Hacker Sovereign II RP25 VERY quiet all Wbands

[KAZ12MAR12]

I have just spent a couple of hours trying to establish how to fix this fault.
As most will know the SovereignII is very easy to "Get into" and can be totally dismantled in less than ten minutes.
The fault was apparent on LW, MW, and VHF with very faint signals even with the volume turned to maximum. I powered the set from a bench PSU.
The speaker is OK as are the connections to it.
Luckily I had a spare AF Module to swap in but the fault persisted, the next was to try using headphones, still no joy: squirted contact cleaner into H/phone socket this had no effect. so I put a bridge across the H/phone terminals under the dial :- bingo!! It would seem that the contacts inside the socket have gone "High Resistance".
The purist would want to change the socket, however this is extremely labour intensive and therefore not economical for the end user.
I hope that this will be of use to any reader.
Cheers
John

[Mark Hennessy]

Hi John,

A very common fault this one - the Gram input socket also causes the same problem. The sockets are very easy to get to if you don't mind removing the top scale (remove knobs, undo 4 screws), and NOS ones can be bought from Partridge Electronics for loose change.

That said, these sockets expect slightly different plugs compared to what we have today, so even with NOS sockets they aren't a brilliant fit. So, jumpering out the switching contacts is a reasonably pragmatic solution.

If you have the serial number (and colour), I'll add it to the Yahoo group database...

All the best,

Mark

[KAZ12MAR12]

Hi Mark,

Black Knight RP74-MB-----13678
Black Knight RP74---------04639
Black Sovereign II-RP25---11519
White Sovereign II-RP25b-090947
Cheers
John

hope this is of use

[Mark Hennessy]

Hi John,

Many thanks - all added

It's nice to have some transistor sets on here - I find these glass bottles somewhat intimidating! Lovely sets these - I've got a lovely white RP25B awaiting restoration, and likewise a couple of very poorly Black Knights that will produce at least one near-mint set. For some reason, I find myself drawn to the earlier sets like the RP25 and RP37A VHF Herald - the latter with the large-magnet Elac is probably my favourite, and is used daily. The Hunter is pretty good as well - another Elac loudspeaker giving a good account of itself. I think these sets sound better than the Sovereign III sets - even the Super-Sovereign - but happily, they are all pretty good - I've yet to hear a poor Hacker. Even the later sets are better than the competition, despite the cost-cutting. Can't remember the last time I used a Roberts!

Thanks again,

Mark