Booming in Baltimore, Maryland!

[funkateer]

Hello everybody-- I've been lurking around the forums since late last year, but hadn't posted to a forum yet, til just recently. I posted something in the Panasonic "Tech Talk" group, because my one vintage box is an RX-5500, but because there was no subforum for that model and I couldn't figure out how to add one (and didn't want to post my RX-5500-related post to an RX-5050 forum, for instance (!), I think my post introducing myself wound up in some kind of hidden hierarchy just above the model numbers...

As a teen back in the early 80s, I had a fairly cheap Sanyo M9903K, but always lusted after a friend's larger and bassier Panasonic.....in recent years I found myself thinking about it and wondering what model it was, and after some research, decided it was likely an RX-5500. I bought one on eBay and have been loving it, but accidentally bent the antenna in a freak accident....took me a long time, but finally located a backup unit also with an original antenna, and am trying to switch them out. Got the broken one out of the one unit fine (after loosening the screw, it pulled straight on out of it) but the weird thing is that the antenna in the OTHER unit does not want to pull out, even after similar unscrewing! Anyway, all the details are in the Tech Talk forum....I don't want to repeat it all here, a second time. But if anyone is familiar with the sort of unusual antennas these models use (they telescope down vertically, directly and almost fully into the boombox body), I'd sooo appreciate the help!

Thanks in advance everybody--
Funkateer

 

[funkateer]

HELLO in here.....
............................in here.....
......................................in here.....
...............................................in here..........anybody home?

 

[Hisrudeness]

How you doing funkateer? A few new members recently and you probably got lost in the shuffle.
yes those older Pannys with the internal aerials are a pain. Had similar problems with a 4360 and am trying to find a replacement aerial for a 70s national panasonic mono.

Thats a big north east city, what are the local boombox pickings like up there?

 

[funkateer]

Hi Hisrudenessi! I'm probably not like a lot of other members, who probably go around to junk shops and pawn shops, scoping out vintage boomboxes for as cheap as they can (hopefully) be gotten -- that's because I'm not really a collector per se (at least not yet), as I only own one model (the National Panasonic RX-5500FA)....actually, I've got two of that model; but nothing else. I got them on eBay, after watching prices for awhile, both asking and "sold" prices. My goal right now is just to get ONE of them in really nice shape, with all-original everything.....after that, though, who knows. I may wind up really catching the bug! But I've got another expensive hobby, too, playing electric guitar, and with some vintage Gibsons, and only a half-decent practice amp right now, that's prob my next splurge...!

Can I ask you about something your wrote though? When you wrote the old Panasonic internal antennas are a pain, how did you mean that? Were you talking about trying to find those aerials -- ie, finding original parts? Or were you talking about working with them, as in trying to remove them and install replacements? Because it's that second one I'm having the confusion about. I realize they're fairly rare, too -- it didn't take too many weeks of checking the online auctions sites for "RX-5500 antenna" or even vintage Panasonic antennas, before I realized it was going to be a looong wait before just the antenna pops on there. However, semi-broken RX-5500 units --- that's a different matter. Those do materialize, and that's the route I took to get my hands on another original RX-5500 aerial. I just need to find some people on here who are pretty familiar with these on Panasonics -- someone who has removed one before, and knows what needs to be done. Like I said, I've loosened it at the bottom -- that much is done. But I think that black ring is keeping it from pulling out of the casing. The other antenna (the broken one) came straight out and didn't have the black plastic ring thing (maybe why it came right out...? ....so I ask myself: did the person who last had the unit break that ring off accidentally, or on purpose, in removing the antenna? Hmmm.

My posting is probably a little hard to follow, too, because the pics didn't post the way they should...how I intended them to. For some reason, one of them posted twice, and another one only shows up in a little thumbnail at the bottom. Weird.

So -- what should I do, if my post on the Tech Talk forum is kind of buried, due to not having it's own RX-5500 subforum? Is there another appropriate forum for a shortened version -- concerning the removal of the interior aerial?

Thanks in advance-

 

[goodman]

Hello and welcome to this forum.
I wrote an answer in your topic.

 

[funkateer]

I saw it, and thank you again! I’m totally willing to take advice from ppl on here even if they aren’t necessarily experts in RX-5500s etc…. anyone who takes old boom boxes apart likely could have some ideas or advice…. And likely knows a lot more than me.
Best regards-
Funkateer

 

[masterblaster]

This Might help to loosen the antenna? See red arrow.

 

[funkateer]

Thanks -- like I wrote in my post, I did take out out the screw (from the outside/back of the boombox)....in fact, I can move the lower part of the antenna back and forth now...it doesn't appear to be attached to anything at the lower end anymore. It seems like it now SHOULD pull straight up and out of there, as I was able to do that on the unit with the broken antenna (once that screw was out, the antenna pulled right out). But I noticed that THAT antenna (the broken one, pictured in the last pic in my "Tech Talk" post "RX-5500 - How to remove antenna?") is completely smooth at the top of the thickest section...it's just metal. But if you look at the antenna that I'm not able to remove, there seems to be this black (plastic?) sort of ring, or something, at the very top, which indeed would keep it from pulling out! It's hard to see, as it's deep in there, and in the shadows -- I've tried to get a good photo of it, but it’s very hard to do that… see attached. ( I circled it on a couple of them).
My suspicion is that this black piece— not present on the other antenna—is indeed keeping it from pulling out and if I do as the guy I bought the box from -- a restorer! -- and just "pulled very hard" using WD40, I'm likely to have something break on me -- like maybe the black ring. Or, worse, the antenna itself!

 

[funkateer]

Compare those to the antenna— also original— that I was able to easily remove only by removing the screw: