Very nice radio. One note: The nominal power voltage in europe is not 250VAC - it´s "only" 230VAC. I´m sure in the diagram at 41:52 the text means 234VAC, which is two times 117VAC, which makes sense - but not 254VAC.

[@DarenWicks]

Nice video Tony! I have the later version of this, the 7-BX-10 (1956), which is virtually identical to the 3-BX-671 (1953/54). The main difference is in the power supply. RCA added a 50A1 regulator ballast tube in the 7-BX-10.

[@AudioElectronicsChicago]

Best audio repair channel!!!

[@buildstoys]

Going to enjoy this series!

[@ArthurJS123]

I have one of these that was given to me, and is in need of restoration. Beyond my skills.

[@deadfreightwest5956]

I recently acquired an old "roll-top" Philco portable. I always worry about the condition of the radios I get and this one had something loose inside. Turned out to be the battery, a Burgess A-B battery! Oh, of course it was deader than a door nail, partially expanded and covered with what sort of looks like frost, but it was a real original battery! I think the bulk of it was 1.5v and the bias portion was 90v. Would be interesting to make a modern replacement, maybe with D-cells for the filament power and 9V batteries for the bias.

[@tygertyger8597]

Very informative video Tony. I really enjoy seeing the care you take to repair these the right way. Did you say the battery would have 110 volts or did it take the type of battery like the old farm radios (which I think was 90 volts) ? Just curious. Thanks.

[@robertfitzgerald3432]

Superb, Tony.

[@bixy9347]

Thanks for the nostalgia air website, 👍

[@olradguy]

Bumblebees were made in paper and also paper in oil, you can tell the difference by looking at the leads close to the body of the cap, the oil filled ones have a thicker lead on one end that has a solder connection, this is a thin hollow tube after the capacitor was molded oil is injected into it through the tube then the lead wire is inserted into the tube and soldered in place completing the capacitor, if there is no soldered bead and the lead wire is the same diameter right into the body of the cap it is just a paper wound not oil filled.

[@xraytonyb]

Great information! I'll make sure to share that on a future video. Thanks!

[@richardbrobeck2384]

Nice RCA shortwave i have a few zenith shortwave I do have a RCA globetrotter

[@greggaieck4808]

Xraytonyb your utube videos are awesome

[@eugenetheodore2956]

A safety feature for your diode tester might be an inline switch.

[@rond8473]

Towards the end of the video, sound magically appears but you don't explain what was done to make that happen. Can you clarify?

[@stphinkle]

The night light tester device looks like the same circuit as a low wattage version of the dim bulb tester.

[@lionelguy]

In regards to the capacitors, you did not mention or cover the line filter metal can cap (60,60,30.25mfd). This must always be replaced as a matter of course.

[@videolabguy]

59:00 - Shouldn't you plug the ferrite antenna into the chassis? You removed both antenna inputs to pull the chassis. I have literally the same radio. Model 7-BX-10 and have hesitated to work on it since the manual gave no hint on how to safely pull out the chassis. So, I am following this video very closely. Thank you for blazing the trail for me! I live by the motto, "Do no harm". You are a God send.

[@xraytonyb]

The ferrite antenna is optional. In order to use it, you would first unplug the red 3-pin connector that comes from the loop antenna in the front flip-up cover lid and plug the stick antenna in its place. In other words, you can use either the built-in loop antenna OR the rod antenna. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching!

[@greggaieck4808]

Xraytonyb you a good electronics and restoreing vintage shortwave radio Receivers and Alignment

[@suadpecenkovic]

Greetings from Croatia, I see you are working with Dynascan 177.Is that model with 6AL5?I am desperately looking for calibration instruction.Anybody can halp me!?

[@hughmc5419]

Nice radio, beautiful case,were watching your restore.[ You used that portable old Panasonic & Rf coupled your IF chain,& proved it was good,nice tech tip.You didn't completely finish alignment,good video. I want to hear Radio Cuba.org,Got a qsl from them in the past. No I am not a commie. Ha,ha ... _ _ _ ...

[@transmaster]

Great I have an example of this radio the same model in fact. Has a much superior sound to any of my Zenith Trans-Oceanics.

[@johnnytoobad7785]

Short-wave radio set-ups are now a "lost art". I have a Sony sw-77 (circa 1990) that I play around with..but because I live in a metro area and close to the Airport it's difficult to receive long distance broadcasts (except around sun-up/sun-down). Occasionally I pick up truckers and base station operators talking about the gear they have. Shortwave (ham) stations were really the precursor to WWW, except you needed half-a-brain and a few dollars in equipment to "join the club". You also needed to be decent at morse-code. (like I said...at least half-a-brain...)

[@BobPegram]

So old a radio that FM was still a dream of Ed Armstrong's and SSB and the like weren't an issue. Am I right Tony?

[@berndmayer3984]

Like the BRAUN T 1000

[@YouTubeYouTube-qg6vl]

My parents have this in our house unused and looks need a repair because some components are broken

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Just thing is it not true that a lot of the parts that are needed to repair these radios are getting very hard to find as almost all radio manufacturers are moving to DSP based radios, you might need to get low voltage (Space Charge) TELEFUNKEN GMBH vacuum tubes, should that radio only have a plate voltage of around 30-50V and not any higher and why 90V that seems a little too high for Space Charge Vacuum tubes.

[@radioman56-2billchenet7]

I have the same exact radio I paid 50 bucks for it need restoration. I am the second owner the girl's grandfather bought a brand new with his paper route money I'm proud to be the second owner I'm keeping mine and I'm going to restore it

[@greggaieck4808]

Xraytonyb me and my cousin are going to a Swap meet in September 11 Sunday morning at 8 am in Milwaukee 2022

[@greggaieck4808]

Xraytonyb the owner vintage RCA 3-bx 671 shortwave radio Receiver is cool

[@1959Berre]

The schematic reads: 234 V (2 x 117) not 254 V

[@johnnytoobad7785]

That all looks like a dangerous pile of "electro-stuff".

[@transmaster]

I want to see Xray align this radio it is a real booger to do.

[@ianide2480]

If you knew the general Vdrop of any diode, couldn't you put together a super simple boost converter? Something no larger than an altoids box, then you can just test a known voltage (from boost converter) against its Vdrop with yur multimeter. Would seem to be super simple to make (powered by a little lithium battery or go crazy and make it rechargeable) and you would know if the Vdrop is in acceptable range.

[@glennsprigg2378]

Virtually ALL modern diodes have a forward bias drop of 'about' .6 of a volt. However, even 'new' good condition Selenium Rectifiers have 'about' 1 volt drop, for 'each' plate in the gang! Some people forget that most meters, on Ohms, don't have enough voltage on the probes to forward bias diodes though. If the meter has a 'Diode' setting, it might put a few volts out, but a 3+ plate Selenium will still not show a reading. Maybe a known voltage in conjunction with a string of Zener Diodes would be easier to see minimum forward bias, if needed.

[@greggaieck4808]

Xraytonyb my hobbys are painting pictures and lisining to shortwave and ssb iam thinking about getting my ham license I have 4 shortwave receivers

[@bones007able]

A transoceanic wanna be....RCA and Zenith had this war on going on ever since day one....

[@PeriodWoodworker]

I have been a sub for a long time. I will stay one but I find I now skip a lot of them because of the very long time. Anything over 20-30 minutes causes me to loose interest. Very sorry but you probably have a lot of subs that do the same. ...... After some of the replies, I want to say I am certainly not criticizes his content, quality or anything. It is just when I have a little time before dinner, I will skip over a very long video and watch a shorter one. I appreciate no commercials but my feelings towards hour long plus videos is the same.

[@AudioElectronicsChicago]

it is good he is not running advertisements every 5 mins :) but yeah, usually anything over 10 mins is getting boring

[@kenshaw3224]

Im good with the lengthy vids, slow learner i guess!

[@Dangrdav]

I wonder thou how many people would complain if he cut this into 3 smaller segments. He could easily do so to further monitize the channel. The fact he does not should garner praise not criticism.

[@PeriodWoodworker]

Russell Richard I don’t have ADD either.

[@jonka1]

@@PeriodWoodworker If you loose interest after 30 mins then what do you have if not ADD? Not having the time is understandable.