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Vintage Radio (domestic) Domestic vintage radio (wireless) receivers only.

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Old 18th Jan 2017, 8:50 pm   #1
Strange Brew
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Default Help with a Bush VTR 103

Hi all.

I've had this radio for a long time now but over the past year or so it started to sound like it was, well... trumping... lol -

That is the sound went all funny and once I did get a balance of sound by half pressing down the VHF button the volume was always too high even just after the 'on' click and the station would always drift in to static after a while and had to re-tune it back.

I love this radio and so yesterday I opened her up and started by cleaning the tone control. I removed the pot and gave it a good clean with De-Oxit.

My next task is the troublesome on/off volume pot but that will need de-soldering to get at it properly.

Can anyone tell me what other parts may need cleaning and if anyone here or know of someone who has any spare parts, just in case?

Many thanks for your time.
Regards
Josie x
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Old 19th Jan 2017, 9:46 am   #2
'LIVEWIRE?'
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Default Re: Help with a Bush VTR 103

The push-button switches might benefit from cleaning. I normally use Servisol Super 10 for this kind of job, but Deoxit may be better.
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Old 19th Jan 2017, 11:20 am   #3
simpsons
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Default Re: Help with a Bush VTR 103

There are many posts on this radio including those by BVWS and a Trader schematic is also available. (Should you be unfamiliar with schematic diagrams no problem there are ways around this.)

Could "trumpeting" be "motorboating" which is when the radio will "all by itself seem to change the volume up caused possibly by failing electrolytic capacitors or instability caused by by-pass capacitors going o/c.

In the first instance then the suspect could be c57 150uF or c59 8uF at a pinch; for instability, read the post by Pete Roberts on the this forum. You only have to bridge the capacitors to find the culprit rather than take each out until you find the little bxxxer.

Unless moving the volume control creates large unregulated changes in volume ie it is a noisy control, I would leave well alone and anyway it looks perfectly easy to squirt switch cleaner into it if that is the problem but, holding down the w/change switch to stop the trumpeting suggests otherwise.

You don't mention if the problem occurs both on am and fm reception or only on one waveband and this fact will also help narrow down the fault.

I am confident that you will soon have your treasured radio back in full working order.

Chris
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Old 19th Jan 2017, 7:56 pm   #4
Strange Brew
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Default Re: Help with a Bush VTR 103

Hi guys.

Many thanks for your help. It's really appreciated.

I switched it on today and got 'trumpeting' and basically an awful lot of noise. Not only that but terrible reception. I could hardly find anything apart from Radio 1.

VHF is the worst and MW is not too far behind it.

To be honest I'm no expert on electronics so I'd really love to find someone who can look at it for me. Is there anyone here you can recommend?

The volume is really loud when I switch it on and without increasing the volume, if I increase it, the sound is the same (awful) but louder.

The sound is simply awful, it seems to have gotten worse over the past year too.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Josie
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Old 19th Jan 2017, 11:32 pm   #5
Refugee
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Default Re: Help with a Bush VTR 103

I have got a VTR103 but I have been kicked off it due to emergency works on the garden robots. They had to be done two to three months early. There is another big job to be done out there too before I get back to it.

The VTR103 I have got has produced a little bit of program sound on all bands at some time during assessment as to what is wrong.
Have a good read about AF117 transistors as that is what mine sounds like it needs.
Yours might need one of those plastic cased capacitors replaced as well.
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