Need Loewe Hallas shortwave manual

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sofasurfer

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Not sure if this is the right forum but I need a operating manual for a Loewe Opta Hellas shortwave radio. It about a 1961 model. Just bought it. My first radio. Just wanna see if it works. Is there a place I can download a manual?
 

sofasurfer

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I forgot to mention that this is a German radio. All of the text on the back plate is in German. The power cord has no plug but instead has 2 eyelets as if it was connected to power source siminlar to battery terminal. The switch inside is set to 110 volts and you can use 220 volts also.
 

sofasurfer

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Thats it. Thats about the only site I found referring to this radio. And on this site I did not see anything about a manual. I clicked on the drop down boxes and they show sub-topics but they are not active and when I click them they do not work. Any ideas on that?
 

majoco

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If you can take a good photo of the dial, knobs and pushbuttons so that we can read the legends, we should be able to talk you through it. Also the back panel connections. The fact that the power cord has been removed sounds suspicious.
 

sofasurfer

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Heres some pics. If you want better I can do it. Right now I want to know if those two wires with the eyelets are actually the 110 volt connectors. This is a German radio and all text on the back cover is German. I mainly just want to see if it powers up but I figure that if I burn it up on the first try would not be preferable.
 

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majoco

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No No No! The mains cord is the brown lead. The eyelets and the lever are for setting the mains voltage. IMHO i'd set it round to 127volts, 110volts seesm too low these days for the USofA. I would guess there's a fuse missing from those two clips just to the left of the voltage selector arm, it may tell you on the back panel waht value to use but I'd guess at 2Amps.
The black flat lead coming down from the top of the case is the FM antenna - it should be connected to those two blue plugs left hand side of the chassis rear.

Should sound good with those big speakers and 4 ECL86's to drive them.

Give us a better pic of the front panel pushbuttons se we can see what they say, although if you just press the one marked "UKW" you may hear some FM stations - once you put the fuse in of course! it appears to only go up to 104MHz so you'll miss some US stations. If you see any smoke, pull the plug quick! Don't forget it will take a minute or so to warm up. "AUS" will turn it off.There's a rotating ferrite rod antenna for the BC band, it'll be marked as the "MW" button, you may see another marked "FA" which connects the internal antenna. Expect the switches to be very noisy, hopefully they'll clean up as you use it.
 

sofasurfer

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I will post some better images. Sorry, I was in a hurry. I am confused by what you said...

"The mains cord is the brown lead. The eyelets and the lever are for setting the mains voltage"

The cord coming out of the back on the right hand side, on the floor, has 2 eyelets on the end. The dial-looking thing on the chassis is a voltage setting.
 
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majoco

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Aah, I didn't know you meant the other end of the mains lead! I see it now, wasn't paying attention! So put a plug on it, a standard US style power plug that fits your wall socket.
 

sofasurfer

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Here is some better images.
 

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sofasurfer

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I am missing 1 knob and the bass setting doing not work. Looks like something that can be fixed though.
Ok radio guys, lets get this beast humming.
I provided a better picture showing the voltage setting control and the cord with the eyelets..
 

majoco

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Voltage setting - loosen the screw holding the lever down, move the lever to the 127v hole, tighten the screw.
I see now that it's a version made for the US market, the VHF band goes up to 108MHz and the writing is in English.
I take it you mean the bass control does not turn.
You need to cut off the eyelets and fit a US power plug and a fuse.
The black flat lead coming down from the top of the case is the FM antenna - it should be connected to those two blue plugs left hand side of the chassis rear.
Stereo radio won't work, the decoder is not fitted.
 

sofasurfer

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On the backboard it says "Sicherung 110-127v: 1,6a trage" which is "Fuse 110-127 volt 1.6 amp wear". Don't know what "wear" means.
It also says "anodensicherung (0,25a trage) nach abnahme der bodenplatte zugnglich". "anodensicherung" means "anode insurance" or "anode fuse". "anodensicherung (0,25a/trage) nach abnahme der bodenplatte zugnglich" means "anode insurance (0.25a / wear) after acceptance of the base plate accessible". Is this important?

Theres quite a bit more but nothing that looks too important.
 

majoco

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So put a 1.6Amp fuse in the clips by the voltage selector.
The other bit says that under the base cover there is a 250mA fuse to protect the tubes in case of a fault.
 

sofasurfer

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Powered it up today. Light on front comes on. No sound at all. All tubes are lit except for one. As you look at the picture of the back side, the area where 4 tubes are in a row, the forth tube from the right is not lit.
Any clues here?
 

sofasurfer

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The blown tube is a Valvo ECL86. I see in the photo that at least one of the others in the row is also a ECL86. Hopefully we will find that this is the audio circuit.
 

majoco

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You'll have more luck looking for a 6GW8 in the US, ECL86 is a European designation. What, no sound at all? What buttons did you press? Did you turn up the volume?I would guess that there are two outputs driving all those speakers, one pair if ECL86's for each output. Even with one tube out, the busted side should still produce some sound, even if very distorted. Is there a green tuning indicator on the front panel, or it should be green - with no B+ voltage it might be out - just a faint red glow.
 
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