Tearing The S's AA5 Radio Repair

Silvertone 10 all american five am radio evaluation
/ shango066

[@isoguy.]

I just wanted to thank you for your inspiring videos they have given me the enthusiasm and confidence to fix stuff. Your practical fault finding, repairs and thought processes have led me to a place where I'm now able to repair my gadgets, washer and fridge. Thanks.

[@williammitchem8274]

Shango, I had to do hurricane clean up before I was allowed to watch you. A great Saturday. 😊

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

I hope you have not lost too much.

[@darikdatta]

I'm not saying you're late but I just had to kill a bunch of time watching a guy fix a CD player he found in a muddy riverbed in China. He did an amazing job, I subscribed.

[@12345678989814]

😂

[@bruceferrero8178]

😅

[@erikdenhouter]

I just planted one too. Harvest in about a year.

[@isoguy.]

Thought it was just me that had to do all the outstanding jobs before being allowed on the net for the next shango vid. Made me laugh though, my other half thought shango066 was some sort of dodgy web site exhibiting semi clad ladies. 😂

[@bojacque6474]

Damn! the mystery plant is doing pretty well

[@MrDoneboy]

It's a type of ivy, apparently.

[@hestheMaster]

Appears to be a heart leaf philodendron which has tendrils on the lead vine.

[@StanleytheCat-v8z]

Where did the seed come from again?

[@jonathanhendry9759]

AM is probably what classic country was originally broadcast on. It's the native broadcast medium for stuff like Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash.

[@michaelyancey3021]

That's what WSM-AM 650 (Nashville) was built for (Country). They're in their 1-year run up to the station's 100-year anniversary on Oct 5, 2025. And the Opry will be 100 two months later, I think. And The Carter Family (and June Carter) got their start at XERA in Mexico (later XERF). They lived in Del Rio (Texas) and made the trip across the river to do the show. I worked for a company founded by James O. Weldon who built the... 500 kW transmitter at XERA around 1936-37.

[@jonathanhendry9759]

@@michaelyancey3021 One of the major AM country stations was in Chicago of all places. The "National Barn Dance" program started in 1924, even before the Opry. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Barn_Dance

[@jaakkolehto1487]

The best day of the week. Shango day!

[@tedbell4416]

Best part of the weekend for old farts like me

[@moisessan1]

That man is amazing!! And the best are his comments about the radio transmissions!! 😂

[@BobWiersema]

A all Taylor Swift radio station sounds like a crime against humanity.

[@tedbell4416]

Sounds like something they would use at gitmo

[@tomtke7351]

She's made a buckful of money so lots of people love her.

[@JonnyMac351]

@@tedbell4416 Used at Guantanamo Bay

[@aaronlockhart9491]

I thought there were actual laws against playing the same artist more than four times in a row?

[@BobWiersema]

@@tomtke7351 You know the people that make Ex-Lax have made a load of money too but I've never heard anyone say they love the stuff. 😄

[@volvo09]

I agree, I have no idea why they would broadcast Classical music on AM, or pop music... It works for talk and oldies.

[@Kittendownloads]

Ive been working on the road and skipped going to the bar because I saw you posted this video. Worth it thank you shango.

[@hallieboy]

I believe the term for the "tearing" on the S's is Sibilance. I learned that from my Shure audio obstacle course record. Stylus mistracking on a record makes that sound too.

[@SusanAmberBruce]

Yeah, like a lisp

[@dddevildogg]

A fool with no logic to adjust an EQ can easily make a recording that nukes esses , cymbals and snares and even vocals.

[@tedbell4416]

Those little white specks on the night vision video I think is the actual radiation coming off caught by the camera. Might be wrong but it sure looks like it.

[@Joetechlincolns]

I was wondering that, I have seen that before somewhere where that was demonstrated.

[@erikdenhouter]

Images from inside the Chernobyl power plant show the same, particles hitting the camera sensor.

[@SnepperStepTV]

got this radio from the 80s, i think its a KLH. my dad gave it to me instead of throwing it out, its a fantastic looking unit even/especially with the wear and tear it has.....if only any of the local stations would play anything i wanted to listen to on my radios! fun to tune in and get an inkling of how to do this thing i've been doing since i was 12 better.

[@SnepperStepTV]

3:36 by the by, we really need more Am radio stations covering eras and vibes like that in oldies and country and classic rock, etc. those of us who refuse to put bluetooth radios in our classic cars (because you shouldn't have the damn phone anywhere near grabbing/music changing rage when you're driving- classic or not but especially classic) and therefore only have AM radio.

[@KJB-Man]

Definitely either IF or capacitance distortion. Possibly from having only 1 IF can. Also, those tacky couplets are not very stable. Best way to see the distortion is to use an small, battery powered AM transmitter shooting a 1K 5K 8K clean sinewave into it, on a few AM channels. And monitor the output on a scope. It would be easy to see IF modulation (bleed over) or a distorted sinewave; possibly saturation, chopping off the top or bottom of the waveform. It is hard to do such diagnostics with an AM radio station, because it is not a clean signal. And AM voice audio would be about impossible.

[@erikdenhouter]

I was waiting, and waiting... and waiting........ but no scope.

[@justsumguy2u]

When diagnosing for distorted audio, 35/50C5 should always be checked on a tube tester that checks for shorts. They were a bad design from the beginning, and h/k shorts were very common (which will produce distorted audio). The tube must be left in the tester for a couple of minutes to heat-soak---just popping it in and out quickly usually won't catch it

[@chetpomeroy1399]

That Geiger counter might *really* come in handy soon, as it is quite effective at detecting radioactive fallout. Bert the turtle told us to "duck and cover."

[@clifffiftytwo]

The radium is stll there (half-life 1600 years) but the ZnS phosphor degrades. “Radium dials usually lose their ability to glow in the dark in a period ranging anywhere from a few years to several decades, but all will cease to glow at some point.”

[@thedogbarked123]

so it would be interesting to see the audio output on an oscilloscope and with the signal generator you could qualify distortion and response visually.

I thought the same thing. Maybe try another speaker, also.

[@alphabeets]

Exactly. 👍

[@Runco990]

Good point. It sounds distorted to me, and that's over youtube! It sounds..... off....🤔

[@russellhltn1396]

Yeah, I was wondering about the speaker too. A few shorted turns on the output transformer could do some interesting things as well. It might be worth using a signal tracer/injector to check the sound at various stages.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

HP 334 Harmonic Distortion Analyzer with detector circuit. I'm also concerned about speaker condition and high frequency bypass. Interesting case.

[@GadgetWusky]

I think the radioactive radium paint with the degraded phosphor can be rejuvenated with a layer of new non-radioactive glow in the dark paint

[@gabrielleeliseo6062]

Wow, we even get an ASMR box opening in the beginning. xD

[@JerryEricsson]

Great day in the Morning!! A video from Shango! Thanks it was a good video and touched on some great trouble shooting steps, always nice to have a bit of learning with my morning coffee! Thanks.

[@TobiasThede]

Radium paint, what a interesting coincidence, my dp-66 geiger counter arrived a few days ago.a correct working one,of course.

[@bigcatauna]

Expect a w-2 in the mail for that green paper looking stuff,compliments of the irs

[@johngalt7382]

I thought the "All Taylor Swift all the time" thing was just Shango humor, till I actually heard it.

[@XGarage-nj2uf]

It was Metallica all day...

[@jgarner420]

Toob Time! My favorite morning of the week

[@jeromewysocki8809]

Great video, as always. Another possibility to the audio distortion problem might be because of the radio transmitter. I read somewhere that modern transmitters on the AM broadcast band don't transmit in true amplitude modulation like they used to a few decades ago. It's apparently another form of modulation that sounds reasonably close to true amplitude modulation. I wish I remembered where I read this, as it was some years ago. All my tube radios now sound like this, whereas a few decades ago, human speech definitely sounded cleaner and more distinct on them. Maybe someone can chime in who knows more about why changes were made in the designs of current day AM broadcast transmitters.

[@volvo09]

Oh yeah those guys are great, it's amazing what stuff they find in a mud pit and how perfectly they fix it!

[@erikdenhouter]

And you misplaced your comment....

[@monkeyboy4746]

Yes, use the Geiger counter, fantastic! The phosphor just "wears out" after so many years, I wonder what would happen if you placed a florescent light tube near it. Radium is beneficial to your health, just ask Eben Byers.

[@steviebaby2690]

The radium is still there, radiating, it's the phosphor that's burnt off.

[@billmyke746]

Oops!

[@Mark.R_]

I assume it was causing the sparklers on the night vision.

[@Lenny8679205]

Is that amount of radiation dangerous? I have a few radio's with that radium paint.

[@Mark.R_]

@@Lenny8679205 Not unless your are licking the dials. There is a old documentary about the workers who made glow in the dark watch hands, it may be on KZbin.

[@corinnegregory9027]

@@Mark.R_ I saw that and thought the same too.

[@KennethScharf]

The speaker is also quite torn up and patched. That could distort the sound. I always use rubber cement to patch speakers. You could put trimmer caps across the IF coils after removing the fixed caps. Then adjust BOTH the cores AND the trimmers until you got optimum bandwidth. It would be a royal PITA to do, but you could use one of those Nano VNA's to see the bandwidth shape.

[@WECB640]

From the Billboard Hot 100.. 1985 the top 28 position belongs to, "The Firm".... RADIOACTIVE!

[@tarstarkusz]

10:15 There were no lasers in the 1950s. They were invented in 1960 and there was probably a few more years of development before any industry was using them to do work of some kind. It is probably etched either chemically or mechanically.

[@LiquidRadio]

A radioactive radio! You’re in flavor country now!

[@UHF43]

Metallic flavor, to be precise.

[@geralderdek282]

The only good thing about the recent Florida hurricane is that the power outages have allowed excellent radio reception. I picked up kxn 1070 on my grinding yachtboy while dxing this Morning at 4am!

[@davidhollfelder9940]

It sounds like the audio tube bias is off center (clipping on one side), or detector diode error .. IF Q too narrow? AFC weak, overloading?

[@Suddenlyits1960]

Agree with you entirely. Classical music is best suited for the FM dial. 40's,50's,60's music is best suited for AM.

[@bio-techlarry9602]

I've restored several of these old AM radios. Even some from the 20's and 30's. The Atwater Kent 60 A TRF radio using the 45 and 80 tubes with a full 5 watts of audio. Sentimental value. I ask what its problem is, then I always ask how much to they want to spend on it. Especially if someone has been in it shortly before I have. If they do want it fixed then..... If it plays but distorted, I usually start in the audio circuits first. Check speaker and work back from there.

[@billmyke746]

Depleted radium, my favorite kind.

[@tedbell4416]

It's the best flavor

[@johnmadow5331]

I got one from retired employee when I worked for Emerson Electric in 2000 before I left Illinois to work for Philips Electronics in Lancaster, PA. I traded for identical model at the radio show in Illinois and the one I got was recapped and paid $25.00 for trade in value.

[@DmitryEljuseev]

From my previous ham radio experiments: an electromagnetic noise in different locations may drastically vary. A "bad radio" very likely can be just a bad antenna, especially if the test is made inside the large building/in the city center.

[@Nirky]

I believe the characteristic etching on GE tubes was chemical and not laser.

[@randyab9go188]

I thought on some GE it was a sand blasting process?

[@mrnmrn1]

I think both laser etching and sand blasting would be too risky (those methods can cause internal stress to the glass, and later it can crack due to that). I also think it was chemical etching. Maybe hydrofluoric acid with some dye.

[@jeromewysocki8809]

Nirky, I agree with you here. Hydrofluoric acid will etch glass and looks just like you see it here. Old incandescent light bulbs with frosted glass were made where the inside of the glass was etched with hydrofluoric acid.

[@mrnmrn1]

@@jeromewysocki8809 I think when they make markings with it, they probably add some dye. The frosted glass is just frosted, while these markings have some metallic, brownish grey color for better visibility. Soviet tubes were also marked this way. I hate when a tube is marked only with silkscreen, it comes off very easily, especially from used tubes when the paint is baked. It's the best to have both type of markings on a tube. Some manufacturers, for example Tungsram used color (in their case yellow) silkscreen which turned grey from the heat. So it's a nice indicator to decide if a tube is used or new. For some decades, they also simultaneously marked their tubes with etching on the top, so if the silkscreened marking came off, you could still identify the tube easily, without going full Sherlock, visually analyzing the internal structure of the tube and measuring the heater. Unfortunately they stopped doing this and their later tubes are only marked with silkscreening.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

I have worked on that model before too and I think the only thing that would improve the sound is diffrent speaker .

[@thomasconnatser2478]

132 Norblitt Sparks (Arvin) built this radio. They built many sets for Sears through the 1950s when Warwick Electronics became the major supplier of Silvertone sets.

[@bigalsmallengines]

Great repair. I do kinda like the look of that Silvertone. Cheers!🍻

[@roberthorseman7432]

Back in the seventies in the UK we had telephones with that radium stuff in the dial Ithink they were called trim line phones.

[@kevvywevvywoo]

trimphones used tritium

[@BG101UK]

For the phosphor on the hands: I wonder if phosphor rescued from a knackered fluorescent tube (or even maybe a CRT) might work? It would be the wrong colour, but still …🤷‍♂

[@nuwan7987]

Waiting for your video 😊

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

I think the case of the tearing S's are a speaker/field coil, or speaker/magnet issue. The paper of the speaker 🔊 may be worn out, but speaker re-coning glue should do the trick. It may even be a tuning capacitor issue. This radio 📻 comes complete with Taylor Swift's own radio station. It's probably also had its share of Oprah Winfrey talk on it as well. Your friend, Jeff.

[@HappyDiscoDeath]

I can discern the difference made by the new resistor that replaced the one that was baked. The new one noticeably cuts the tearing by quite a bit.

[@HappyDiscoDeath]

LOL my autistic super sensitive ears of science

[@HappyDiscoDeath]

The hissing S's seem to only be on some stations, maybe the ones that are poorly modulated?

[@scottrance-im7xz]

Definitely has distortion , yep the S sounds just as you describe it as tearing . Sounds alot like my transistor radios on AM band . I've got this same radio in white ,a model 10 ,so watching intently on this one .

[@Chems7308]

It's Shango time !!!

[@defaultuserid1559]

I thought my Granco slug tuned FM radio had audio problems but the only thing wrong was the oval speaker. It wasn't torn or anything but hardly made any sound at all. It sounded great with a good speaker.

[@chevguy8587]

are you speeding up the video at times? some times it sounds like your talking really fast

[@JulianA-tr6pt]

I believe he did. I went and checked my video speed during the beginning!

[@chris_vk3cae]

Certainly sounded & looked like it to me as well...

[@LiquidRadio]

36:33 KNX is also on a lower AM frequency than KBLA. Efficiency of propagation on the AM band decreases as you move up the dial. For example around here KLIF at 570 KHz is 5 KW and WBAP at 820 is 50 KW. Both have similar coverage.

[@mikefinn2101]

Shango nice saturday morning. Drifted resistors always occur needed to check all it sounds great I think the alignment new resistors and proper ant hookup. The speaker is a bit old I don't think you will get it any better. thanks Mike

[@douggrisack5916]

Knx booms in here in western Canada now that the nights are getting longer.

[@1marcelfilms]

The AM radio sure is active

[@hallieboy]

LA sure has a lot of stations. In Eastern Connecticut where I am, there is maybe about 1/4 as many on AM.

[@tomj4506]

Try a SPKR. I hear the bad esses & something else. Is that an old repair on SPKR ?? LFOD !

[@TheRogey1]

Sounds like Speaker(has it been tried on another speaker)? On low volume the sibilance will show more.🤔

[@rickrandom716]

It sounds like it is starving for electricity, but that's just me my ears have gone through 10s of thousand of rounds.

[@nyki7fykxtjxyi]

6:30 were those sparkles in the night vision the radiation manifesting?

[@Joetechlincolns]

Likely, I've seen this demonstrated before somewhere

[@erikdenhouter]

Images from inside the Chernobyl power plant show the same, particles hitting the camera sensor. If you look close you even see that they don't hit much outside of the source, so the lens must focus them somehow to the sensor.

[@12345678989814]

Oh yeah I've been streaming am 1260 ever since it went to country

[@ArthurJS123]

Can’t imagine a Sears Silvertone having sentimental value, but ok. Not a bad looking set.

[@dddevildogg]

That sound is so reminiscent of the speaker at the drive in Squack box, so bad for audio- pathetic fidelity KNX over a hundred years old ....

[@natechrisman5333]

Amazing I love it keep up the great work.

[@bobbyk6585]

Shango on Yom Kippur. Yes!

[@tomtke7351]

I say the radio sounds pretty distorted... similar to over compression.....

[@PapiDoesIt]

That's just a little bit higher than the normal background radiation in Oak Ridge.

[@JulianCrippen-w1b]

Hey there, I do like the station 1260 AM. Cool, music station. Love you dude cool tub radio.

[@Flexin010]

Sounds good at the end.

[@Christopher-re2hl]

How is the avc voltage is it overloaded ? try applying a negative voltage from a battery and see what happens. It could be the 2.2 meg resistor from the volume control has went way up or something is pulling it low

[@rolandkeith5322]

One junky sounding radio right there man eek!

[@InvestigationsDepartment]

Would any glow in the dark paint work to rejuvenate the hands. Like maybe the phosphorus rust paint?

[@senorverde09]

I mean it's sibilance and low bandwidth AM radio. Other than a cooked speaker I can't see what else can be done other than paralleling a cap to ground off the volume control to filter off some of the high frequencies.

[@moisessan1]

Shangoo like a fish in the sea!!!

[@Zirok1982]

Sounds like the IF bandwidth is too wide, even with good selectivity. Having only one IF stage, it could just be a characteristic of the radio, not a defect.

[@scottrance-im7xz]

Yes it sounds like you resolved it

[@ianmorris8534]

What was that number for the OJC promo again, didn't quite catch it........

[@1112223333111]

I hope they play "ol amos moses" the first day

[@1112223333111]

/watch?v=Bo--4X_KK7A

[@hestheMaster]

No one checked for drifted resistors? Should as a course of action go over any connections to check for COLD solder joints. It happened to me bit not on this particular radio. Seems the s's are much less now after inspection and alignment.

[@larrygenedavis]

I think I may have a watch with that stuff on it. It doesn't work but it still glows . Not sure .

[@markseymour5558]

Radium can affect radio signals, I'm curious because both radios obviously performed the same

[@rogerstlaurent8704]

AM radio was the first and the best Severe Weather Detection back in its days if you hear a lot of cracking on your Am radio you know there was some type of Severe Weather in your area The Dude that owns that Silvertone Radio just leave it Do not change anything on your AM radio All Am Brand Radios sounded the same brand new

[@SusanAmberBruce]

I feel sorry for Taylor Swift, it's going to crunch at some point, how does she make a graceful exit, she puts me in mind of Judy Garland, she's just being used.

[@ForYourAmusementOnly]

She is a billionaire, she will be just fine😂

[@frankowalker4662]

The tearing S's didn't seem as bad at the end.

[@_Ramen-Vac_]

My early red LED clock Zenith Circle of Sound tears esses . . S's? yes, S's . . a teeny little bit and never seemed to clear its throat. You replaced and rearranged so much here it's sorta hard to figure what it had toasted. I only ever run NPR fm or the slow-jams/funk/soul/hip hop stations. Any time classic rock gets a good dj they can em.

[@chuckbrown617]

Those bright dots in the night vision image aren't video noise...

[@hugh007]

Sounds pretty spitty on my headphones. Could the output transformer have shorted turns and the 50C5 is working too hard into wrong impedance?

[@matthewbestdfghy]

KMOX covers most of the United States at night.

[@linuspoindexter106]

My plant ID app says the mystery plant is some kind of pennywort.

[@ayitsyaboi]

Is this noise on the night shot radiation interfering with the sensor? I know it can be artifacting from the reflective lens, but it looks pretty wild.

[@liamtheinventor1522]

I’m going to assume so because radiation can affect normal camera sensors and even after all this time radium has a half-life of like 1000 years or something and so it’s just as radioactive as it was when it was brand new

[@erikdenhouter]

The bright white specks you mean. Images from inside the Chernobyl power plant show the same, particles hitting the camera sensor. If you look close you even see that they don't hit much outside of the source, so the lens must focus them somehow to the sensor.

[@danhubanks554]

Thanks!

[@motorlibro]

do you have another speaker you can try?

[@BudTheDrummer]

If i take a component out of circuit, must I desolder it from the bottom? If i cut the lead, how do I resolder it?

[@hoosiernick]

All Taylor Swift??? Makes you miss Rush Limbaugh, doesn't it?

[@tentacle1984]

What trimmer tool is that for the tuning capacitor?

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Excellent!

[@davidtillwach5542]

Goofs on the roof . Just for that you don't go in there lol

[@alphabeets]

Might be a crappy speaker too.

[@adrian_sp6def]

I am curious, is there a way of telling that there is some wrong with S curve without hearing it? For me this receiver sounds good

[@xsc1000]

Its AM, there is no S curve.

[@adrian_sp6def]

@@xsc1000 right, could You tell me then what is about 11:59 talking about tearing on S's (or somethting)

[@adrian_sp6def]

@@xsc1000 but I agree, no phase detector so no S curve, my bad

[@xsc1000]

@@adrian_sp6def Its not about S curve, but its about sound distorsion when S (or Z and similar) is pronounced.

[@erikdenhouter]

There is something wrong about this design. The speaker should not be open in the casing, the edges of the speaker must be "airtight" connected to the front, or the bass will be shorted through the air, and that sounds tinny. I don't understand why you did not put a scope on it and fed a sine wave... you know what a sine looks like ?

[@MrHBSoftware]

yeah a sine wave looks like a flaming rod entering a smartass's ass