Hitachi TRK 8190 - no stereo reception in FM

Hi all, this is my first post. Thanks for adding me to the forum.

I've been trying to get my 8190 fully working after changing the belts.

I've opened it up a few times and on the most recent reassembly noticed that I had no stereo in FM mode even though the signal was fairly strong. It's not just the LED as the music is also in mono. The cassette tape plays correctly in stereo.

I didn't notice this before, so maybe something I've done accidentally. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might go about repairing this?

Also, there seems to be a white and yellow wire coming from the antenna, but only a pole connector for the white wire? Anyone else noticed this?

Thanks in advance!

Hello and to forum.
Is the any difference if you switch knob "mono - stereo" on top?

You can lose a couple of db though dirty connections. There is a crimp lug screwed onto the aerial base accessed from inside.

There should be two posts on the tuner PCb. One for white, one for yellow. Try swap these ones.

Thanks for the replies.

@goodman - no the mono/stereo switch has no effect on the radio

@hopey - I can only see only one connector post (white), the yellow antenna connector seems to be just an unused hole on the PCB.

The signal strength indicator is showing 5/6 LEDs which I thought would be sufficient to decode stereo?

Was the pilot tone frequency measured?

toshik said:

Was the pilot tone frequency measured?

Click to expand...

no, I don't know how to do that. It sounds like it's beyond my level of expertise/test equipment.

OK

I had a look in the service manual. Would this be step 6 FM MPX adjustment?

I tried turning RT302 throughout its full range whilst monitoring the FM stereo light and also tried some deoxit and tweaking the other adjustable pots (everything reverted to pre-marked positions).

Guess I would just need a cheapish frequency counter for this? I only currently have a multimeter.

beamrider said:

@hopey - I can only see only one connector post (white), the yellow antenna connector seems to be just an unused hole on the PCB.

Click to expand...

That could be your problem. Is there any wire at all running from an antenna and connecting to a board?

There are two wires from the antennas (yellow & white). Only one antenna post on the PCB (labelled white).

The signal strength looks healthy at +3db (only one unlit LED) with a piece of wire into the white connector.

Usually, in boomboxes with dual antennas, one will be for AM/MW and the other for FM. I don't have my 8190 handy at the moment to check my wiring to the board. I'll try to do that later this evening.

The yellow and white wires are for built in antenna and external antenna. As you seem to have enough signal strength it points towards the Mono Stereo Switch.

RT301 is the FM separation adjustment. That's where I'd start. Measure the resistance across the ends of the pot and see if you read 1K ohms.

I own that model. When removing the rear panel, there are 4 wires you need to pull. If it's less than 4, you have a problem.

When there's a stereo problem on any boombox, it's usually because the stereo pilot adjuster is out of adjustment, probably because the radio was knocked around during shipping. It's usually marked VR01 or 19KHZ on the tuner circuit board, while VR02 is usually the stereo separation pot (which I rarely ever touch). Adjust VR01 until the stereo light comes on. Simple.

Thanks for replies again.

hopey said:

The yellow and white wires are for built in antenna and external antenna. As you seem to have enough signal strength it points towards the Mono Stereo Switch.

Click to expand...

It could be that, but it does work correctly for tape operation.

caution said:

RT301 is the FM separation adjustment. That's where I'd start. Measure the resistance across the ends of the pot and see if you read 1K ohms.

Click to expand...

I'll give that a try tonight....

Reli said:

I own that model. When removing the rear panel, there are 4 wires you need to pull. If it's less than 4, you have a problem.

When there's a stereo problem on any boombox, it's usually because the stereo pilot adjuster is out of adjustment, probably because the radio was knocked around during shipping. It's usually marked VR01 or 19KHZ on the tuner circuit board, while VR02 is usually the stereo separation pot (which I rarely ever touch). Adjust VR01 until the stereo light comes on. Simple.

Click to expand...

It does have 4 wires in total, 3 Power + 1 Antenna.

Adjustments available are

• RT302 FM Multplex adjustment - it should read 19khz +/- 100Hz according to the service manual.
• RT301 Stereo Separation

I've tried turning both through their full range of movement but the stereo light never comes on. (I reset to original position afterwards).

I don't have a frequency counter, but ordered a cheap one from EBay, so will try and check RT302 when it arrives.

Once again, thanks for the helpful replies.

The reason your tape deck plays stereo is because it's just playing whatever is on the tape (which is stereo music). It doesn't need to decode the signals. They're already in stereo. Same with the AUX jacks. But the tuner is different, it needs to decode the broadcast into stereo. That's why there's a decoder chip, and pots that need to be adjusted.

The correct pot is usually labeled VR1 or VR01. If your service manual says it's RT302, that's odd, and pretty dumb on their part to use a proprietary code nobody else uses. In any case, tune to one of the strongest FM stations and then adjust that pot. If the stereo light still doesn't come on, maybe that pot needs cleaning, as it often gets corroded. In fact, some people have needed to replace it.

Another possibility is dirty switches on top of the boombox. Particularly the Function switch, the Band switch, and maybe the Stereo/Mono switch (although that's never given me as many problems as those other 2 switches).

The band switch is a bit iffy, so that could be a suspect. I've tried squirting some de-oxit inside it but hasn't made much difference, in-fact may have even made it worse...

It's a slide type inside a metal housing, guess I'll need to de-solder it and strip it down..

Sometimes you need to wiggle the knob in between the bands to get the best result.

I've cleaned the band switch and function selector switch but it hasn't made any difference.

The resistance across RT301 was ~1200 ohms. I could adjust it down to 1097 but the stereo light never came on so I've reverted it for now.

+ the stereo/mono switch works for the tape, so it can't be the switch itself.

Soy nuevo en el foro y tengo el mismo modelo de Hitachi, se pudo arreglar?.Tengo el mismo problema.Gracias.