Nikko Gamma I: cleaning tuner capacitor

thoro

New Member
Hi,

I am having problems with high level of noise as poor reception on my Nikko Gamma I. I have read the sticky regarding cleaning analog tuners and it seems pretty straight-forward. However, the local repair shop in town had a look at the tuner and claim that it cannot be cleaned as the tuner would get misaligned if the cover for the tuning capacitor is removed!
I have never heard anything like that before. There are screws to remove the cover and I can see adjustment screws under the cover (which I have no intention to touch) so I cannot see that it would get out of alignment only because the cover is removed.
Would anyone have any idea if there is any truth to the repair shop's claim for this particular tuner?
I have attached some photos and can upload more if needed.
Thanks

Tom
 

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Take it off. It will be okay when you replace the cover.

If the RF front end, the adjustments that you see, is off a little, resulting in poor reception, it can be adjusted using received FM stations.

This is another one of the tuners that uses ceramic filters for the IF chain (in the narrow mode). This eliminates the need for alignment of the IF chain. Possibly one of the more complex parts of a tuner's alignment.

I have posted the steps on AK. With the correct non metallic hex tools and screw driver is is not difficult. The service manual gives all of the steps and even tells you to use the signal meter on the tuner as the indicator (make the adjustments for maximum deflection of the signal strength meter).
 
BTW, what are you using for an antenna?

Are you able to get good reception on other receivers? What kind of noise do you hear?
 
Agreed, no reason not to take off the cover, clean and replace. The only way I can think of that would get you into trouble is taking off the cover, doing a full alignment and then replacing the cover. Then you would probably end up with a poor result.

So either your shop is unclear on what you intend to do or is trying to scare you into paying him to do something you can easily do yourself for almost nothing.
 
Maybe they misunderstood your intentions. It's not going to clean itself! So as the other members have said, go ahead. Removing any oxidation will result in an improvement, if you have scratchy sounds and dropouts when tuning, it will help for sure. You want to make sure to follow the instructions on the sticky and not spray the vanes.
 
Thanks to everyone for your feedback - that is much appreciated. I feel more confident to remove that cover now and will follow the instructions to the letter.
I am using a simple indoor T-dipole at the moment, and while not ideal, I do not have any problems pulling in stations with an entry-level Yamaha tuner using the same antenna, so the issue should not be due the antenna. I also took the Nikko to a friend's house and connected it to an outdoor 3-element antenna, but noise level was still high.

I also read some reviewer's comments on fmtunerinfo and one of them mentioned that several of the Gamma I's tend to get misaligned/detuned with age (for reasons never mentioned in the reviews...)

I don't think the shop wanted to do the job themselves actually. In fact, the reason why I contacted them in the first place was because I wanted a quote if they were do do the cleaning. I figured that the Faderlube and the other cans would cost a bit of money and I would probably not need them for many years if they cleaning was successful, so for this reason I wanted to check how much the shop would charge for the job.
Their advice is a bit worrying though, and I will probably think twice before contacting them again.

Cheers

Tom
 
I am having problems with high level of noise as poor reception

Remember, unwanted noise can come from places other than the RF section of the tuner.

When you hear the noise, how strong (what is the indication on the signal strength meter) is the station?

When a station is tuned in (when the signal strength meter is a maximum) is the center tuning meter centered?

What does the noise sound like?
 
The noise between stations is 1.5 (out of 5) on the signal strength meter. I am unable to find any stations that would get a full 5 on the signal strength meter. The strongest ones are between 3 and 4 (with the centre tuning meter centered). And this is about 20 miles from city of London so there are plenty of strong stations that should give good reception. Another thing I noticed is that one channel occasionally goes completely quiet and comes back again after turning the tuning capacitor to and fro, which going by the comments in the "cleaning thread" led me to believe the tuning capacitor is the culprit here, but you are right - it could come from other places too.
 
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