Vintage New antique arrived today

[majoco]

This Nova-Tech was on our local auction web page with a starting bid of NZ$48 say US$40 with a few lurkers watching but when it came to the crunch I was the only bidder so it's mine. The photos made it look good and I wanted a LF band radio for beacon hunting. It arrived this morning and I was amazed - it's immaculate! Not only does it look like it's never been used but it came in it's original box with all the accessories still in their polythene bags and a very smart leather case AND the instruction booklet AND the guarantee card showing it was bought in Lautoka, Fiji in on 18th March 1972. The only problem so far is the foam pad that holds the battery pack in place has just disintegrated into powder and spread itself all over the dial scale transparency. I'll give it a try out this evening when it gets dark to see if I can get my favourite test station, PMQ Port McQuarie 395kHz over the other side of the Tasman.

 

[VK3RX]

Nice find - not seen one of those before.

 

[simpilo]

Has it been recapped? I hope it has. Leaky caps eat PCB's.

 

[spongella]

I'll bet it'll be great on the AM broadcast band. Good find, enjoy.

 

[a29zuk]

Boy, that's a nice looking radio! Most of the electronics these days are black or silver.

Jim

 

[krokus]

That is a beauty. Check for leaking electrolytics.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[majoco]

I've given it a good inspection and no signs (or smells!) of any leaking caps - in fact the whole radio inside and out is like it just came out of the factory. It works very well, good sensitivity, no scratchy controls or switches, a good selection of BC stations and LF beacons last night although it was raining and cold outside so I didn't stray far from the fire!

 

[techman210]

There didn't seem to be a leaking capacitor problem until China started making them. Caps would go bad, but they would rarely leak.

 

[simpilo]

Looks like it's been recapped.

 

[danesgs]

Nice radio and great condition! Perhaps bought but never used and sat in a cool dry place for many years (very rare on its own) congrats and let us know how it does on the NDB band

 

[spongella]

One thing about replacing capacitors in old radios and just my opinion. I always check how the radio works first. If it works fine, best to leave it alone. At least initially. Sure you can open up the cabinet and look for those that have leaked or look puffed. I usually enjoy listening to the radio first while reading up on reviews and blogs to see if there were any issues and hints on what historically has failed. Then I make a decision whether to go ahead. Some ops just go ahead and replace 'em and that is fine, but I take the lazy man's approach and so far it's worked for me.

Enjoy your radio. These were also advertised in old boating magazines.

 

[majoco]

IMHO this radio has been stored in a cool dark dry place (Bob Dylan?) for many years. The inspectors tell-tale nail polish is still on the PC mount screws and even the staples in the instruction booklet are still bright and shiny so it has not been recapped or any work done on it at all. It only takes about 15mA current from the batteries when tuned off station so there's no leakage current of any significance there - quite a low current really for a radio with 14 transistors. Cold and raining on Friday evening so I didn't stray far from the fire - under a steel roof I still managed to catch the NDB at Kaitaia on 238kHz which is about 380 great circle miles and heaps of BC band stations - all our BC band stations are networked so with an analogue display it's difficult to accurately locate the transmitter site - even so there are often two stations on the same frequency at each end of the country making it even harder!

 

[KK4JUG]

New Antique? Isn't that an oxymoron? Kinda like plastic glasses, tight slacks, Microsoft Works, criminal intelligence, border control, etc.

 

[pjxii]

Nice find, Martin! How wide do you think the bandwidth filter is? I had an old Zenith lunchbox that had great LW sensitivity but had horrible selectivity to seperate beacons even with turning the radio (no rotatable antenna on that one).

 

[FedFyrGuy]

It's a beauty. Great find! Love displaying and tinkering with the older radios.

 

[majoco]

Among the lightning crashes I just heard Norfolk Island NDB 260kHz by nulling out a local Wanaganui NDB on 262kHz. 891 naut. miles to NLK from here - not bad for just the ferrite antenna - wasn't booming in on my G33DDC from an OCFD.

Yes, I do think the bandwidth is a little wide - I haven't put any test gear on it yet - it may benefit from a tweak - some manufacturers actually trim the IF a little wide to make it sound a bit better.