Photo Gallery II – More projects

Over the last year or two I have uploaded scads of photos of past repairs, and I keep promising myself to make a page or two write-up on each.  Fast-forward many months and only a few have gotten done.  That said, I think for now the best idea would be to just get the pictures up and add comments later as I get time.  Deal?  Deal.

The GRAETZ Luxus-Stereosuper Fantasia 822 – A full restoration (electrically and mechanically) of a German HiFi radio from the mid-50’s. These are big multiand radios with Longwave, Shortwave 1+2, MiddleWave (“AM”) and FM. The FM section on this unit goes all the way up to 108 MHz as it was a factory export model sent to the US. Domestic models for Europe only went to 100 MHz due to a conflict with police frequencies at the time on top of the band. This unit is stereo in all aspects EXCEPT the tuner, which lacks the multiplexer. I don’t think stereo FM broadcast was widely available until several years later. One could, however, plug in a stereo tape machine or turntable. It uses 4 output tubes, EL-95’s, a bit similar to EL-84’s. This full resto required many hours of work, but the cabinet and finish were nearly mint as I found it – so the job was a worthwhile one. Many of these old queens of the airwaves did not survive well – often relegated to attics and basements which destroyed their fine finishes. All the plastics on this unit also survived very well, with only gentle cleaning and polshing required. Every coupling cap, indeed every cap other than a few mylars and ceramics (and there were DOZENS) were replaced since the original types started to get leaky. This also required then a full alignment of the RF sections. The IF frequency for the AM sections is 460 MHz, the IF for the FM section is the more usual 10.7 MHz. This unit sounds really sweet and has 4 internal speakers. It also has one of those wonderful built-in rotatable ferrite stick antennas with a knob on the front to turn it – this really lets you null out the noise. The reception and tone are excellent.

Detail of some of the many orange drops installed – these in one of the tone sections of the Fantasia.

This Acetone got new orange drops everywhere. It needed it.