JVC RC-838JW - FM Stereo fix & cassette calibration

Cpl-Chronic

Cpl-Chronic

Member (SA)
The next on the list to get the cassette & FM Stereo calibration is the JVC RC-838JW. It is very close to mint except for a couple of small dings in the metal trim around the top controls & tuner window. It is now in excellent fully working condition & looking good with a LED mod for the tuner dial & VU meters.

I had to tweak the 19Khz & separation variable resistors to get stations in stereo again & used my trusty 3000Hz test tape to dial in speed & azimuth(head alignment).

Check it out!

Radio Demo

Cassette Demo

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Transistorized

Transistorized

Member (SA)
Very nice. It's always a nice feeling to dial in a tuner and get that stereo light going. MPX decoders always seem to be the issue over time. I'm not sure if it's components that drift in value that cause this but, I have had to adjust the 19khz pilot VRs before to get stereo to come back in again on a few radios. I have a Sanyo box that starts out playing okay but then goes in and out of stereo once it warms up as if the AFC is going whacky. Above my paygrade. So it's nice to see a success with your JVC!
 
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Cpl-Chronic

Cpl-Chronic

Member (SA)
Transistorized said:
Very nice. It's always a nice feeling to dial in a tuner and get that stereo light going. MPX decoders always seem to be the issue over time. I'm not sure if it's components that drift in value that cause this but, I have had to adjust the 19khz pilot VRs before to get stereo to come back in again on a few radios. I have a Sanyo box that starts out playing okay but then goes in and out of stereo once it warms up as if the AFC is going whacky. Above my paygrade. So it's nice to see a success with your JVC!
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Thanks TZ. Nice to know some have had similar success & can attest to tinkering in the same manner to get better reception from old radios. I'm pretty sure you are correct about old components changing values, especially capacitors. I also, think that these variable resistors are open to the air inside the cabinet, including the working parts. They sometimes just need a bit of back & forth to get going again.
 
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