Receiver's FM reception - how to fix it?

kvandekrol

New Member
I have a SR-8100 DC (which most people here probably haven't dealt with since it's from the early 80's after the Superscope era) that gets perfect FM reception... on one station.

I am in the middle of a city and there are several strong radio stations being broadcast, but the only one my receiver will pick up is 98.5, a country station - and when it picks it up, it plays very clearly, and the signal strength is at max. Could there be a problem with the tuner such that it can only pick up stations around a certain range?

Anyone have any ideas what the problem is, and how to fix it?
 
It could be that you are too close to the country station's broadcast tower. If you are, then you will pick up that station only, and you won't pick up any of the other stations even if they are fairly high powered stations. Assuming you have other radios and can pick up other stations, then I don't know what to tell you.
 
This unit has a synthezied tuner. Switch off the auto tune and try to tune it manually by pressing up/down keys, if it does not tune at all, then it may have a faulty PLL ( many called it computer ) ic. This is quite common fault, any brand.
 
Take it for a ride!

Seriously, have you tried taking it to another location -- a friend or relative's house -- and seeing how it works there? Before I started tweaking the "computer" I'd make sure the unit's limited performance isn't just the result of a bad location.

Good luck and let us know how it works out.
 
The station is located in a neighboring town, and is no closer than 8 miles away, so there's no way it could be impeding with other signals.

If I use manual tuning, I can pick up about half of the radio stations that I should be able to pick up, but only barely, at the lowest signal strength, and with a lot of static. I don't use any sort of antenna.

I just moved and all my other radio-capable equipment is still packed away, so I haven't had a chance to test anything else, but that was my next step. It just seemed weird that I got one station at full strength and nothing else..
 
You said you didn't use an antenna.

It is CRUCIAL to use an FM antenna. A simple folded dipole, with 300 ohms characteristic impedance, is widely available for under $5.

Here in San Diego, WITH a folded dipole a typical FM receiver will get about 25 stations in clean stereo. WITHOUT the antenna, it will only get 2-3.

There are smaller FM antennas available -- nice looking by the way -- made by Terk. If aesthetics are a problem, you might look into one of them. Prices vary from $20 - $40 or so.

Fred Longworth
 
That must be the problem then! I was under the impression that the power cord acted as an antenna when it comes to FM radio. Was that just not the case back in '81?
 
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