Hello my radio friends. I'm here because this is the ultimate site for information from many who are experienced in radio and electronics and happily volunteer to answer.
I purchased a used Realistic DX-302 on eBay a month ago and am slowly restoring it to original electronic working condition. Cosmetically it's about a 7, had two missing back feet and the little spinner on the knob was missing. Those were replaced with junk box items. As was usual with this radio, the plastic kHz tuning gear was cracked. Two-part epoxy was a temporary fix.
The radio powered up and received all bands (a little weak on LW though) reasonably well using an outdoor 30' vertical. Audio quality was disappointing. Usual scratchy pots. dirty switches, all taken care of with DeOxit.
Got ahold of the user and service manual and am going through the electronics. Found a fellow ham on eBay who sells condenser/transistor repair kits which I bought and am replacing the condensers slowly. A few were faulty, one was completely (C390) gone. Most passed as per my Capacitor Wizard/Cap meter but were replaced anyway. Why take chances as long as the radio was on the operating table hihi.
I did notice some slight differences in the components on the IF/AF PC board this radio versus the board components in the repair manual. Does anyone know if there were different versions of this board? From what I gather the DX-302 was sold for about four years so perhaps some new board versions were introduced.
This is a general call to anyone who's had experience either repairing this model radio or who's owned one. How did you like the radio's performance? Did you enjoy using it? Did you have any specific issues you ran into? Any likes/dislikes?
There is info on the Internet about mods/improvements and I’ve looked at most of them. For now, parts replacement and alignment take priority.
I'm just a several decades old tinkerer and this radio has captured my interest. Not sure why but my hope is to get it running and use it for LW/MW/HF listening.
Thank you in advance and Happy Holidays to all.
I purchased a used Realistic DX-302 on eBay a month ago and am slowly restoring it to original electronic working condition. Cosmetically it's about a 7, had two missing back feet and the little spinner on the knob was missing. Those were replaced with junk box items. As was usual with this radio, the plastic kHz tuning gear was cracked. Two-part epoxy was a temporary fix.
The radio powered up and received all bands (a little weak on LW though) reasonably well using an outdoor 30' vertical. Audio quality was disappointing. Usual scratchy pots. dirty switches, all taken care of with DeOxit.
Got ahold of the user and service manual and am going through the electronics. Found a fellow ham on eBay who sells condenser/transistor repair kits which I bought and am replacing the condensers slowly. A few were faulty, one was completely (C390) gone. Most passed as per my Capacitor Wizard/Cap meter but were replaced anyway. Why take chances as long as the radio was on the operating table hihi.
I did notice some slight differences in the components on the IF/AF PC board this radio versus the board components in the repair manual. Does anyone know if there were different versions of this board? From what I gather the DX-302 was sold for about four years so perhaps some new board versions were introduced.
This is a general call to anyone who's had experience either repairing this model radio or who's owned one. How did you like the radio's performance? Did you enjoy using it? Did you have any specific issues you ran into? Any likes/dislikes?
There is info on the Internet about mods/improvements and I’ve looked at most of them. For now, parts replacement and alignment take priority.
I'm just a several decades old tinkerer and this radio has captured my interest. Not sure why but my hope is to get it running and use it for LW/MW/HF listening.
Thank you in advance and Happy Holidays to all.
