Super Sonomatic; "SUPER" project!

[Drakeule]

 Success!

 

After 6 hours, and with the help of two instructors, we finally got the radio going. There were initial problems with the oscillator section, but once that was sorted out, we again injected a signal, which was very weak. Tracing it through, we found that the problem was in the detector circuit, most specifically, the resistors and capacitors attached to the volume control. Main instructor (and work horse) Oscar and Dick finally figured out that Oscar had soldered one end of a capacitor to the wrong spot!; when resoldered correctly, Bingo, a lot of volume, and it works on all 5 bands!

 

Next Tuesday, I'll go back and tighten up some leads ,most specifically the ones belonging to the "hash" capacitors,which reside within the metal "coffin". Its outline is pictured in the 5 July posting, and its function is to suppress the crazy RF "hash" produced by the vibrator contacts from the rest of the circuit.

 

I'll also reassemble as much of the radio as possible,excluding the rear cover. It came without one, but Greg was able to produce 2 from regular Sonomatica; I'll have to get someone (e.g., my mechanic son in law) to cut the lip off of a regular one, and weld it on to the intact lip on the other (as the Super Sonomatic's is indeed deeper, due to the increase circuitry.)

 

Then (God willing) I'll just have to pick which '40 I want to put it in!

 

 

 

P.S. Well, as one picture (video) is worth a thousand words,I wanted to attach a video. However, the site keeps telling me it's too large!

 

 

[Daves1940Buick56S]

13 hours ago, Kenneth Carr said:

They did this to my grandfather’s Zenith console. The shortwave bands were disabled. Nobody ever returned to fix the radio after the war. This was done because he was born in Italy. My grandfather, Andrea Calise, earned his US citizenship in early 1941 when he took his test in front of a local judge. Upon approaching the judge he told him that he had left his glasses at home and so could not read the test. The judge read the test to him and grandpa passed. Glasses were not the issue,my grandfather could not read or write. After coming to this country he eventually brought over his mother and his 10 brothers and sisters. There was a temporary home and a job waiting for each. And during the war his future son-in-law, my dad, served in Paton’s army. Hopefully we never treat our citizens this way again. The photos show gramps (original and colorized) and my parents.

Just a data point. My friend's family was Italian (his dad was born here but both parents were still Italian citizens when the war started) and lived near Pittsburg. They had a Hallicrafters S20R and used it during the entire war to get overseas news. No one ever approached them about disabling anything. I ended up with the receiver and it was all original, but too beat up to restore. Maybe this was only near the coasts as someone said.

[Drakeule]

BTW, does anybody have an extra female power connector to power this radio? It looks like a BNC connector, but isn't!

Thanks,

C Drake

[Eddie-O]

Drakeule, 

The spice of life is to succeed where others have failed. Kudos! By the end of the week you should receive 50 SS radios by UPS for repairs. You may have opened Pandora’s box by telling everyone. Just kidding. Now if you want a real challenge, I’ll send you my SS, still all in pieces from the so called repair man (ie:butcher) who was an expert at fixing radios. That should keep you busy for the next year or two. Ha! Again, Great Job! Like I said earlier, those SS radios are a different animal. Congrats!

[Drakeule]

SS is up and running well (I think.) Much off my voltage drop was the result of too long a run and too small gauge of wire. When I installed the correct "bullet" twist connector with 15 A fuse, the voltage drop decreased!

Now, I need to try it hooked up to the car battery. Again, voltage drop needs to be considered.Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

Now, it looks like the support used in the '41 is different than the '40 (41 uses 2 suspended supports; 40 has 1 going from the firewall to the back of the dashboard.) Also, the SS ' support bolts are not as far back as the 40 Sonomatic's, so if I want to install the SS in the Roadmaster, I'll have to move that radio support bolt about an inch back. Has anybody ever attempted this ?

 

P.S. I would love to attach a video of the SS in action; can I do this?

 

Thanks,

CD

[neil morse]

2 hours ago, Drakeule said:

P.S. I would love to attach a video of the SS in action; can I do this?

If you upload your video to YouTube and post a link, it will work very well.  I don't know of any other way to directly post a video on this forum.

[Drakeule]

All:

 

Look what I found under my pillow last night! The coveted escutcheons for the Super Sonomatic. And I didn't pay "hundreds of dollars" for them. I just have a great "Wizard" who watches over me!

 

CD