Silver Mica Disease IF Can REpair General Electric AM FM Tube Radio

[@vwestlife]

I heard that 1260 AM in L.A. is going to be playing all Taylor Swift music for the month of September, and then will switch to a "Country Gold" (1980s to 2000s) format in October.

[@shango066]

You tease me and make me cry. You a bully...

[@shango066]

I thought this was a joke, having a classic country station on AM will be awesome

[@davidlewis6670]

Yes. And it’s sad that got rid of K-Mozart.

[@gregorybolin4672]

Camel toe 2024

[@wendyokoopa7048]

We normal people are over taylor swift

[@wrem9706]

Thanks!

[@ViegasSilva]

go buy some Trump NFTs while you're at it

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

That was very generous! Thanks for helping Shango with his channel content.

[@erikdenhouter]

Two green squirt spritzers for the helicrapter blambyland !

[@Crosley-1520]

f=1/(2*pi*sqr(L*C)), thus C=1/(4*pi^2*f^2*L) Assuming 455kHz IF, for .93 and .94mH C= approx 130pF; for .97 and .98mH C= approx 125pF

[@directcurrent5751]

@@Crosley-1520 way cool

[@erikdenhouter]

In theory yes, in practice the two coils influence each other being on the same core, and then the practical use of trimmers is more effective.

[@klafong1]

I've wondered, would it be possible to unsolder one wire from the primary, one from the secondary, and then measure the values of the silver mica capacitors with the capacitor check function on a multimeter or an LCR meter? My thinking is that the test voltages that these instruments use are low enough that micro-arcing wouldn't occur. I concur that because vacuum tube IF transformers are almost always double-tuned, measurement is necessary.

[@erikdenhouter]

@@klafong1 The silver is part of the proces and damaged. There will be leakage too. So you I think you don't get a very good measurement of the value.

[@klafong1]

@@erikdenhouter I stand corrected. I watched the part of the video in which Shango attempts to measure the capacitors. They're shot. :(

[@defaultuserid1559]

The definitive video for dealing with Silver Mica Disease. Doesn't get more comprehensive than this.

[@TheDevice9]

She said "boy is that a tiny peak" to which he replied "wow is that a tight tolerance".

[@SmokeyWire56]

Anything will run if you finger it enough.

[@billmyke746]

The YT censors are getting all riled up now... ;)

[@billhenrikson1555]

I dont get it?

[@drdyna]

lmaooo

[@Fluffberymoff]

BAHAHAHAHAHA ​@@SmokeyWire56

[@BlueSkyScholar]

First time I encountered silver mica disease was in a Fisher KM-60 Stratakit FM stereo receiver. I aligned to perfection while attending Kansas State Polytech with some of the finest equipment money couldn't buy in 1994 I used it nightly for a few years but one night listening to "Hearts of Space" in July 1997 a crackling started to appear. Upon examination in the already darkened room I saw the flashing coming out from under one of the IF transformers. I thought it was an insulation breakdown and sourced a replacement. I disassembled the can and found it was not a breakdown in the wire but the capacitor that had taken a dump. I said at the time ohhh this is going to be problem moving forward.

[@Valvulo]

I remember reading in an old technical book that each side of an IF transformer is basically a L/C tank circuit, tuned to a certain frequency (in this case, 455KHz), so the basic LC formula can be used there. For instance, if the inductor is around 1mH, the capacitor value is around 120pF in order to the circuit resonate on 455KHz. Of course, there might be some interaction between both coils, and this way of doing the math may require some trial-and-error tweaking, which is always fun!

[@Anthonytheredneck]

That's exactly the reasoning in away the I.F cans are using the harmonic frequency. I remember watching one of his older IF can repair videos and after tuning the variable capacitor he measured them and there were not exact values one was lower than the other, I believe AllAmericanFive touched on this a bit too.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

I've desoldered Japanese style IF cans off stuff and some of them have unmarked disk capacitors in them.

[@davidhollfelder9940]

I worked on a an All American 7, Westinghouse radio of this same vintage and circuit design .. It had SMD. Thx to yours and xraytony’s videos, I was able to fix that one.

[@matthiasmartin1975]

To "twinko-twerkulate" - I was quite confident that urban dictionary would have an entry for that, but no. It is one of my favourite shangoisms.

[@4nk8r]

@@matthiasmartin1975 you can be as sure as shit it's coming :)

[@phillanassa759]

Clinko-twerkulate

[@Masterkill45588]

Oh yeah I say some of this stuff all the time. Some of the boats I work on that won't start have no sparkle pony master

[@fredxmertz]

always laminate your flarbs prior to twerkulating the croadasinkler

[@matthiasmartin1975]

@@Masterkill45588 Is that something like a lightning-whirler? Or connected to it?

[@nyki7fykxtjxyi]

Those disc capacitors will last till the end of time. I like this repair.

[@mp-ov9dh]

Shango!!!! best channel by far, entertaining and engaging. I'm still kinda new at radio and i learn something new each video. thanks for the great content..

[@moisesalexandrewielckensci3237]

Very good! The alignment gave new life to the radio, efficient method. Fantastic!

[@Forensic1Man]

Totally excellent video with a lot of great thoughts leading to a full repair. One thing that you need to say right after the removal of the bad capacitors and installation of the new capacitors is that there is no longer the "lightening strikes" as heard initially in the speaker. This observation confirms that the mica capacitors were all bad!!

[@stephenhershey5461]

I have found GE AM IF transformers are 110pf. I've had excellent results with those. I've never done any FM ones yet.

[@frankowalker4662]

Great fix. Handy having seperate AM/FM tuners too.

[@PapiDoesIt]

Those early PC boards are interesting to me, in a plane crash kind of way. Look at them wrong and the traces lift. Good job getting those tiny ceramics to stick.

[@hestheMaster]

GE clock radio model C585 from about 1963. Shango should borrow GE 's old slogan. "We bring good things to life". Love seeing the IF transformers autopsied and evalued as to what physically makes them bad. Interesting solution to the SMD problem. Definitely Shango's channel is the right place to show you how it should be done. Next up is solving the world's hunger problem. LOL

[@JerryEricsson]

Very cool video, thanks even on a simple thing like replacing the caps on the cans I learn something in the procedure even though I have seen you go through this many times before. Thanks so much, I know it will be a great day when I can have coffee with Shango! Thanks Dan.

[@const_cast]

Another great video, thanks. This is up there with your “Very Difficult to Fix Sony Trinitron”. Thanks for explaining silver mica disease for generations to come.

[@Couchflyer-NY]

I appreciate all the time and effort this took. Especially since he didn’t care about the radio.

[@4nk8r]

WOW what a change . Another brought back from the dead !

[@PapiDoesIt]

Shango unburdened that radio from what has been, and unburdened from what has been it has been no longer burdened.

[@fiddlyphuk6414]

Had no idea about this problem or what it was called until I stumbled across the fix on my own years ago. Had an IF can leaking DC voltage across the two windings. Figured it was a short across the windings but, nope. Just for grins I cleaned the mica with alcohol in the two capacitors since they were exposed. Put it back together and by dumb luck it fixed the problem.

[@geralderdek282]

Wow what a great job and a real pleasure to watch! I believe you probably have that radio aligned and set up better than when it came from the factory!

[@stirlingschmidt6325]

Great stuff, as always! You're the 'special sauce', as Dave Ramsey likes to say. For tweaking those caps affected by a conductive tool, I have a tool that's basically a plastic rod, with a tiny square of metal melted into the end, to form a screwdriver blade. Wouldn't handle much torque, but just the thing that will let you tweak to your heart's content...

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

I have shaved the end of a kabob stick. And I have the fancy tools, but really like using my own junk.

[@hopper7755]

21:30 I'm really lazy and i didn't feel like calculating anything so i made a really quick Multisim simulation and it seems lake 126 pf excluding parasitic capacity. Let's see how close that is... EDIT: 48:10 I'd say that is close enough, probably 10-20pf of parasitic capacitance in tubes, tracks an not perfect inductance measurements

[@erikdenhouter]

Two tank circuits sharing the same core influence each other significantly.

[@hopper7755]

@@erikdenhouter in this case two tank circuits have same inductunce so i figured that simulating only one of them is enough. If the inductunce is different than this lazy method would not work.

[@erikdenhouter]

@@hopper7755 Having not much experience here, but with what I have was with two the same tankcircuits, and they were both something like 20% off from the theory. They had only an air core.

[@hopper7755]

@@erikdenhouter well its still very slightly educated guess, so 20% is still pretty good. This is one of those things where theory doesn't translate to real world very well, most effective way is to do what Shango does

[@erikdenhouter]

@@hopper7755 Yes, the theory gets us in the ballpark

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

1:01:00 EEYYUUUPPPP! Cheap repairs for cheap old stuff that might not get adopted and loved, but would almost certainly get binned if it didn't work at all. Great work! You are the master!

[@inazumadenki5588]

Really appreciate the effort you went to on this one to demonstrate dealing with silver mica disease. A pity I can't give you an extra like for the commentary. Cheers!

[@Elloellogames]

mr shango dose cars ?? whatt since when u legend :) sending love from england bro :) your knowledge is just fantastic what a legend u are

[@adamwheeldon]

shango time 👍🏻

[@KA9DSL]

Choroba miki srebrnej

[@johnsampson1096]

I'm really surprised Chinese companies have not come out with knockouts of these if cans. Most would probably be able to get an acceptable, not perfect IF alignment. Thanks for the explicit tutorial, Dan. This shows the proper way to achieve optimum performance.......

[@anthonyshiels9273]

Brand new channel 066aar

[@johng.3740]

I have been shangofied.....i got a multi meter and a soldering iron and I'm trying to fix a mid 1970s tape recorder..... remember kids......stay away from electronics with microchips.....a PSA message from the shango electronics repair institute.

[@JulianA-tr6pt]

Auto channel, cool! I enjoy the car videos and segments as much as anything else on the channel.

[@Zickcermacity]

0:01 He-heyyyyy, Disco Dan! Great work dude

[@W1RMD]

Really informative! Thanks and have a great weekend.

[@11sfr]

Thank you for showing us what can be, unburdened by what has been

[@mikefinn2101]

Nice video one of the best on silver mica explainatins

[@InsideOfMyOwnMind]

I have done "SMD" (that's what we call it in our shop) repairs on various receivers with great success. Even newer solid-state models with the miniature IF cans can have these fail although differently constructed. As for your local stations I like the one you have at 88.5 out of Northridge. It's a nice commercial free mix with good people doing real radio.

[@miker252]

Around 120 to 130 pF from a Resonant Frequency calculator website.

[@Magus1213]

Shango is 100% correct there may not even be the content available for these radios to use in the next 10 years so it may not even matter anyway. Still, keep fixing these units as long as they are viable.

[@canyoudigit9]

A thumbs up just for the impression

[@gustavoangelero4068]

Hi Shango! Please could you make a video about basic skills and instruments to deal with tube radio and TVs? Low budget, to encourage young guys to follow the hobby.

[@shango066]

Be more specific because in general, every video should cover that.

[@gustavoangelero4068]

​@@shango066Sorry for my English! , I should have said tools and not skills! A common mistake for non English speakers. The point is that many guys who are just starting out, especially abroad, find it difficult to obtain old test equipment, like the capacitor tester you used in this video, and it seems that without all those testers, it is not possible to repair something. I would like to sometime see you repair a device with the most basic tools possible, screwdriver, soldering iron and Multimeter. It's just a suggestion and finally, I want to tell you that I really enjoy your videos.

[@shango066]

@@gustavoangelero4068 cool got it

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

Basic VOM, DMM, AM/FM radio for checking LC and oscillator circuits and baseline station reception. A long wire antenna can give noise injection. Clip leads with capacitors. Dim bulb. Isolation transformer. Solder gun and iron. Desolder bulb and braid or flux and old clean stranded wire. Basic hand tools, Phillips, slotted, hex including 1/4". Battery packs and wall warts. Neon bulb tester. And how to use these items. It's not an easy task actually.😮

[@mehmeh5471]

That radio really looks like the current state of America

[@Olde1Fortran]

IF the debate happens, @shango066 should do a live stream with commentary.

[@nyki7fykxtjxyi]

This website will try to protect the fake

[@StimulatingPresence]

That’s turning into a big if this point

[@Suddenlyits1960]

I'd love to hear Dan's commentary on assembly bill 1840. California is nuts.

[@leewyton7975]

MY Fbulatizer is out of cal with my POTARTH AND MY CHROME PLATED MUFFLER BEARING !!!! GREAT COMMENTARY !!!!

[@mikemoyercell]

thanks for sharing your other channel. I will definitely sub and watch!

[@Suddenlyits1960]

It seems ljke late 50's into the 60s General Electric radios have issues with Silver Mica disease often. Ive seen several of those "Leave it to Beaver" dial beams that had it. A lot of those plastic GE table radios were pretty poorly built for the time.

[@TheRoland444]

Back in "the old days" I would replace the low quality IF transformers with "Ambassador K" type high Q IF transformers and the performance of these relatively cheaply built AM radios would improve markedly. The "Ambassador K" IF transformers featured true capacitors & inductances achieved with materially fewer turns of wire, hence higher Q, by enveloping the ferrite around the wire core instead of a ferrite slug inside the a wire core. The GE table radios of the sixties were beautiful "works of art" but built inexpensively. The Musaphonic line of GE table radios usually featured upgrades including true feedback tone controls (not passive) and push-pull audio output featuring two 35c5's. Some Musaphonic sets also had an RF amplifier ahead of the converter for AM and multiple larger speakers.

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

I credit that radio 📻 for being a 1970's model. Once the silver mica disease riddled capacitors are re-stuffed, this little puppy 🐶 will start working right again. Your friend, Jeff.

[@HavingFunRepairs]

55:40 reminds me of alignments in a VOR. Super touchy tunable capacitors.

[@paulswift700]

I need to do the same with my Hammerlund HQ180A. I did the same to my Helicrafters SX120A. Working nicely now.

[@mortwin6054]

nice job well done i bet the wood in they did not help buy keeping the moisture in they

[@kpanic23]

Technically you could calculate the capacitance of those mica wafers. You'd need the surface area of overlap between the two silver layers and the distance between the plates (i.e. the thickness of the mica), then you can calculate the capacitance using the electric constant.

[@tra-viskaiser8737]

Subbed to the new channel.. I enjoy your repairs here, why wouldn't I enjoy seeing you repair other annoying planned obsolescence crap?

[@kevinkier6790]

yes, I watched the whole video, thanks!

[@pantherplatform]

455kHz has entered the chat

[@Rev22-21]

You wonder if there's going to be a radio station in 10-20 years (and I agree). I wonder if we're even going to have a country ....

[@directcurrent5751]

@@Rev22-21 after January, that was a wide spread concern, but in the question of, do we have a culture capable of democratic process and sometimes losing. Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush 1. What happened?

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

This is a globalism takeover. It's not so much about Democrat or Republican. Our great country has a government full of corrupt actors and instructions. They are the ones making peaceful correction difficult. That's how it is. Good luck!

[@johng.3740]

@@Rev22-21 If the internet ever goes down over a large region for an extended period of time say, a couple of years possibly decades then you will see the rise of radio again.

[@ibrahimkocaalioglu]

not much changed from the GE side. Well fix 👏

[@andygozzo72]

we dont seem to have 'silver mica disease' here in uk on stuff made here or of european origin....luckily... only ever had a couple or so bad separate mica caps...so far....all our silver mica caps are coated/dipped or impregnated to try to stop moisture ingress

[@tomtke7351]

16:?? "Cheapest possible price...." Uh??, YEAH! Nothing wrong with trying to make a product as attractive as possible. Business 101 (circa 1970) P-roduct P-lace P-rice P-romotion Price is a critical component.

[@sgath92]

Its a critical component, until it isn't. At some point it becomes a race to the bottom, and there's not a lot of money to be made chasing rock-bottom markets. Farmers are learning this the hardway. They can cater to the most common veggies like the ones sold at the grocery store and get hit coming & going (due to the proprietary GMOs and fertilizers and pesticides) or they can use the same acreage for GMO-free heirlooms. Lower yields, but sold as luxury items with a much higher markup while avoiding most of the chemical costs from going into the spreadsheet. And since its not proprietary they won't get sued to kingdom come & back for saving seeds for next year's planting. Buy once, not annually etc. Even the Chinese have realized they don't want to be making plastic trinkets/garbage anymore (part of why so many of our plastics get landfilled- they don't want to import to recycle them anymore).

[@wrem9706]

subscribed to yer other channel

[@rriflemann308]

A silver smith once told me that silver oxide is white in color, but when you see silver turn black it is silver sulfate, I asked where the sulfur comes from, he replied, “ biology “ ( he also noted that silver oxide is conducive, where silver sulfate is not .)

[@Tron1731]

The old radios and tvs need to exist in a high nitrogen environment to slow deterioration .

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

35:40 My thoughts EXACTLY!

[@robinsonsoto8471]

A lot of work just to feel the joy.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

To demonstrate the principles and excellent command of those principles and skills to execute repair. I haven't tried these. I have plenty to do and I'm afraid I'll break the little transformer winding wires.

[@ziggfreud9820]

Excellent video shango cus F is for friends who do stuff together... Lmao 😂

[@Chems7308]

Pure awesomeness

[@davepike6170]

Don't forget the "Micro-doigeybreimler!" 😂😍😅

[@natechrisman5333]

Amazing

[@josephtome9600]

I do IF cans. What to do about a discriminator transformer I need to learn. And GE sets for a time used "Griplets" for a secure thru hole connection. They are a royal pain.

[@blobscott]

1:06:56 This thing is WOKE! hahaha! Great video.

[@jdmccorful]

"His Masters Voice" !Nailed it "Blue Gloved Devil". Enjoyed, thanks.

[@SusanAmberBruce]

Tweakaroo & fumbumgigalate phycogeekolated, I love the Shango magical incantation spell words

[@guyf3311]

Put a piece of electrical tape on end of screwdriver to insulated it while your tuning , fine tuning radios, tv's.

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

"Dipo-Crinkulated" dial cord pulley. Lol 😂😂😂!!

[@thewheelman282]

Shango what part of the radio were you measuring on the meter when you were zeroing the discriminator?

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Spark gap transmitter.

[@directcurrent5751]

How was modulation accomplished with gap transmission? Or was it just throwing the energy out in the atmosphere? Dot Dash Dot

[@michaelhaiden6718]

Could you use carb cleaner to clean those mica wafers?

[@Pablo-he7gm]

It happened to me that a broken ferrite antena made the radio not tu tune anything. Just grabbing the two parts and joining them together very tight it started working. I had to find another ferrite and replace it. I'm not saying in this case it will solve the problem but it is just another thing to try. Maybe it's just some of those capacitors...

[@borisborisov195]

between 1- 2 pF at leаst by formula for 100 mH inductor :)

[@Crosley-1520]

1.22pF

[@johnsampson1096]

Wouldn't it be cool if the if capacitor values were noted on the schematic? Manufactures probably expected a twenty year lifespan. Let's hope AM radio last that long..............

[@eugenefernandez3351]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@TechneMoira]

At an intermediate frequency of 455KHz and an (average) of .93mH or 930000nH the capacitance should be around 132pF (+-0.5pF)? I used the formula 2*pi*F= 1/sqrt(L*C) (Assume an F = 455000Hz and L = 0.00093F)

[@aerotro]

@shango066 Great restoration, btw when I go to your youtube main home screen my computer froze up, not sure if it is something effecting others? But fire-fox completely locked up 2x was trying to see if I missed any of your vid's. I'm using Ubuntu Linux btw.

[@aerotro]

@msroper5287 thanks yeah could be cache or something will try again later.

[@williamcaspers5252]

Given all the work put into the absolute cheapest, proprietary way to add capacitance to a coil, I wonder what the savings was in unit cost. The volumes must have been huge to justify this approach over an off the shelf ceramic cap.

[@Roland_Tr909_Swing]

Can we debate the debate before the debate

[@shango066]

Will the debate happen is the real debate

[@nigelsears7191]

@@shango066 hope it does cause i for one enjoy your commentary and jibes at them all

[@directcurrent5751]

No matter what is real, one person always has a 3rd party reason for losses.

[@danielknepper6884]

We cannot be burdened by the unburdened. For what has happened today will happen tomorrow and what happens tomorrow will happen yesterday

[@agoogleuser704]

Divided by the lack of debate I stand with division until we experience a multiplication 😊

[@MasterBakerVideos]

Isn't Timberland more of a producer now? Nelly Furtato is from my hometown of Victoria, BC, Can. I was wondering what happened to her too but she seems to be doing ok.

[@FemboyEngineer]

Is that thing in your profile picture a colour wheel from a fibre optic Christmas tree base?

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

Color TV like a Zenith control knob. That's what I always think. He is the color TV expert.

[@force311999]

a lot of my old f.m. radios have the double hump to the tuning. I always thought it was the digital version riding piggy back or side-band

[@dahlia695]

I wonder if it would be easier to align with a Nanovna

[@daviddillman4412]

Review your qodosen radio. Want to hear what you think of it.

[@uwuweewee]

This is a really cool video

[@pantherplatform]

What does _"IF"_ mean?

[@LiquidRadio]

Intermediate Frequency

[@pantherplatform]

@@LiquidRadio thanks!

[@TruBluYahoo]

Thanks both of you, I wondered what that stood for too ​@@pantherplatform

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

Principle is Superheterodyne. Mix a local oscillator and radio signal from over the air and get two products. Pick one and amplify within a specified bandwidth. Advantages are numerous over Tuned Radio Frequency.

[@pantherplatform]

@@johnnytacokleinschmidt515 I heard of heterodyne before. I thought it was the term for the unpleasant noise that's heard when two people try to talk on the same frequency at the same time but it apparently has other uses.

[@willrobbinson]

nothing last forever and was never designed to last this long !!!

[@davidtillwach5542]

Jungle music in the beginning.

[@johnloader6609]

Well done Ryder you are also coming along leaps and bounds you are so awesome.❤😃😃⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@johnnysokko8505]

I was curious as to which manufacturer was better. RCA or GE.

[@sgath92]

Depends on the type of product, price point and era. Before they were de-monopolized they made a lot of identical products with different cabinets. The RCAs were more stylistically traditional/understated where GE was more into the more fringe artistic designs. Not a TV person but in my humble opinion RCA was better there. With post war radio stuff, GE owned telechron and its hard to beat them as far as electric clocks go. More recently, GE was the better company with portables (i.e. "Super Radio" series) or CBs. Also, GE was the company that developed and brought to market those iconic LED radio-alarm clocks, I have one of their prototypes from when it was under secret product development. They had some neat alarm clocks in the 70s-90s, like stuff with backlight fluorescent displays instead of LED so they could have GE Blue™ clock readouts when everyone else was lucky to have the default red LED displays. And the higher price-point GE Blue display bedside alarm-clock-radios were sold with remote-mount weather stations, or built in telephones, or built in casset players. Sounds trivial today but back then these were very rare features to have at your bedside.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

I bought a nice one in the nineties for my mom. Blue fluorescent clock display and cassette player. Had a 4 inch speaker which had great rival balance and fidelity. A sister's friend recently helped her reorganize and probably threw it in the garage. I'm pissed and there's nothing I can do about it. Mom should use it instead of just watching stupid TV.

[@thatdellguy]

Did you ever work at a certain Tuttleclick dealership in the mid 90s?

[@Runco990]

Who here remembers The Mighty Met in LA?

[@401ksolar]

Wow your impersonation was spot on pitch, tone, cadence. On a separate note, the ads after your video -asking for viewers to choose camelhairass or was it harry camelass I'm confused.

[@johnchildress6717]

She is not too SWIFT