Hi all,

I picked up a Realistic DX-300 shortwave receiver at a hamfest for cheap this weekend. When powered up via AC the bandspread lights work and a slight hum comes from the speaker when volume is at max. Otherwise the radio is dead... no LED display, no S-meter light, no receive. The radio appears to have been unused for a very long time. I'm thinking possible bad power supply? Any ideas? Appreciate the help. Thanks.

SP

Apparently these were known for some hum even when they were working. Yes, the power supply would probably be the place to start. If you don't already have it, this site has a lot of reference material including the full Service Manual. The power supply is pretty simple (4-diode bridge rectifier, and a zerer/transistor voltage regulator.

http://www.freeinfostuff.com/DX300-302/DX300-302.htm

Curtis Eickerman

Thanks for the reply! Played some more with it today and found out it's not as bad as I thought. Been awhile since I've owned one of these and I forgot you have to turn the silver MHz tuning dial just right to get the frequency display and audio to work. It came alive and is picking up stations. Only problem left is the KHz LED portion of the dial is dead. I'll open it up and take a look. Thanks again.

SP

SP,

I have the mirror image of yours, a DX-300 that only displays Khz. but not Mhz. It came with a bunch of estate sale stuff I bought last year and I haven't had a chance to go inside it yet.

Given the abundance of Radio Shack stores, the DX-300 and DX-302 were probably the biggest sellers of the Wadley loop design receivers although the Yaesu FRG-7 was also very popular. The performance of these realistic receivers isn't on par with the original Wadley classic (Racal RA-17) but it works decently and was a lot cheaper and lighter. The greatest shortcoming is that it overloads easily.

Hopefully the problem will be easily solved.

Rodger WQ9E

Rodger... thanks for the reply.

I found a post on this forum from early last year by "drober05" having the same exact problem. I'm going to try to contact them to see if they found a solution. I'll keep you informed and if you find something out... please let me know.

I also found a few references to this problem on various search sites, so it seems to be kind of common with these.

Thanks,

SP