This cute little Sony 11-transistor portable AM/FM radio, the TFM-116L, recently came through the shop. It’s owner purchased it new back in 1967 while he was stationed overseas with the armed forces, and had been listening all through the years until it started developing some trouble.
The owner reported that it was generally just not sounding good. Unfortunately, both telescoping FM antennas had long-since gone missing, which wasn’t helping matters, but an internal inspection revealed that its many capacitors had failed with age.
New capacitors were installed easily enough. The volume control was very scratchy, so it was unmounted for cleaning.
Along the way, the dial string snapped. Normally this is a major hassle, but fortunately, it was able to be repaired with a tensioning spring quickly and easily.
Finally, some overviews of the new capacitors:
While this radio’s FM reception is degraded due to the missing antennas, I was able to add a small loop inside the case for FM reception which did noticeably improve matters. And so this radio returns home better than before, and ready for a few more years of service. Here’s it playing:
Hello,
I have a SONY TFM-8100WA 3-band radio (am/fm/weax) purchased in 1973. The radio still receives a signal on all three bands, but output is not audible unless using earphones. Seems like either the speaker or amplifier has gone out.
Can you troubleshoot and repair this, or recommend someone who can?
Thanks for your advice. Great article on your repair of the TFM-116L above.
Michael