GE Superadio III

[IllSeeWhatICanDo]

Recently bought a Superadio III and find the FM sensitivity to be lousy.javascript:void(0); I used to have a SR II that had excellent sensitivity on both bands. I'm wondering if maybe this one is defective and I just need to try another SR III or is this a commonly known issue with these SR III's. BTW, the nightime AM reception is just as good or better than I remember with the SRII. Are there brand new SR II's available on ebay, etc?

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Recently bought a Superadio III and find the FM sensitivity to be lousy.javascript:void(0); I used to have a SR II that had excellent sensitivity on both bands.

I suspect bad alignment. Towards the end of production, they pretty much just slapped the things together. A proper alignment brings it up to the sensitivity of the 2. It is the same exact design, slightly modified for varactor tuning.

All of the SR series are excellent candidates for the narrow ceramic filter mod - but it seems to help the 3 the most.

 

[Steve_Green]

There was a thread here a few years back about a certain serial number prefix or suffix on the unit that basically told you (like the one corner scratchoff on a lottery ticket) if you had a 'good' III or a loser ?

The local electronics store here (Moyers, in Pottsville PA) was selling the III for maybe $49. I bought it because at that price it had to be better than the similarly-priced footrests I'd picked up over the years in my declining hearing/DX days.

Ah, ya know ; it's okay. The AM is a sprawling bandwidth mess, but the FM does its job and it sounds nice. And it's still basically brand new. Original twisty-tie and plastic and all. One day I may offer it for $100 on eBay for some CE who wants an EAS monitor.

However, it's *nothing* like the II. My 15-year old II came with the conventional on-off button erosion. Ford Motors does things like that ; they ask you at the showroom where you'd like your rust. But it's still the ace DX radio in the joint when quick word comes of something going on.

Haven't heard too much about the GE SR I , though. Was there ever an actual 'One', hi?

 

[eyg2181]

There was a thread here a few years back about a certain serial number prefix or suffix on the unit that basically told you (like the one corner scratchoff on a lottery ticket) if you had a 'good' III or a loser ?

what is the secret with the lottery tickets? if you know what it is then i'd like to know.


ps, i have a place in the pottsville area too. do you listen to any philly stations at all?

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Haven't heard too much about the GE SR I , though. Was there ever an actual 'One', hi?

Yes, there was a "one". I actually own all three. The cosmetic differences between the one and the two:
(1) There is no tweeter
(2) The knobs are black with simulated chrome trim
(3) The AM and FM dials are offset more
(4) The battery compartment door has a different number of tabs.

Internally:
(1) the one uses a larger, more robust tuning capacitor than the 2.
(2) the boards are layed out at odd angles. The two had a board re-layout to support automated assembly on orthogonal angles.
(3) The one and the two have some component value changes. The biggest of which is parallel caps on the RF board that makes it difficult to adjust a one for expanded band, although it can still be done. I think the 2 was designed with the expanded band in mind - they just never changed the dial scale or factory alignment.

There is also a rare GE SR version with a casette deck. I don't own one.

The "3", as I mentioned, is a redesign that changes the RF signal chain to utilize varactor diodes. That also necessitated a 9V to 15V DC-DC converter to tune the whole band. The AM IF is packed full of transistor switches that switch in resistors in parallel to lower the Q of the RF and IF signal chain. The leakage in those transistors is enough to lower the selectivity in narrow mode. So far, I haven't pulled them all out of a "3" to see if it makes a difference or not.

The 3 also has a noise floor problem related to some bias resistors on a transistor. I have a fix that quiets it back down.

The biggest issue with the 3 is that GE, and later RCA put in a defective tuning pot. The original tuning pot exhibits a very slight instability at the top end of the dial. The cheap replacement has a mechanical lash problem and the tuning is intolerable. Production went on and on with this problem - and I think is one of the main reasons why the product was killed. They must have bought millions of the defective part. There is a fix - change the pot - but it is much too involved for any but the most devoted fan of the model. I have changed dozens for people, but have to charge for an hour of labor to do it. The process was much to lengthy for a recall / warranty replacement.

Some of us hope for an RCA SR4 to emerge with a digital readout, but the damage to the reputation of the product line was done.

Very early SR-3's also had the speaker leads reversed, with the unintended effect of greatly reduced sensitivity - also something not detected on the production line or quality department at GE.

I will try to look up a list of serial numbers. If you manage to pick up a defective 3, and are good at electronics, you can make it a darn good radio. But the vast majority of 3's will be defects because the tuning pot problem went on for years.

 

[Steve_Green]

Hya Bruce ...... I suppose maybe the GR SR *I* wasn't called that? Like no one ever said 'Whew! Thank God! World War One is over' ?
I too had read somewhere that the GE SR I only had one speaker, but heck, I'd been DXing on those barbershop radios and Zenith consoles and T.O.'s for so long that I got used to just this one-speaker DX. Even the Hammarlunds and Hallicrafters only had that one viaduct open.

Terrific breakdown you gave of the species evolution, though. Much appreciated!

I found that code. Sort of.

>> ........... 'Some people have reported poor sensitivity on the III when it was first released. Radio World (3/24/93) quoted a spokesman for Thomson Consumer Electronics indicating that some early models of the SR III have severe sensitivity problems.

These early models had the following date codes, a 4-digit code found on the box or in the battery compartment: (the first digit is ignored) x201 through x241. There is a suggested fix in Appendix A' ......................... <<



And hya to Metro Pottsville! There's only one 'Philly' station that I have a car-set for and that really doesn't count; that's WRTI's relay on 99.1. Terrestrially, 106.1 and 104.5 have been the most faithful 'big' Philly signals up in these parts, though. Oddly, the folks at Moyers Electronics always seem to have Magic 102.9 playing ...... Must be a supervisor's option.
The ticket scratchoff syndrome I saw was for those 'match any three' figures and you win. People would buy a few dozen cards and just go directly to some code number provision and scratch it off instead of going through the nail-biting.

 

[eyg2181]

And hya to Metro Pottsville! There's only one 'Philly' station that I have a car-set for and that really doesn't count; that's WRTI's relay on 99.1. Terrestrially, 106.1 and 104.5 have been the most faithful 'big' Philly signals up in these parts, though. Oddly, the folks at Moyers Electronics always seem to have Magic 102.9 playing ...... Must be a supervisor's option.
The ticket scratchoff syndrome I saw was for those 'match any three' figures and you win. People would buy a few dozen cards and just go directly to some code number provision and scratch it off instead of going through the nail-biting.

thats awesome. i have 102.9 on my sets, and 93.3. they both come in good in most places. and pottsvilles weird, because some parts the philly stations are clear as day, and others their nowhere to befound. by the way, where in pottsville is moyers?

as long as they dont have wavt on, everything is good. listening to wavt is like stabbing iceicles through your ears. that station sucks so bad that i even get ticked when other people listen to it. wrfy is pretty bad too, but not quiet as bad. the only good local is WFKB.

 

[Steve_Green]

Moyers is at the NW corner of E. Norwegian and N. George, a short block east of the stoplight on 61 at Ryon real estate and the A-Plus mini-pad.
They're more of an old-line establishment ; a trusty neighborhood hardware store, rather than the more sterile Radio Shack envoirnment, and with far more knowledgeable staffers. You call them up and you hear common-sense transactions and usefulness instead of smiley corporate faces, slogans or effete product displays. I *believe* they may have a sister store in Hazelton.

Well, they're 'knowledgeable' among lots of things other than the SR III, hi. They hadn't heard about the significance of the prefix code number. They just carried the rig and the price was okay so I bought it.

Can someone post a pic of the GE SR I ? I've never seen one in person.

 

[amfmsw]

Original GE Superradio http://cgi.ebay.com/GE-Superadio-AM...ryZ39993QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Channel Surf]

I would love to see a digital SR-4! It will also be interesting to see how C Crane's CC Radio is modified with the demise of analog TV....

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

I would love to see a digital SR-4! It will also be interesting to see how C Crane's CC Radio is modified with the demise of analog TV....

Why would C Crane bother to continue marketing a modified version of the CC Radio now that it has the highly capable re-branded Redsun model, which also features the Shortwave bands?

If you go to the C Crane website, you'll see CC Radios being offered at what seem to be "blow-out" prices in order to move them out the door.