This is just a quick repair of a Grundig Transistor 305 radio, there wasn't much wrong with it, just a corroded and very dead battery, and a seized tuner (a fairly common fault), other than that it just needed a good clean. If you're looking for full on electronics repair on one of these radios you'll need to look elsewhere, but if you just want a little look round the radio and to see how I free up a seized tuner, then stick around.
Hi salmurry, I love the old Grundig radios, they're such good quality - they'd have been well out of my affordability range when I was a kid (I only had run of the mill hand me downs), so it's great to get hold of them now for not a lot of money and bring them back to life. I got hold of a Yacht Boy 210 (at least I think it's a 210) last weekend - it's gorgeous and mostly working, there's a few things to fix on it, so there'll be a video one of these days. Cheers for watching.
I have just acquired the same radio with the very same problem. Tuning dial frozen solid. Your video is just what I need. I will also need to work on a AC bypass becuase the power connector appears to be of ancient type which is no longer around.
Excellent, they're a nice little radio once they're up and running. I have a bit of a soft spot for the old Grundig radios, there are three of them in the collection so far.......
Great video. I joined the RAF as an apprentice in 1971 and bought one of these at our NAAFI shop. Pretty good sound but I don't remember what happened to it.
Hi Peter, that's really cool - when I was a kid I only had cheap second hand radios, never anything as good as a Grundig. This radio makes me smile every time I look at it, and it cleaned up really well from the shabby pile of junk I saw in a second hand shop. Ta for watching.
Yeah, I really like the Grundig radios - I didn't have anything nearly as good as this when I was a kid, kind of nice to be able to find them for not a lot of money nowadays.
Rádio com grandes qualidades, merece o reparo e retornar às suas funções operacionais, belo trabalho de reparação, parabéns. P.S. Desejo adquirir um rádio da Grundig, já antecipo os meus agradecimentos em uma disponibilidade futura.
Olá decastrosilva, obrigado pelo comentário - sou um grande fã desses rádios antigos, eles são muito bem feitos e ainda soam muito bem hoje. O afinador emperrado parece ser um problema comum, mas felizmente é fácil de consertar, embora às vezes possa ser um pouco complicado. Espero que o Google Tradutor tenha identificado seu idioma corretamente e que minha resposta faça sentido quando eu a traduzir de volta para você. Hi decastrosilva, thanks for the comment - I'm a big fan of these old radios, they're beautifully made and still sound great today. The sticking tuner seems to be a common problem but luckily it's easy enough to repair, although it can be a bit fiddly at times. I hope Google Translate has identified your language correctly and that my reply makes sense when I translate it back to you.
Hi ohjajohh, yeah, that battery was pretty messy, although the old batteries like that were in some ways better than modern alkaline batteries - they used to go flat and then leak, making a horrible rusty mess, whereas, modern alkaline batteries (or at least SOME modern alkaline batteries) carry on working in something like a radio or torch, and you've got no clue that they need replacing because the item is still working, but they're busy leaking a very corrosive chemical inside your device - countless Maglite torches have died this way because the corrosion destroys the aluminium body of the torch. I've also had plastic items literally crumble due to leaking alkaline batteries. In an ideal world I guess you'd check the condition of batteries every couple of months, but in the real world, who has the time..... Cheers for watching
Well done! I love these old compact 70th radios, too. They sound great. I have a telefunken partner universal which has a separate knob for radio Luxembourg as a fixed preprogrammed station on shortwave. Of course the station does not exist any more, but back then this was the station to listen to for young people in Germany. How did you get the "safe music" into the radio? Do you have a small transmitter?
I just had a look online at the Telefunken Partner Universal - I love the radio Luxembourg knob, what an awesome idea. Telefunken is another brand that I like, although the two items I have were sold in the UK under the Olympia name, which was owned by the same parent company at the time (or at least I think that was the reason). Back in the days when the iPod was a fairly new device and not all car stereos had a line in, and bluetooth wasn't a thing, you could get a small FM transmitter that plugged into the iPod - it could only reach a few feet away, which is probably how they got away with selling them - anyway, it comes in really handy when demonstrating a radio. It's a pity really, if someone is demonstrating a vintage radio on RUclips, you really want to hear it playing music. Some of the small channels seem to slip under the radar and play huge chunks of a song, but I'd hate to risk a copyright strike myself. Cheers for watching and telling me about that cool Telefunken radio of yours.
Ah ha, yes, there'll probably be an unhappy component or dry joint somewhere - sometimes they're easy to track down, sometimes less so!!! Cheers for watching Ben.
Yeah, it's amazing how many things I end up fixing just by looking and finding that broken wire/dry joint and so on. I was really happy when it was obvious that no one had messed with the radio before I got it - with so many things my heart sinks when it's clear that someone has been there before me, because usually people having a go causes more faults than the original problem!!!
My father had one of those in the 70s. I think he got it in the early 70s, and kept it into the early 80s. I don't know whatever happened to it. I have a Transistor 3001, which I got in 1977. The on/off button has an issue. You have to hold the button halfway down in order to get power to the unit. Several years ago my father took the radio to someone to try and fix that (which didn't happen). In fact he brought it back to me with a new problem (on the FM circuit). All I get on FM is static, and nothing else. I'm wondering if something got disconnected. And maybe that on/off switch problem might be an easy fix? I don't know. I would love to have that radio working again. I really miss listening to it. That model also seems to be quite rare.
They're rather cool things these old radios - makes a change not to be tied to some sort of computer to listen to music or whatever. A quick search suggests that the Grundig Transistor 3001 was the export name for the ocean Boy 209, what a lovely looking radio. The fault with the power switch isn't likely to be too difficult to fix, in theory, but sometimes theory can be a tricky thing!!! It could be as simple as dirty contacts, and a bit of Deoxit or Servisol Super 10 might cure it. Alternatively, there might be something wrong with the latching mechanism on that switch, so it rests in the wrong position - that would be a bit more difficult to fix. The FM static issue might be as simple as the telescopic ariel no longer working - I don't know how they connect the ariel on your model, but on my Concert Boy, there's a pretty dodgy friction connection that can get bent when the case is opened. Or it could be a screw or wire that attaches the ariel to the rest of the circuit board. Obviously it could be something more complicated, but the ariel would be my first thing to check because that's simple, and I always like to start with the simple stuff.
Great vid as always. I'm intrigued by the AM and FM selection, I'm more used to MW/LW anf VHF at that time. Was this sold internationally? Also the AM tuning scale is intriguing, with the kHz and a similar-looking scale underneath that's a little different. Any idea what that was about? I do love these retro portable radios. Used to have a Hacker Hunter at one time that took 2 PP9 batteries! I had to slim down my collection a bit when I moved to the States about 15 years ago, but I kept my 1959 Bush TR82.
Cheers John, I've been using analogue radios since I was a kid, and throughout that time I've never really paid any attention to the radio frequencies - I simply turn the dial to the approximate position that I expect to find the station I want, then home in on the best signal. I know this probably sounds a bit dumb, but it's just the way I've worked - I hadn't even paid the scale any attention on this radio. The top scale is KhZ for AM (if I remember correctly, AM is basically Medium Wave, although technically SW and LW are all AM ie amplitude modulation frequencies), and the smaller scale beneath is calibrated in metres, so 700kHz is about 429 metres. For the FM scale, the top one is in mHz, with the lower one marked as Channels - I'd have to look that one up to see what the channels refers to. Ah ha, the channels, marked from 200 to 300 looks like it refers to US FM frequencies, and I guess that answers the question about the radio being sold internationally. I do remember some radios that had a pair of PP9 batteries from when I was a kid - I was surprised that I could still get a PP9, presumably there are still plenty of old radios up and running otherwise they wouldn't still make the batteries. I have a battery operated valve radio (which is in the naughty pile because I haven't managed to fix it yet), that one has a 90 volt battery and something like a 3 volt battery - the high one for the vacuum tubes and the low one for the heating elements - the 3 volt supply was easy enough but I had to create a Franken battery, linking 10 PP3s in series to get the 90 volt supply!!! It was only after I'd made the Franken battery that I discovered people selling mains power supplies to replace these old high voltage batteries - that would have been much simpler.
Any idea where to get a replacement battery or what the AC power supply number is? Looks like a rewire job to install the little 9V now available. Thanks and THANKS!
Hi peetcgee, I'm not sure where you're based, but in the UK you can still get those PP9 batteries in hardware shops, although I actually got mine from Amazon because that was easier at the time. I didn't look into power supplies because I like running my portable radios off batteries - unlike modern DAB radios which eat batteries on a daily basis.
Hi Gluttonite, you should be ok swapping the connector for one that takes a PP3, just as long as you keep the polarity the same way round. Obviously the PP3 won't last as long because it's a much smaller battery, and it may even struggle for power at louder volumes. I'd be tempted to use two PP3s in parallel, in other words, fit two PP3 connectors, keeping both the red leads together and the two black leads together, that way you just get more power but remain at 9 volts.
Hi Jackie, I'm sure there must be a decent source of replacement ariels, but I haven't tracked it down yet. I needed a replacement ariel for one of my other radios and I couldn't find anything, so I just repaired what I had as best as I could so I could use the radio.
Hi Jackie, I don't suppose you have a multi meter so you can check to see exactly how much current the radio is drawing while turned off. In theory the on off switch should cut the power to the radio completely, so either the switch is somehow still letting power get to part of the circuit while turned off, or someone has done a repair at some time that partly bypasses the switch......but thinking about it, if there's any sign of old battery leakage like my radio had, there could be some rusty mess on the circuit board that's conductive, not enough to stop the radio from working, but enough to drain power when switched off. Probably a good idea to have a quick look for dirt/rust/battery electrolyte on the circuit board. Are you using the big PP9 battery, or are you substituting a small PP3? my guess is that a PP3 won't last very long. For what it's worth, I haven't turned mine on for about a year - just tried it and it's working fine, so if you can track down whatever is ailing yours, you should have a nice little radio in the end.
@@GrumpyTimthanks, I’m temporarily using smaller pp3, but there’s definitely some kind of energy leak after turning it of, because sometimes I can hear hum in the speaker. It doesn’t happen all the time, but occasionally it comes alive like this.
Hi Jackie, yeah, there's definitely something funny happening there - if I get a chance I'll take a look at mine sometime to see if the switch is a multi pole switch that isn't turning off one side - it might be cutting power from the tuner but leaving the amp powered or something like that.
I can assure you that if I took it to bits it would never get put back together correctly and there would be bits left over. That’s even without trying to fix it. I admire your patience Tim. My father loved his radios (including Grundig) and took the SW ones to sea with him. I’m a huge radio fan but with no signal where I live due to the hills, so it’s internet only until I move house. Cheers. Lee
Ah, I hadn't thought about the lack of signal where you are Lee, I guess that would limit your listening to a few crackly channels of stuff you didn't want to listen to!!! I used to listen to radios lots when I was a kid, then when I started work I would buy firstly records, then CDs and never really touched a radio again until the last few years - there's something fun about just turning the dial until you find something you like (albeit that I tend to find more that I don't particularly like these days). Cheers for watching.
@@GrumpyTim I agree Tim. Even on the Radio Garden app (beautifully designed and implemented) almost all the channels are middle of the road syndicated pap). I do explore internet radio quite a bit but I still have a marketing for the old Bakelite and wooden cabinets where the stations were labelled (the light programme, Hilversum etc). I’m likely to stay in the area and will be renting near to an army base until I find another house, so maybe they will have good signals out there? They do have some very interesting traffic in and out on the ground and in the air!
This is just a quick repair of a Grundig Transistor 305 radio, there wasn't much wrong with it, just a corroded and very dead battery, and a seized tuner (a fairly common fault), other than that it just needed a good clean. If you're looking for full on electronics repair on one of these radios you'll need to look elsewhere, but if you just want a little look round the radio and to see how I free up a seized tuner, then stick around.
I bought that radio in early 1972 in the states. Best portable I ever had. Simple but great reception. Solidly built
Hi salmurry, I love the old Grundig radios, they're such good quality - they'd have been well out of my affordability range when I was a kid (I only had run of the mill hand me downs), so it's great to get hold of them now for not a lot of money and bring them back to life. I got hold of a Yacht Boy 210 (at least I think it's a 210) last weekend - it's gorgeous and mostly working, there's a few things to fix on it, so there'll be a video one of these days.
Cheers for watching.
I have just acquired the same radio with the very same problem. Tuning dial frozen solid. Your video is just what I need. I will also need to work on a AC bypass becuase the power connector appears to be of ancient type which is no longer around.
Excellent, they're a nice little radio once they're up and running. I have a bit of a soft spot for the old Grundig radios, there are three of them in the collection so far.......
Great video. I joined the RAF as an apprentice in 1971 and bought one of these at our NAAFI shop. Pretty good sound but I don't remember what happened to it.
Hi Peter, that's really cool - when I was a kid I only had cheap second hand radios, never anything as good as a Grundig. This radio makes me smile every time I look at it, and it cleaned up really well from the shabby pile of junk I saw in a second hand shop. Ta for watching.
Had that radio in early 70s. Terrific radio
Yeah, I really like the Grundig radios - I didn't have anything nearly as good as this when I was a kid, kind of nice to be able to find them for not a lot of money nowadays.
Rádio com grandes qualidades, merece o reparo e retornar às suas funções operacionais, belo trabalho de reparação, parabéns.
P.S. Desejo adquirir um rádio da Grundig, já antecipo os meus agradecimentos em uma disponibilidade futura.
Olá decastrosilva, obrigado pelo comentário - sou um grande fã desses rádios antigos, eles são muito bem feitos e ainda soam muito bem hoje. O afinador emperrado parece ser um problema comum, mas felizmente é fácil de consertar, embora às vezes possa ser um pouco complicado. Espero que o Google Tradutor tenha identificado seu idioma corretamente e que minha resposta faça sentido quando eu a traduzir de volta para você.
Hi decastrosilva, thanks for the comment - I'm a big fan of these old radios, they're beautifully made and still sound great today. The sticking tuner seems to be a common problem but luckily it's easy enough to repair, although it can be a bit fiddly at times. I hope Google Translate has identified your language correctly and that my reply makes sense when I translate it back to you.
@@GrumpyTim 👍🤝👏👏👏
Great repair video. That battery was quite messy indeed
Hi ohjajohh, yeah, that battery was pretty messy, although the old batteries like that were in some ways better than modern alkaline batteries - they used to go flat and then leak, making a horrible rusty mess, whereas, modern alkaline batteries (or at least SOME modern alkaline batteries) carry on working in something like a radio or torch, and you've got no clue that they need replacing because the item is still working, but they're busy leaking a very corrosive chemical inside your device - countless Maglite torches have died this way because the corrosion destroys the aluminium body of the torch. I've also had plastic items literally crumble due to leaking alkaline batteries. In an ideal world I guess you'd check the condition of batteries every couple of months, but in the real world, who has the time.....
Cheers for watching
Well done! I love these old compact 70th radios, too. They sound great.
I have a telefunken partner universal which has a separate knob for radio Luxembourg as a fixed preprogrammed station on shortwave. Of course the station does not exist any more, but back then this was the station to listen to for young people in Germany.
How did you get the "safe music" into the radio? Do you have a small transmitter?
I just had a look online at the Telefunken Partner Universal - I love the radio Luxembourg knob, what an awesome idea. Telefunken is another brand that I like, although the two items I have were sold in the UK under the Olympia name, which was owned by the same parent company at the time (or at least I think that was the reason).
Back in the days when the iPod was a fairly new device and not all car stereos had a line in, and bluetooth wasn't a thing, you could get a small FM transmitter that plugged into the iPod - it could only reach a few feet away, which is probably how they got away with selling them - anyway, it comes in really handy when demonstrating a radio. It's a pity really, if someone is demonstrating a vintage radio on RUclips, you really want to hear it playing music. Some of the small channels seem to slip under the radar and play huge chunks of a song, but I'd hate to risk a copyright strike myself.
Cheers for watching and telling me about that cool Telefunken radio of yours.
Well done. I have a Murphy to look at but it is mechanically perfect, just motor boats on FM. I will have to take it apart and look for the culprit.
Ah ha, yes, there'll probably be an unhappy component or dry joint somewhere - sometimes they're easy to track down, sometimes less so!!! Cheers for watching Ben.
@@GrumpyTim Might well be a dry joint. AM and long wave work very well.
Yeah, it's amazing how many things I end up fixing just by looking and finding that broken wire/dry joint and so on. I was really happy when it was obvious that no one had messed with the radio before I got it - with so many things my heart sinks when it's clear that someone has been there before me, because usually people having a go causes more faults than the original problem!!!
@@GrumpyTim That's true!
My father had one of those in the 70s. I think he got it in the early 70s, and kept it into the early 80s. I don't know whatever happened to it. I have a Transistor 3001, which I got in 1977. The on/off button has an issue. You have to hold the button halfway down in order to get power to the unit. Several years ago my father took the radio to someone to try and fix that (which didn't happen). In fact he brought it back to me with a new problem (on the FM circuit). All I get on FM is static, and nothing else. I'm wondering if something got disconnected. And maybe that on/off switch problem might be an easy fix? I don't know. I would love to have that radio working again. I really miss listening to it. That model also seems to be quite rare.
They're rather cool things these old radios - makes a change not to be tied to some sort of computer to listen to music or whatever. A quick search suggests that the Grundig Transistor 3001 was the export name for the ocean Boy 209, what a lovely looking radio. The fault with the power switch isn't likely to be too difficult to fix, in theory, but sometimes theory can be a tricky thing!!! It could be as simple as dirty contacts, and a bit of Deoxit or Servisol Super 10 might cure it. Alternatively, there might be something wrong with the latching mechanism on that switch, so it rests in the wrong position - that would be a bit more difficult to fix.
The FM static issue might be as simple as the telescopic ariel no longer working - I don't know how they connect the ariel on your model, but on my Concert Boy, there's a pretty dodgy friction connection that can get bent when the case is opened. Or it could be a screw or wire that attaches the ariel to the rest of the circuit board. Obviously it could be something more complicated, but the ariel would be my first thing to check because that's simple, and I always like to start with the simple stuff.
@@GrumpyTim Thank you for your reply, and for the interesting video.
Great vid as always. I'm intrigued by the AM and FM selection, I'm more used to MW/LW anf VHF at that time. Was this sold internationally? Also the AM tuning scale is intriguing, with the kHz and a similar-looking scale underneath that's a little different. Any idea what that was about? I do love these retro portable radios. Used to have a Hacker Hunter at one time that took 2 PP9 batteries! I had to slim down my collection a bit when I moved to the States about 15 years ago, but I kept my 1959 Bush TR82.
Cheers John, I've been using analogue radios since I was a kid, and throughout that time I've never really paid any attention to the radio frequencies - I simply turn the dial to the approximate position that I expect to find the station I want, then home in on the best signal. I know this probably sounds a bit dumb, but it's just the way I've worked - I hadn't even paid the scale any attention on this radio. The top scale is KhZ for AM (if I remember correctly, AM is basically Medium Wave, although technically SW and LW are all AM ie amplitude modulation frequencies), and the smaller scale beneath is calibrated in metres, so 700kHz is about 429 metres.
For the FM scale, the top one is in mHz, with the lower one marked as Channels - I'd have to look that one up to see what the channels refers to. Ah ha, the channels, marked from 200 to 300 looks like it refers to US FM frequencies, and I guess that answers the question about the radio being sold internationally.
I do remember some radios that had a pair of PP9 batteries from when I was a kid - I was surprised that I could still get a PP9, presumably there are still plenty of old radios up and running otherwise they wouldn't still make the batteries.
I have a battery operated valve radio (which is in the naughty pile because I haven't managed to fix it yet), that one has a 90 volt battery and something like a 3 volt battery - the high one for the vacuum tubes and the low one for the heating elements - the 3 volt supply was easy enough but I had to create a Franken battery, linking 10 PP3s in series to get the 90 volt supply!!! It was only after I'd made the Franken battery that I discovered people selling mains power supplies to replace these old high voltage batteries - that would have been much simpler.
Any idea where to get a replacement battery or what the AC power supply number is? Looks like a rewire job to install the little 9V now available. Thanks and THANKS!
Hi peetcgee, I'm not sure where you're based, but in the UK you can still get those PP9 batteries in hardware shops, although I actually got mine from Amazon because that was easier at the time. I didn't look into power supplies because I like running my portable radios off batteries - unlike modern DAB radios which eat batteries on a daily basis.
Would anything be affected by switching the battery connector to accept the pp3? In the US they are difficult to find.
Hi Gluttonite, you should be ok swapping the connector for one that takes a PP3, just as long as you keep the polarity the same way round. Obviously the PP3 won't last as long because it's a much smaller battery, and it may even struggle for power at louder volumes. I'd be tempted to use two PP3s in parallel, in other words, fit two PP3 connectors, keeping both the red leads together and the two black leads together, that way you just get more power but remain at 9 volts.
Any idea if it’s possible to find a telescopic aerial replacement for these? A tip of mine is broken and lost which makes it unusable.
Hi Jackie, I'm sure there must be a decent source of replacement ariels, but I haven't tracked it down yet. I needed a replacement ariel for one of my other radios and I couldn't find anything, so I just repaired what I had as best as I could so I could use the radio.
I’ve got very the same radio. It works well, but keeps draining the battery even when it’s turned off. Seeking for an advice please.
Hi Jackie, I don't suppose you have a multi meter so you can check to see exactly how much current the radio is drawing while turned off. In theory the on off switch should cut the power to the radio completely, so either the switch is somehow still letting power get to part of the circuit while turned off, or someone has done a repair at some time that partly bypasses the switch......but thinking about it, if there's any sign of old battery leakage like my radio had, there could be some rusty mess on the circuit board that's conductive, not enough to stop the radio from working, but enough to drain power when switched off. Probably a good idea to have a quick look for dirt/rust/battery electrolyte on the circuit board. Are you using the big PP9 battery, or are you substituting a small PP3? my guess is that a PP3 won't last very long. For what it's worth, I haven't turned mine on for about a year - just tried it and it's working fine, so if you can track down whatever is ailing yours, you should have a nice little radio in the end.
@@GrumpyTimthanks, I’m temporarily using smaller pp3, but there’s definitely some kind of energy leak after turning it of, because sometimes I can hear hum in the speaker. It doesn’t happen all the time, but occasionally it comes alive like this.
Hi Jackie, yeah, there's definitely something funny happening there - if I get a chance I'll take a look at mine sometime to see if the switch is a multi pole switch that isn't turning off one side - it might be cutting power from the tuner but leaving the amp powered or something like that.
Una belleza
I can assure you that if I took it to bits it would never get put back together correctly and there would be bits left over. That’s even without trying to fix it. I admire your patience Tim. My father loved his radios (including Grundig) and took the SW ones to sea with him. I’m a huge radio fan but with no signal where I live due to the hills, so it’s internet only until I move house. Cheers. Lee
Ah, I hadn't thought about the lack of signal where you are Lee, I guess that would limit your listening to a few crackly channels of stuff you didn't want to listen to!!! I used to listen to radios lots when I was a kid, then when I started work I would buy firstly records, then CDs and never really touched a radio again until the last few years - there's something fun about just turning the dial until you find something you like (albeit that I tend to find more that I don't particularly like these days).
Cheers for watching.
@@GrumpyTim I agree Tim. Even on the Radio Garden app (beautifully designed and implemented) almost all the channels are middle of the road syndicated pap). I do explore internet radio quite a bit but I still have a marketing for the old Bakelite and wooden cabinets where the stations were labelled (the light programme, Hilversum etc). I’m likely to stay in the area and will be renting near to an army base until I find another house, so maybe they will have good signals out there? They do have some very interesting traffic in and out on the ground and in the air!
Oooh, now that sounds really exciting Lee - better not get flying your drone round there though!!!