I have a Technics ST-Z1 tuner....very basic analogue tuner AM/FM I picked up at a thrift store for 7.50usd.....Sounds pretty amazing especially since I recapped it.
I have an old Sony that won't stay locked on to any Stereo transmission it picks up, had about 6 years now this video has given me the push to give the I/F transformers a tweak! Watched you use a Metal screwdriver so that will trigger the doubters, haters & non believers. If it does the job so be it, It's mine/your own etc.. so I-we will do as we-I see fit. :D
@@TD75 That is true! It can cause breaks easily, If you force them when they are tight, sadly I found out the hard way in an old CB set many moons ago. In some 'cheaper' radios/receivers I believe they use ferrite cores and powdered iron core for toroid transformers & devices that are driven hard above 10Mhz Anyway as i said, you are of course correct! care should be taken IF it's not your own device & if you value your own item, then do as you see fit i suppose.
I have a pear shaped screwdriver with a wire stripper in the handle part, that I filed to fit in such places back in the early 80s still have it to this day. surprising the amount of jobs you find in the future for tools you've modified :)
The stationa that turned off their stereo, are they mainly talk stations? Years ago in the UK, the BBC used to turn ON or OFF the stereo on some stations on a per programme basis, depending if the particular programme been broadcast was music or talk.
Dave, a growing number of low-power stations (regardless of format) in the US have turned off stereo to increase the noise-free reach of their limited signals.
@@Hi-Tech-Ray I wouldn't say a lot of stations have moved to HD radio but certainly some have and I've added additional streams on the HD2 and HD3 sub channels.
@@12voltvids Although satellite radio has a clear sound to it. After a few years it got to expensive so now I listen to other streaming services which is about the same quality but lesser price than satellite radio
@@12voltvids Most plastic ones I bought like 30 years ago perished or deformed when trying to adjust the ferrite. Some are really like stuck. The ceramic ones which I bought are now over 25 years old and still in perfect shape. Never broke a coil with those. *probably also because that set of tools was really expensive at that time.
I can never find the plastic tweaker that I need, so I often end up carving a matchstick to fit the slugs with square or hex holes through them. Ones with a flat slot may get a carved pen lid or golf tee. The electronic stores only ever stocked a few tweaking tools and they'd disappear as soon as the technical school students find out they were back in stock
I have a Kenwood KR-6050 that had the same problem but worse. It wouldn't quite tune far enough for FM stereo to work. Got another discriminator coil off a trashed Kenwood and it worked fine.
Most all FM tuners from my younger days had a way to select mono or stereo but later on that option was taken away meaning that most FM radios would try to receive stereo on and off with a lot of noise that could be reduced if you could switch to mono but that option was no longer there and you were at the mercy of the radio's logic which was usually crummy. I don't think FM radio stations are anywhere as good as they used to be and they're powered down their regular signals. The station itself switching to mono will greatly reduce the noise on the crummy radios of the past 2 decades. Few people are using FM radio as their primary source of music and places that use FM radio for ambient music don't need stereo and noise-free clear mono would work better. I would have loved to have that tuner back all through the 80s when I lived in a rural area (that narrow option would have helped with so many stations 100 miles away).
Every tuner I have even cheap boom boxes and portable have a mono switch. It's not just radio that has alot of mono channels. Ever listen to sxm? Half then are mono. Same with streaming. Many are set up for those silly smart speakers these days.
@@12voltvids Several cars I've had in the past 30 years did not have the stereo defeat option and had an auto option that kept the noisy stereo on weak stations, which a mono option would have greatly improved. A car is where you really need it since stations are constantly going in and out as you drive. I think there has been a decrease in interest in stereo with all these "smart speakers" people are streaming music to. I remember in the mid to late 90s we had a great 50s and 60s oldies station and they switched to mono for better coverage. 30-40 percent of their songs were mono anyway. I'd rather have clear mono than noisy stereo any day. I think FM has gone tremendously downhill in the past 25 years with every station, no matter the format, having 10-20 songs in heavy rotation (even for classic rock, classic country, or 50s-60s oldies) and switching a few songs in and out of the rotation every week. They're also compressing the life out of the music dynamic range wise and there are way too many commercials relative to music time.
@@3Cr15w311 well commercials is how they pay the salaries of those high priced on-air personalities that you like to listen to. You have that option or you pay XM for their crappy shitty sounding signal. I don't even pick the FM radio in my car pulls in Stereo it sure sounds like mono to me. Tough to tell though because the FM radio on my car kind of sucks. Had it back twice first time they said they changed the antenna because the reception was bad, second time they changed the entire radio unit. It's still bad however the new radio they put in has a fully functional sxm service so I've been listening to that a bit. It's been going now for about 2 years and I haven't paid them a penny. It's funny because I keep getting the mail-outs from them offering me deals on their programming but the radio ID they have on file is totally different than the radio ID in my car. So I don't know what they put in at the dealer maybe they found an old radio and just stuck it in the car and someone had signed that radio up for a lifetime subscription. I don't know but it's working and as long as it works I'll listen when it stops working I'll go back to the listing to my MP3 player.
@@12voltvids Actually I never enjoyed listening to the on-air personalities or DJs and just wanted the music without the DJ talking over the beginnings or endings of the songs. I'd have been happier with a pure music station with the minimum number of commercials (and station ID stuff) mixed in between groups of 2-3 songs to keep the operation afloat. The only useful thing the DJs did was let me know the title and artist of a song if I wasn't already familiar with it but they tended to talk over song intros and outtros which I hated.
@@3Cr15w311 you are the target audience for subscription music service. Most listen to the radio to keep informed and entertained. Some of the best DJs were the old school jocks from the 60s and 70s. Some of the parodys they pulled off were hilarious. I remember Roy Hennessy and Fred latromoulne parody of the rolling stones Ruby Tuesday. They called it gloomy Thursday and it was a riot. This was back in 68 i think. I was only about 5 or 6 and I still remember it. Both these guys are gone now. Roy just passed away a few weeks ago, Fred lived a block away. Half the fun is the interaction and bantering between the hosts. That was real radio.
I've done the same, then came back a month later and found the tuner drifted again so it wouldn't rx in stereo. MIGHT be a small cap or another component going bad......then again.....maybe not.......???
Hi Dave, great videos! I enjoy working and tinkering with this stuff as well, I tried to send you a message on Patreon, but I dont know if you got it? Had a couple of questions regarding a couple units that I have when you get a sec.
how do you know what transformer/pot to tweak?, what would be the name on a schematic? I have a proton tuner that has the same problem. It also won't get on AM when I push the button but that is ok as I don't play AM at all. But it would be good to have it come on stereo.
If i didn't know better, i would wonder if you went in side and tweaked that transformer off tune. i'm just trying to wind you up lol. I think your antenna is shi.. err faulty :) I would check the front end, just in case you have a "Crack-us joint- i -cus" Roman term.
Harvey! you at it again :) every time I see you post or live! at crunchers! "For those that like to stir the pot, you should know what you are cooking before you get burned!" :D “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters.” (Romans 14:1) BTW how'd that JVC @ crunchers end up ? you was there more than me.
@@Ratchet_effect Yes the jvc didn't seem too bad, but as always the recordings that style of tapedeck made will always be crappy but functional. Mono recordings/playbacks are typical (tight assed manufacturers). You can't expect too much from a "shed radio" ha ha that's just my opinion. I'm diffcult to please but sometimes in a kind mood. I got fed up with graham pissing about, so i didn't stay for the whole torture :-D Yes i'm a bit too honest. (thats my excuse).
Hi howare you ihave castte recorder akai gx 34 the vu meter not working and the level signal stop on the red line of the vu meter what can i do for that thinks
Hello, did the same to my Technics ST-S75, worked perfectly! Thank you! 🙏 Greetings from Costa Rica 🇨🇷
Thank you very much!I have a technics tuner st gt 550 with the same problem and it's now solved!
I have a Technics ST-Z1 tuner....very basic analogue tuner AM/FM I picked up at a thrift store for 7.50usd.....Sounds pretty amazing especially since I recapped it.
I have an old Sony that won't stay locked on to any Stereo transmission it picks up, had about 6 years now this video has given me the push to give the I/F transformers a tweak!
Watched you use a Metal screwdriver so that will trigger the doubters, haters & non believers. If it does the job so be it, It's mine/your own etc.. so I-we will do as we-I see fit. :D
@@TD75 That is true! It can cause breaks easily, If you force them when they are tight, sadly I found out the hard way in an old CB set many moons ago.
In some 'cheaper' radios/receivers I believe they use ferrite cores and powdered iron core for toroid transformers & devices that are driven hard above 10Mhz
Anyway as i said, you are of course correct! care should be taken IF it's not your own device & if you value your own item, then do as you see fit i suppose.
That screwdriver is filed. They do break if you put too much pressure. I don't have any plastic tweakers anymore and didn't feel like buying any.
I have a pear shaped screwdriver with a wire stripper in the handle part, that I filed to fit in such places back in the early 80s still have it to this day. surprising the amount of jobs you find in the future for tools you've modified :)
The hexagon ones are still to this date a nightmare! they break to easy & yes I think a lot of us can relate to doing the same Civil :)
Maybe they switched a lot of analogue stations to mono to allow bandwidth for DAB?
No DAB here. He radio uses the spectrum previously used by SCA service.
The stationa that turned off their stereo, are they mainly talk stations?
Years ago in the UK, the BBC used to turn ON or OFF the stereo on some stations on a per programme basis, depending if the particular programme been broadcast was music or talk.
These are music stations.
Dave, a growing number of low-power stations (regardless of format) in the US have turned off stereo to increase the noise-free reach of their limited signals.
There are a few here too but they also run an HD signal so on an HD radio tuner they play stereo on the HD channels.
@@12voltvids with that said allot of stations are moving to HD radio where an HD tuner would be more necessary?
@@Hi-Tech-Ray I wouldn't say a lot of stations have moved to HD radio but certainly some have and I've added additional streams on the HD2 and HD3 sub channels.
@@12voltvids Although satellite radio has a clear sound to it. After a few years it got to expensive so now I listen to other streaming services which is about the same quality but lesser price than satellite radio
@@12voltvids Would HD radio station be part or most of the blame for interference between radio station frequencies comparing back to prior HD Radio?
Should use a ceramic screwdriver on those. Also for the people watching, be careful these things break easily when adjusting.
Actually a plastic tweaker but i don't have one.
@@12voltvids Most plastic ones I bought like 30 years ago perished or deformed when trying to adjust the ferrite. Some are really like stuck. The ceramic ones which I bought are now over 25 years old and still in perfect shape. Never broke a coil with those. *probably also because that set of tools was really expensive at that time.
@@Luke-san I have seen some made out of wood like chop sticks
I can never find the plastic tweaker that I need, so I often end up carving a matchstick to fit the slugs with square or hex holes through them. Ones with a flat slot may get a carved pen lid or golf tee. The electronic stores only ever stocked a few tweaking tools and they'd disappear as soon as the technical school students find out they were back in stock
I have a Kenwood KR-6050 that had the same problem but worse. It wouldn't quite tune far enough for FM stereo to work. Got another discriminator coil off a trashed Kenwood and it worked fine.
I heard that the IF frequency must be adjusted to 10.7MHz then the 19khz adjusted after the IF?
Sony also had a ST-S707 stereo FM Tuner. Top of the line that one too.
To bad FM is slowly dying. Well here in Norway it's been dead for 5 years now.
Most all FM tuners from my younger days had a way to select mono or stereo but later on that option was taken away meaning that most FM radios would try to receive stereo on and off with a lot of noise that could be reduced if you could switch to mono but that option was no longer there and you were at the mercy of the radio's logic which was usually crummy. I don't think FM radio stations are anywhere as good as they used to be and they're powered down their regular signals. The station itself switching to mono will greatly reduce the noise on the crummy radios of the past 2 decades. Few people are using FM radio as their primary source of music and places that use FM radio for ambient music don't need stereo and noise-free clear mono would work better. I would have loved to have that tuner back all through the 80s when I lived in a rural area (that narrow option would have helped with so many stations 100 miles away).
Every tuner I have even cheap boom boxes and portable have a mono switch. It's not just radio that has alot of mono channels. Ever listen to sxm? Half then are mono.
Same with streaming. Many are set up for those silly smart speakers these days.
@@12voltvids Several cars I've had in the past 30 years did not have the stereo defeat option and had an auto option that kept the noisy stereo on weak stations, which a mono option would have greatly improved. A car is where you really need it since stations are constantly going in and out as you drive. I think there has been a decrease in interest in stereo with all these "smart speakers" people are streaming music to. I remember in the mid to late 90s we had a great 50s and 60s oldies station and they switched to mono for better coverage. 30-40 percent of their songs were mono anyway. I'd rather have clear mono than noisy stereo any day. I think FM has gone tremendously downhill in the past 25 years with every station, no matter the format, having 10-20 songs in heavy rotation (even for classic rock, classic country, or 50s-60s oldies) and switching a few songs in and out of the rotation every week. They're also compressing the life out of the music dynamic range wise and there are way too many commercials relative to music time.
@@3Cr15w311 well commercials is how they pay the salaries of those high priced on-air personalities that you like to listen to. You have that option or you pay XM for their crappy shitty sounding signal. I don't even pick the FM radio in my car pulls in Stereo it sure sounds like mono to me. Tough to tell though because the FM radio on my car kind of sucks. Had it back twice first time they said they changed the antenna because the reception was bad, second time they changed the entire radio unit. It's still bad however the new radio they put in has a fully functional sxm service so I've been listening to that a bit. It's been going now for about 2 years and I haven't paid them a penny. It's funny because I keep getting the mail-outs from them offering me deals on their programming but the radio ID they have on file is totally different than the radio ID in my car. So I don't know what they put in at the dealer maybe they found an old radio and just stuck it in the car and someone had signed that radio up for a lifetime subscription. I don't know but it's working and as long as it works I'll listen when it stops working I'll go back to the listing to my MP3 player.
@@12voltvids Actually I never enjoyed listening to the on-air personalities or DJs and just wanted the music without the DJ talking over the beginnings or endings of the songs. I'd have been happier with a pure music station with the minimum number of commercials (and station ID stuff) mixed in between groups of 2-3 songs to keep the operation afloat. The only useful thing the DJs did was let me know the title and artist of a song if I wasn't already familiar with it but they tended to talk over song intros and outtros which I hated.
@@3Cr15w311 you are the target audience for subscription music service.
Most listen to the radio to keep informed and entertained. Some of the best DJs were the old school jocks from the 60s and 70s. Some of the parodys they pulled off were hilarious. I remember Roy Hennessy and Fred latromoulne parody of the rolling stones Ruby Tuesday. They called it gloomy Thursday and it was a riot. This was back in 68 i think. I was only about 5 or 6 and I still remember it. Both these guys are gone now. Roy just passed away a few weeks ago, Fred lived a block away. Half the fun is the interaction and bantering between the hosts. That was real radio.
I've done the same, then came back a month later and found the tuner drifted again so it wouldn't rx in stereo. MIGHT be a small cap or another component going bad......then again.....maybe not.......???
Hi Dave, great videos! I enjoy working and tinkering with this stuff as well, I tried to send you a message on Patreon, but I dont know if you got it? Had a couple of questions regarding a couple units that I have when you get a sec.
The usual problem on those tuners are their IF (in some tuners) but not on Technics. They're very sensitive.
how do you know what transformer/pot to tweak?, what would be the name on a schematic? I have a proton tuner that has the same problem. It also won't get on AM when I push the button but that is ok as I don't play AM at all. But it would be good to have it come on stereo.
I looked it up on the schematic that's how I know.
@@12voltvids what is the key word (IF something)?
@@razpones IF. Intermediate frequency
@@12voltvids cool thanks! I'll give it a go, I have the service manual on my computer. Cheers!
If i didn't know better, i would wonder if you went in side and tweaked that transformer off tune. i'm just trying to wind you up lol.
I think your antenna is shi.. err faulty :)
I would check the front end, just in case you have a "Crack-us joint- i -cus" Roman term.
Harvey! you at it again :) every time I see you post or live! at crunchers! "For those that like to stir the pot, you should know what you are cooking before you get burned!" :D
“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters.” (Romans 14:1) BTW how'd that JVC @ crunchers end up ? you was there more than me.
@@Ratchet_effect Yes the jvc didn't seem too bad, but as always the recordings that style of tapedeck made will always be crappy but functional.
Mono recordings/playbacks are typical (tight assed manufacturers).
You can't expect too much from a "shed radio" ha ha that's just my opinion.
I'm diffcult to please but sometimes in a kind mood.
I got fed up with graham pissing about, so i didn't stay for the whole torture :-D
Yes i'm a bit too honest. (thats my excuse).
Hi howare you ihave castte recorder akai gx 34 the vu meter not working and the level signal stop on the red line of the vu meter what can i do for that thinks