Yet another Radio (Saba Wildbad 100)

[@charlescurtis853]

So well done. I am really amazed at what you can do and your humor that goes with it. Your attention to the details is impressive.

[@AstraWerke]

Thanks alot!

[@JohnCox-oz5km]

More craftsmanship repairs. In days gone by when a table radio was an instrument and a piece of art. 31 45B

[@rordorica]

A beauty! I wish I had one of those nice German radios or a Tefifon , but the only valve radio I have is a very basic AM one that belonged to my maternal grandparents , it is a 5 tube and the brand was from here, my hometown . I rescued it when I had 12 years old, replaced the speaker and the main capacitor. Still works.

[@AstraWerke]

Through the current retro craze, these radios have become pretty pricey. You used to find these "attic finds" for 10€, give or take - now it's more like 200. Since that, I've stopped collecting them and only fix up the radios of others :)

[@rordorica]

@@AstraWerke And in the meantime capitalizing your hobby and skills. That's even better!

[@ModelA]

Gute Arbeit, Adrian! Röhrenradios zu restaurieren macht viel Spaß. Ich habe Tausende von ihnen restauriert. Bekomme immer noch jedes Mal einen kleinen Funken, wenn man aus einem langen Schlaf aufwacht. Mit freundlichen Grüßen!

[@AstraWerke]

I've stopped buying tube radios after our whole house has now got at least one radio per room. The only exception I'd make would be a Philco 610T "Bullet Radio". But they are rarer than a '34 Buick over here.

[@tonyp7779]

bringing an old radio back to life is fun

[@bennetenglisch1467]

I literally spend hours soldering on my radio because I just couldn't get to the caps and you just do it inside the cabinet of the radio. Great work, really impressive!

[@AstraWerke]

It takes a little practice not to char anything up with the hot iron, but after a while you get the hang of it. My first tube radio was a desaster because it sort of worked, I decided to swap caps and it didn't make a single noise afterwards. I put it on my desk as a warning never to touch tube radios ever again. It wasn't until half a year later that I found the cause: I had soldered one cap to the outer part of a coax cable, instead of the inner - therefor grounding the signal out instead of leading it to the next stage.

[@bennetenglisch1467]

@@AstraWerke It really is a scary Job at first but at least I had your previous videos to learn. Mine runs now, but still tends to do weird stuff now and then. But I'll figure it out someday!

[@AstraWerke]

@@bennetenglisch1467 Occasional hiccups are often bad connections - maybe in a tube socket, maybe a solder joint, maybe the keyboard contacts, potentiometers, ... Issues that aren't always there are the most annoying to hunt down. You look for it, it isn't there, you don't look for it and it appears. Murphy's Law.

[@bennetenglisch1467]

@@AstraWerke The thing is it it appears somewhat regularly. When the radio has run the day before and you start it the next day and wait 10 seconds it starts crackling like a really bad record for 5-10 seconds and stops. No matter whats selected on the keyboard, no matter where the volume is set.

[@malcolmtill]

Oh WOW ! The music must be carried in the capacitors, After you replaced the old ones you could get really modern music out of it. That's amazing ! ;-))

[@AstraWerke]

A well-kept secret that not many people know ;)

[@johnbourke723]

Adrianyou are a self depreciating genius..... top work....

[@nightshift1107]

Great, you have done a good job!

[@brendamcdaniel1958]

Job well done 👍🏻 thanks for the video.

[@jster1963]

Brilliant! You do excellent work!

[@AstraWerke]

Thanks :D

[@WACRE44]

Beautiful radio great job thanks

[@ericmark100]

Very entertaining, great presentation, really fun incidental music - than you :)

[@AstraWerke]

Thanks alot!

[@roten2902]

toll das du die alten dinge ein neues leben gibst... 😉👍👍👍

[@Nord3202]

I have a old tube tester that came from a store back when TVs & radios used tube's.

[@westelaudio943]

Very well done I think this is late 50s, early 1960s though, rather than 1970s. It doesn't seem to be stereo sadly, only one OT, despite having two pairs of speaker drivers, of which one has a ceramic and the other has an AlNiCo magnet by the way, I wonder what that's about? Was this built exactly when they switched to the new material? Or a slightly later replacement?

[@AstraWerke]

Had a look online - it was built in 1959/60. I would have thought it was newer on account of the bright wood and sharp corners. Live and learn ;) I'd guess they were about to switch tech and used up what they had. Radio is Mono only, Phono input can be set to stereo - it's not really noticeable due to the close proximity of the speakers, however. It takes some distance to truly appreciate Stereo effects.

[@westelaudio943]

@@AstraWerke Ok that's interesting, I would have guessed around 1962 from the styling though the hand wired chassis dates it to a bit earlier, most had already switched to PCBs by then, I think they were going for a more US-inspired look with the very rectangular cabinet. Oh yes I see that stereo button. But I wonder, where is the second output transformer? Or maybe it needs external amplification then, they did some crazy things concerning stereo compatibility back in those days.

[@paulwomack5866]

That's an impressive radio. Concentric Coarse/Fine on tuning and volume, magic eye tuning, visible indication for treble/bass control, massive speakers, 4 in total (Stereo!) Do you know what it cost "back in the day", and what it would be in today's money?

[@AstraWerke]

Saba was definately the high end of the market. From what I found online, this one came in relatively cheap at DM 379 (I've got a single speaker Loewe-Opta from the mid-50's that cost almost 600 when new) - but still, that was a LOT of money. My granddad worked for the state's telephone company at that time and would make around DM 250-300. Radios in Germany were incomprehensibly expensive back in the day and it was considered a major accomplishment to own one. Then again, here I am, 63 years later and it still produces crystal clear sound

[@mharbaum38]

I have a Saba wildbad 100 and also a Saba freudenstadt and require working on them to fix them up and restoring, anyone out there that could help me out? I am near Remagen/Bonn

[@kevinmcewen1760]

neat to see someone who can make sense of the old spider web of capacitors.

[@AstraWerke]

It takes some practice not to melt other wires when digging about in the many layers of components with a steaming soldering iron ;)

[@vintageradioman]

I Just purchased one and it's on it's way and was wondering what is that square shaped on the left side of the glass display that says Ant ? Dose it have a light bulb as well?

[@AstraWerke]

Its a ferrite antenna indicator. Behind the window is a scale that shows the orientation in numbers. It's not lit.

[@vintageradioman]

Got a Saba Wildbad 100 1959 unfortunately the K switch is not functioning it doesn't stay down. Do you know what the issue might be?

[@AstraWerke]

Sounds like a mechanical issue in the keyboard. If you're lucky, a bit of contact cleaner and pressing all buttons in quick succession will free the mechanism up, but if something is broken, this could be a very involved repair

[@FinnoUgricMachining]

The original dial string that snapped on You was the best that was available back when the radio was made. Nowdays there are way better materials available. However, fishing line is not particularly good for this application. Yes, You can get it less slippery by sanding it but there is nothing You can do to make it less flexible. Ordinary fishing line flexes lengthwise quite a lot and will stretch there under tension and heat. After a year or so You have a radio which plays only one station, the one You last dialled in 🙂 With those 200 or so tube radios which I have put into working order I have found out that there actually is a type of fishing line that does not stretch and which also tolerates quite a lot of tension without becoming any longer. The fishing line in question is kevlar fishing line with a fabric coating. It is used between the lure and the ordinary fishing line to keep the fish from cutting the line by teeth. Pike (wow - same in German but hauki in Finnish) is one that is notorious on cutting the line. The kevlar line tolerates something like 15 kilograms of pull and looks like normal cotton yarn. Cutting it is an ordeal by itself 😄 I think that You have also noticed that making a knot on fishing line in the radio-environment is not an easy task. Yes, You can make a knot but it seems never to land on the correct place. Further more, the knots seem to open by themselves. There is a simple cure - superglue. The knot will never loose after You wet it with superglue, This is especially handy with the abovementioned kevlar line. P.S. I learned most of the fish names in German when I was working in Frankfurt. It was my intention to take the ultimate language exam - get myself the notorious "Angelshein". Unfortunately my assignment ended prematurely and I didn't have the time to finish it. I already took the needed courses though. Edit. Seems like You know about the superglue .... my bad.

[@AstraWerke]

Oof, that means I'll have to do some uncomfortable phone calls. Or wait until the radios come back to me with a non-working tuning wheel xD Anyways, thanks for the hints and tips!

[@FinnoUgricMachining]

@@AstraWerke You might be lucky and the fishing line is not too bad. Test it by taking one metre of it and then pull and measure how much it stretches. You can also leave it with 500 gram weight hanging overnight and then check in the morning if it has stretched. A radio of that size usually has something like 70 cm of line in there. If that stretches more than one centimeter, it is already too much.

[@AstraWerke]

@@FinnoUgricMachining Ill test it once I am back at home. It might also have hardened up over the last few decades - it's a roll I had lying about along my granddad's fishing rods of the 1960s xD

[@hilltopmachineworks2131]

Nice job. It has a nice rich sound.

[@robinimpey101]

That is probably the best that radio has ever sounded, great rescue! 👍 BUT, nothing about your Model A!?!?! What going on? Did you push it into Lake Constance? 😄

[@AstraWerke]

Well, the engine is apart, the block is out for machining. The guy says it won't be before January or February, so I'm focusing on non Model-A-related projects at the moment (as I still have tons of other projects). I'll release updates as time goes by and am planning to do a live stream on what I plan to have the engine look like, but I don't have a date on that yet.

[@robinimpey101]

@@AstraWerke Won't be before January or February?!?!?! Does this guy realize that there are people ALL around the world that are waiting? What's his phone number? We'll all call him once a day until it's done! He'll soon realize that your Model A block needs to be top priority! 😉

[@johnbourke723]

@@robinimpey101 damn right ...hear hear!!!!

[@AstraWerke]

@@robinimpey101 I'd have done the job myself if he let me run his machines ;P

[@73technite]

Now try to get a Philco model 70 to go with your Model A Ford. Nice work on this radio.

[@chrismazda1531]

How is the engine debacle going in the Ford?

[@AstraWerke]

The engine is out of the car and torn to bits, the block is off to be machined. I'll go into detail about what'll get done to the engine exactly, and there'll a video of the teardown, but since I am currently in my exam phase at university, I'll probably have to postpone that a little.

[@prutser132]

I have the exact same radio. I don't know if it will work but it looks nice. You think it's doable for a beginner to restore it?

[@AstraWerke]

Assuming there's nothing badly wrong inside, it's a pretty straight forward radio to overhaul. If you're fit with using a soldering iron, it should be a good candidate for a first radio.

[@prutser132]

@@AstraWerke Thank you for the reply. I might have all the parts already. From an old Philips worker i got 6 moving boxes full of all new parts. There are many high voltage caps of all kind of types. Also i collected many tubes and a ( broken ) Bittorf and Funke tester.

[@WACRE44]

I had a old Tel a fun ken short wave radio and some one stole it from me made me mad for years

[@Rustinox]

Nice. These old radio's are not to complicated to fix. Not like the more modern stuff that, if you can find what's wrong, will cost twice the price of a new one on parts.

[@AstraWerke]

I still wouldn't want to pay the man-hours for a professional to fix a tube radio up for me ;P

[@leongehde2026]

Du bist cool mach weiter so 👍

[@AstraWerke]

Danke :D

[@christophw3388]

mit solchen Radios habe ich als Junge auch gebastelt.

[@S7midnight]

4:58 maan, you should have left that song!!! :)

[@tcpbox]

Wow this one was so easy to fix...

[@AstraWerke]

Surprisingly, most of them are! I've probably fixed up two dozen radios - and it was only one so far that actually needed some proper alignment to play satisfactorily again (Due to a broken coil in the RF circuit). All the others were just capacitors and sometimes a burnt resistor here and there.