Not Getting strong enough stations...

[baddboybill]

My Marantz CRS4000 had worked great picking up stereo stations when I 1 st got it living near Chicago. I live in rural area with bad reception and this bbx suffers. I get 4-5 strong stations on 1-2 on each end of tuner but get poor signal with no stereo centrally on tuner. Antenna fully raised and boxed moved around but still have hard time with some stations any ideas or is it just tuner on this box not strong enough tape deck runs strong

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Hi Bill,

I have the same Marantz and the radio works fantastic! I live close to O'Hare airport. I was wondering if your other boomboxes too have the problem with poor radio reception.

Do you see the weak reception in FM and AM bands? I believe mine got 4 bands. I will check mine again tomorrow and see how it works. Mine is in mint condition. It's been a while I played with it.

 

[baddboybill]

Hi Bill,

I have the same Marantz and the radio works fantastic! I live close to O'Hare airport. I was wondering if your other boomboxes too have the problem with poor radio reception.

Do you see the weak reception in FM and AM bands? I believe mine got 4 bands. I will check mine again tomorrow and see how it works. Mine is in mint condition. It's been a while I played with it.

No this seems to be one of the only ones not getting fm reception I am about 65 miles SW of Chi town but in the middle of hills and fields...I know when I lived in Justice reception was great but it seems like all my middle stations are weak with no stereo. I even tried mono figuring that may help but not

 

[baddboybill]

Ok so I tried this box again on other side of my house. So I was able to tune a couple central stations while antenna was only half way up. This was so weird because as soon as I opened antenna to full length I lost station :superduper: any ideas of theory. I have read other posts on similarity but they don't seem to answer why

 

[monchito]

have u tried placing the box in mono and see if u can pick out more stations ,, if the box has one of those electronic mpx feature where it automaticly picks the strong station and squelches the weaker stations then not good ,, there are a few boxes that have that feature what happens is the that circuit stops working correctly,, i could not get any station even fairly strong ones but if i placed it in mono all stations came in..well come to find out that ic was failing and not avalible.. now if your tuner is the older type and has lost sensitivity than it needs to be looked at more carefully to see which part is going bad since u have transistors, diodes, caps, that after time they stop working correctly just like a resistor can change value if failing causing the radio not to work correctly ,,other known problem is power ,,not getting enough power will cause it to not work correctly ..to be honest working on tuners is not easy especialy if u do not have a service manual that has a schematic to go along checking certain test points.......

 

[baddboybill]

Yes Ramon, I did try in mono but get same. It is picking up stations but being in hilly area it's difficult. The weird thing was, I listen to only a couple stations here, one being 100.7. Yesterday in my kitchen with full antenna and moving around I got a non clear signal of that station. I could here music but not stereo and very weak. Today I tried in my bedroom on other side of house and it was same until I lowered antenna half way down then it came in strong in stereo that is weird I would have thought since this bbx has like a 40"+ antenna I would pull in great signal

 

[monchito]

well in that case then it looks like the box is fine ,,it just a matter of location ,, ,,

 

[baddboybill]

well in that case then it looks like the box is fine ,,it just a matter of location ,, ,,

This is what I'm figuring, but it's still strange, plus this is a Marantz so its quality built, but I have non quality boxes ( like new lenox to name one ) that pull stations in much better this is my dilemma

 

[Superduper]

I think your tuner is out of alignment. It will cost $$'s to have a good tuner shop align it for you. Were you ever inside poking around? Those little copper coils are easily deformed and throws off the alignment.

 

[TW5]

Only simple solution is if the wires from
the antenna to the board is loose.

 

[baddboybill]

I think your tuner is out of alignment. It will cost $$'s to have a good tuner shop align it for you. Were you ever inside poking around? Those little copper coils are easily deformed and throws off the alignment.

Yeah I never touched coils. I did change belts and clean up. Plus I installed a spring for deck door. But tuner issues actually started when I moved here from city area and before I opened up. I am listening to the station that kind of weak here and it's working great with antenna at half mast

 

[baddboybill]

Only simple solution is if the wires from
the antenna to the board is loose.

Yeah I had tried to resolder the post to board but nothing changed a while ago.

 

[TW5]

Ya never touch the coils , alignment, unless you know what your doing.
And its usually not the problem.

Second thing might be an electrolytic capacitor in the AGC (automatic gain control) circuit.
that has gone bad, IF, RF sections.

Seems like if the station gets too strong it goes bad..
Might be an AGC problem.

 

[baddboybill]

Ya never touch the coils , alignment, unless you know what your doing.
And its usually not the problem.

Second thing might be an electrolytic capacitor in the AGC (automatic gain control) circuit.
that has gone bad, IF, RF sections.

Seems like if the station gets too strong it goes bad..
Might be an AGC problem.

So what are my options really like to get this back to par

 

[Superduper]

I think your tuner is out of alignment. It will cost $$'s to have a good tuner shop align it for you. Were you ever inside poking around? Those little copper coils are easily deformed and throws off the alignment.

Yeah I never touched coils. I did change belts and clean up. Plus I installed a spring for deck door. But tuner issues actually started when I moved here from city area and before I opened up. I am listening to the station that kind of weak here and it's working great with antenna at half mast

Not deliberately of course but the coils I'm talking about are those little copper free air coils. Looks just like a few loops of soft copper wire. They bend easily and the shape affects the fm. Sometimes they are stiffened with setting wax, sometimes not. It's almost impossible not to touch them if you aren't specifically watching out for and avoiding them. Almost every time that fm behaves weird, it's because the alignment has drifted. It could be because the agc has an issue, but because you are getting better performance at the ends of the band and poor performance near the center of the band, I really wonder if it isn't alignment has drifted. The move was probably just a coincidence. In any event, you need professional service.

 

[baddboybill]

Thanks Norm, Any recommendation's it's just a long shot but could you do this if I shipped it

 

[TW5]

..if you know a good repair shop
with a good tech guy there
they should be able to fix it.
Call first and ask.

Sometimes them car audio shops
can look at it too.

Another odd place to try is a College with a
Electronics department.
Someone might look at for free if they have time.

Is Pacific Stereo still there?

 

[baddboybill]

Only tuner coils I see are under the aluminum cover that covers tuner and area. Both coils are wrapped around plasic type tube I noticed the cover seemed little loose where it's soldered to board so I used iron to resolder that joint plus the post for antenna hook up. My initial test in my kitchen again with antenna full mast hard tuning but some stations did. Now at half mast all stations tune strong and hold in stereo. I also noticed a service sticker from audio repair shop in California stuck to side of bbx....Here are pics

 

[baddboybill]

..if you know a good repair shop
with a good tech guy there
they should be able to fix it.
Call first and ask.

Sometimes them car audio shops
can look at it too.

Another odd place to try is a College with a
Electronics department.
Someone might look at for free if they have time.

Is Pacific Stereo still there?

Not sure if they are. For the most part I think it's the area. I get many stations strong as long as antenna only half up plus they stay strong I'm taking a ride to go to my kids school tonight and taking the box with to Chicago to see if I get better reception. I will inform of results

 

[baddboybill]

Just tested radio stations out in Chicago, and all stations are coming in strong with antenna fully extended. So I am presuming that FM tuner is fine.