Bush VHF61 'half resto' repair

[Katar83]

Good to know and thanks for confirming. All sorted now and I've fitted replacement dial glass(that a forum member here supplied) so radio is now all complete. Very happy with it and just need to decide now where to put it. Fingers crossed should work for many years to come

[stevehertz]

Lovely job! It's an FM set, put it somewhere where it can be used.

[PaulR]

Yes it looks really good. Can you tell us where you got the speaker cloth?

[Katar83]

Radio will definitely be used and not just for display, just need to find a space for it, either somewhere in the living room or kitchen

I got the speaker cloth on eBay, eBay item number:403834846216, there's a guy that sells many different patterns there and after browsing through all of them I thought this one would work best with the Bush. Cloth has a proper vintage look and feel to it and its of very good quality so cant complain and I can recommend it. It is a bit expensive but oh well...

[PaulR]

Found the cloth on ebay. Fairly expensive but hopefully you only buy it once! Thank you

[Nickthedentist]

Very nice, the speaker cloth really does finish it off well.

These are good sets, only slightly let down in terms of sound quality by the smallish speaker and Bakelite cabinet, but not at all bad for a compact set.

Bush build quality and reliability too.

[PaulR]

I have to say that mine drifts rather on FM as it warms up. I have a second one on the shelf waiting to be done so it will be interesting to see how stable that is

[yestertech]

W-O-W
Looks absolutely fabulous.
Good to know the dial glass has found a home after a 10 year wait in the loft !!!

Andy

[Katar83]

Thanks Guys! I actually don't mind the bakelite case, if it was wooden case which I would normally pick, it would have been long gone by now. I wouldn't mind an extra tweezer but still this sounds surprisingly good.

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I don't think mine drifts on VHF, at least not noticeably, although its mainly on BBC which I would describe as quite 'wide' station so maybe I'm not noticing? If it did, I'd probably go for the caps in the VHF box first, think there were some silver micas in there, mine are still within 15% spec wise and all seems to be working so I've left them.

I also somehow managed to improve reception on MW, while replacing the dial glass. I've finally glued coils to the ferrite rod, glued them as far apart as possible on the glued rod and now pick quite few stations. LW is non existent though on internal antenna, can just about pick one french station and that's about it. Not a big issue as it will be on FM for 95% of its running time.

PS

Thanks again Andy!

[joebog1]

Yes!! Its a very pretty wireless. I do like the speaker cloth, fits in perfectly, even though I have never seen ANY Bush radios.

Joe

[stevehertz]

My VHF 94 drifted on FM. Couldn't find the cause no way.

[Leon Crampin]

I improved the FM tuning drift on a couple of VHF61s by fitting a blackened screening can to the ECC85. The valve runs noticeably cooler with this mod - and possibly has a longer life.

Leon.

[PaulR]

Interesting! Thanks Leon

[Techman]

Mine drifts on first warm up. I'm chasing it up the scale slightly to clear the distortion in the first five minutes from switch on and then a little bit more after 10 - 15 minutes and then it gradually creeps back down to where it started. The best technique is to switch it on before you need to listen to it and forget about it for half an hour while it drifts up the scale and then back down again to the correct tuning position. It's not a massive drift, but enough to be annoying if you've just switched it on to listen to something in particular, as you have to keep getting up to tweak it back into tune.

I tried the black valve can trick, but I found it made no discernible difference, so re-fitted the original can. However, seeing as it's said that it helps the valve's longevity then I may revert back to the black can again.

I'm listening to the VHF61 at this very moment and it's settled down nicely - took about 20 minutes from switch on to stabilise.

I notice that it's a common irritation with this model and I don't remember anyone actually ever getting to the bottom of it - the old Grundig sets from the same time period don't drift at all.

[PaulR]

My Cossor 524 is dead stable. The drifting means that the Bush doesn't take a turn on the daily use rota

[ms660]

Here's the results of a VHF oscillator drift test for a Bush VHF64 as done by the BBC.

Lawrence.

[Pilot Mariner]

I have several Bush VHF61 and 64 sets. On all of them I found that drift was caused by the rubber mounting grommets for the tuning assembly being perished. This would cause the whole tuning assembly to be loose and move about during and after tuning causing the drift.
Unfortunately it's not an easy job to replace the grommets.

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by ms660

Here's the results of a VHF oscillator drift test for a Bush VHF64 as done by the BBC.

Lawrence.

Thanks Lawrence. That explains a lot, it seems a fair degree of drift was 'built in', obviously unintentional but nonetheless there.

[Katar83]

Originally Posted by Pilot Mariner

I have several Bush VHF61 and 64 sets. On all of them I found that drift was caused by the rubber mounting grommets for the tuning assembly being perished. This would cause the whole tuning assembly to be loose and move about during and after tuning causing the drift.
Unfortunately it's not an easy job to replace the grommets.

That is very interesting as I've spotted a few of these grommets perishing on this radio and indeed thought that it would be a pain to replace them all

[Techman]

Originally Posted by Pilot Mariner

I found that drift was caused by the rubber mounting grommets for the tuning assembly being perished.

An interesting theory. I did wonder if the drifting was caused by more of a physical thing rather than an electronic cause - although you could still possibly argue that this was still 'physical'.

My VH61 has been on for a few hours now and is rock solid with no further drifting, as is normal with this set. You'd think that bad grommets would be continuously varying and causing small movements over all that time, but certainly something to think about and possibly investigate further.