Admiral - They Should All Be This Easy!

Here is a beautiful Admiral 1950's Clock Radio M298 Sea Foam Green. Just like the other one I posted to Radio Attic Archives ( sold May 2014)

This one came to me from a loving home in Michigan where it probably spent most of its happy life. When I opened the box, I found it caringly packaged and even clean on the exterior. There was no shipping damage which always makes me happy!

Here's what it looked like on my workbench:

Couple little dings and small chips, but nothing to cry over.

So I proceeded to open it open and that's when the party ended. It looked like it had been living in a dust factory for 50 years:

Yuk! These old radios were used in bedrooms so they trap lint over the years from bed linens, dander, room dust. They are usually stored in attics or garages after the original owner casts them aside in favor of new technology. They usually get damaged or destroyed over years of storage. But, not this one...

 

After hearing it play for a few minutes, I decided it needed a new filter capacitor. It was humming very loudly. Not uncommon since original filter capacitors were made of paper and beeswax and dry out over time. The filter capacitor is that red cylinder above covered in dust.

The last person who replaced the filter capacitor wrote down "Filter 9/67." I wrote below it "Jan 2015." Now, let's stop and consider this clock radio was probably purchased in the late fifties or early sixties. It provided almost 10 years or service before the owner decided to send it to the repair shop probably because it started to hum. The owner chose this over ditching the radio in favor of new technology. This is a good sign that the owner cared for the item and was willing to invest money to keep it running.

 

So here's what it looks like after some cleaning. Much nicer. And the filter capacitor fixed the humming problem. Nothing else was needed to get this beauty back on the road. Like I said at the beginning, I wish they were all this easy! Care and routine maintenance goes a long way in the lifespan of radios like this. Same philosophy carries over in other areas I can think of...

 

finis