[telstar]

I recently restored one of these AM/FM table radios from 1958. It was a tricky job being compact. The volume control (10 meg) was faulty on its tracking, and many efforts to clean the track proved to be difficult.

Eventually I managed to obtain a replacement control (with switch), but removing the old one and fitting the replacement made it a very awkward job. Because the control is so long in length and there are components packed tightly behind, much preparation was required. Anyhow whilst fitting the new control I accidentally damaged the wiper terminal of the control, but all was not lost as I was able to solder the wires to the remains of the metal. So, once the potentiometer & switch were wired up, all the components behind were reinstalled and rewired (a tedious job)

It is not easy working on these radios as the aluminium aerial for AM is very fragile and does not take kindly to being knocked about, and it is not easy to remove. Apparently, the aluminium aerial did snap and hence the problem of repairing it. Luckily a neighbour had a "workmate" table and we were able to hold the chassis down, drill holes in both ends of the aerial at the top, and then add a short piece of aluminium (with corresponding holes to match up). Then the repair was completed by adding nuts and bolts to join the aerial together. The radio then worked on AM bands.

The FM came back to life after finding one of those link plugs that you put in the aerial socket and a reasonable length of wire.

Just imagine what this repair would have cost to perform by engineers in a workshop!