sony: ICF-5500M; Captain 55: Alignment

ID: 391397
This article refers to the model: Captain 55 ICF-5500M (Sony Corporation; Tokyo)

sony: ICF-5500M; Captain 55: Alignment 
17.Jan.16 20:50
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Michael Watterson (IRL)
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The 1974 UK service manual doesn't seem to mention this, or I may have missed it.

  1. Remove the batteries and carefully prise off all knobs.
  2. Take out the four rear screws
  3. Lift chassis out from battery end. It comes out easily especially if all top switches are at off.
  4. Tune past 530KHz till end of scale. There is a small white line on the scale film. Align with slot on mount by gently disengaging the scale film drive cog.

Make sure on VHF alignment that the AFC is OFF and if using a cheap "MP3 FM" transmitter, don't feed audio to it.

There are two slots, one for VHF scale on left and one for AM on the right to show tuned frequency. The VU meter pops out to reveal L3, RF VHF trimmer (88MHz). On my model the CT8 (108MHz ) is beside it but accessed from PCB side. The service manual specifies 86.5 MHz and 109.5MHz as tuning points. If you are using a cheap MP3 player FM TX, use 88MHz (or 87.5MHz) and 107.50MHz (or 108MHz) instead. The Local Oscillator is CT7 (108MHz) and L6 (88MHz). L6 seems to be tricky. Use a plastic tool.

Otherwise follow the service manual. Email me if I forget to upload the rest of it.

As an aside, the power consumption is actually less than a TENTH of a 21st Century DAB radio (30 hours on 4 x Alkaline D cells). It should manage over 150 hours on  3 x Alkaline C cells.

 

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