Realistic STA-120B Calibration?

[aiglesias24]

Hey, y’all! I’m new to AK and very new to analog equipment in general, so my apologies in advance if this isn’t the right place for this or if this is a silly question. Not sure if calibration is the right term for this either.

I recently purchased a Realistic STA-120B receiver. I’ve really been enjoying it, it sounds great with my record player and I love the look of it!

Recently, I’ve been playing around with the FM tuner and have been discovering that there’s some cool radio stations here in Austin!

Onto my problem, the dial does not seem to properly point to the radio station I’m tuned to. Right now I’m tuned to 91.7 FM, but the dial is showing 90.0 FM.

I couldn’t find much online on a fix for this, so it’d be helpful if someone could point me in the right direction, especially since I’ve never opened up or messed with any analog stuff.

Thank you!

 

[chazix]

Hey, y’all! I’m new to AK and very new to analog equipment in general, so my apologies in advance if this isn’t the right place for this or if this is a silly question. Not sure if calibration is the right term for this either.

Welcome to AK. Good place, not silly. Tuner-heads, at least in the U.S., usually use the term "alignment", but I don't think anyone will mistake your meaning.

I have two suggestions for starters. First is to check whether the dial pointer moves freely between the might-be-marked-but-I-don't-know end points of the tuning scale. That's to rule out a mechanical misalignment. (A more or less equivalent check would be to see if AM has better tracking between the pointer and the actual station frequency.)

The second suggestion is to see if you can find some service information that includes tuner alignment procedures. It looks like there is at least a partial service manual on hifiengine.com, but unless you are already registered on that site, this might not help

 

[Punker X]

Dial calibration if not mechanical is two adjustments to the local oscillator circuit. Coil you would adjust for your station at 91.7, or if you have a station closer to 90 would be better. The trim capacitor would be adjusted around 106. this will get you close. Before doing this I would suggest looking at the sticky thread at the top about cleaning the front-end. It will change the capacitance of the front-end and could bring the dial alignment closer with out touching the adjustments.