Master Electronic Alignments! 

To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab

RU-vid should install a giant thumbs up icon, the regular one is way too small for your channel.

Could you create a basic test equipment inventory required for service and alignment of AM receivers? Perhaps a video detailing the building of a basic test bench for AM radio servicing with a make and model recommendation for each piece of equipment and tooling. For example, listing the manufacture, make and model of the isolation transformer and variac and the vendors who sell them, as well as the signal generator, VTVM, other meters, and tooling. The point is that some of us have vintage test equipment, but finding the sources and specific test equipment is a challenge.

I'd like to See Mr. Carlson do a Stereo Receiver Repair/ alignment...enough with old Simplistic AM radio repair

Great as usual. How about some vintage FM receiver repairs and alignment in a follow up,. The earliest FM receivers are nearing 70 + YRS old and are becoming very collectible

Mr. C. Thanks !

@30:50 or so you turn the speaker on and off, and then you turn the tone off too. I notice at that time, the VTVM needle deflects upwards significantly before it drops back down to where it should go. Is that just a spurious side effect of how the VTVM operates, or is there something actually happening in the circuit that is causing that? At first I thought it be related to the automatic gain control circuit causing a significant but low-frequency signal as the bias signal changes, but that wouldn't make sense that it happens when the speaker is taken out of circuit too, unless the impedance change that the output section sees causes a similar effect earlier in the chain.

Excellent job however it would be nice to see this done with the Vedolyzer. In fact, it's yet to be used in any video after restoration

I think the reason they don't say anything about tone modulation is that most technicians had a signal generator with audio modulation built in.

yea

Mr. Carlson, thanks for taking the time to explain and showing us how that alignment is done. I enjoyed it very much.

Thank you for making this by our requests :-)

Hi where did you used to work you have such a broad knowledge of electronics

When a person reaches a high level of skill in their craft regardless if it is in plumbing, construction, mechanics, or electronics that person becomes an artist of their craft. Mr Carlson is an artist not an electrician.

The best way that I can spend the lockdown. Increasing my knowledge of electronics with one of the best teachers around. Thanks Mr. Carlson!

Really nice video, Paul. The one thing you didn't show, that I'd be interested in learning, is how/where you safely hooked up the spectrum analyzer, given that it is a low impedance.

I really enjoyed that. You've mentioned before that you don't recieve a great signal, if any, down in your lab. I've always wondered about your external antenna setup. What does it consist of?

Looking forward to video alignment video with sweep generator and oscilloscope. Thanks for making these videos!

very nice Paul , my questions: 1: a-v-c in today term , is it the same as AGC , Automatic Gain Control ?! 2: is it better to disconnect a-v-c feedback during alignment ?! it seems some time too much gain , and oscillation from speaker could be heard by adjusting those capacitor to counter measure it , of course after alignment was done you can put it back a-v-c in action

Mr C can't thank you enough for this one! So educational for me at least! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise on this subject! I'm 70 and still going to school! I love it!

an half hour more "Mr Carlson", yes please... an hour more is even better sir :-)

Mr. Carlson: your calm and exact explanation of the alignment process, makes me think you have reached the Zen level electronics mastery. Keep this in this way, it's very enjoyable!!!!

If Bob Ross was an Engineer. Thanks Mr. Carlson for all of these incredible videos.

It was a pleasure to watch a professional at work, thank you for making this video from our requests

I read an article in the Electronics Australia Magazine from the early 70's that talked about when transformerless TV's were introduced into Australia and the electrical board banned them from sale after conducting tests and finding out that half wave rectified AC was sending DC down the ground wire which was back then tied to the galvanized plumbing. They found that the DC on the galvanized pipes was causing electrolysis and would dissolve a pipe in the ground in a matter of a few months which the board of water works at the time wasn't happy about. I think that the government did a buy back of all the TV's sold that didn't have a transformer and we never really had a transformerless tv after that, I don't think that a radio like the all American five would have been allowed to exist in Australia either. Of course back then the home electrical system was a bit different, all houses have a dedicated ground wire which now goes through an RCD device then to a copper ground stake. I was fascinated to learn that we actually had a DC electrical system before we had AC! I would have thought that the DC system came and went quite quickly since back then things moved slower, I wonder if it was an Edison DC system? I'm aware that Edison came to a little country town at that time called Ballarat to see a one piece phone handset that someone there had invented which is basically the same one piece design that we still have today! Ballarat incidentally for those who don't know also became the hottest destination back in the early 1850's when gold was discovered and the rush from around the world was on! Fun fact, if it had not been for the discovery of gold, the capital of Australia was going to be Tasmania! At the time, Melbourne was being considered for the new capital and the other place up for consideration was a coastal town called Geelong! The boat loads of people coming into Australia for the gold fields were getting off at Geelong because it was closer, Melbourne noticed that they were missing out on the tourist dollars to Geelong so someone drew a new map that made Geelong appear to be much further away than it really was and sent it out around the world to get the boats into Melbourne without Geelong realising it LoL... For a time, Melbourne became the richest city in the world, the money isn't there like it used to be but if wealth is measured by quality of life, then we are still the richest city in the world!

THANK YOU Paul - that cleared up more than a few points for me ... I need to try out to cap off my confidence. I really appreciate your side descriptions too (like agc operation, among others) - takes out of the realm of being just a cookbook. While I don't have a spectrum analyzer (I doubt many here do), a video on the visualization method can only add to our understanding - so bring it on!

Wow.... I couldn't have asked for more.... After making my request for this alignment procedure video, your explanations were very informative, this was one enjoyable lesson for us, lots of information to absorb and reason with, ... And you showed how using modern precision equipment can affect your alignment, and how to deal with going too far in an adjustment, this was a great instructional video, I hope you continue with the future projects. You spoke about on this subject. And me personally.... I really want to join your patreon classes, I have many little projects that I've collected, that probably need simple repairs, Once you find the defective part, it will happen as soon as I can arrange it...

Im building a small collection of am tubes radios from the 1940's and 1950's.i bought a used heathkit ig102 rf generator to learn this kind of adjustment.this video is super clear.well explained..i learned a lot...

why do you use a term throttle? throttle is an action controlling a valve so why not use the proper term valve, it's a valves for a reason! because that's what it is a valve you turning on and off letting the flow of electrons I think tube is so misleading word, why did Americans adopt that word?

47:25 - Mr. Carlson gets a mention on the radio! Very informative tutorial as usual - many thanks!

Was the radio you aligned in the alignment tutorial an RCA? I have one just like it , however the lower end of band tuning coil next to the variable capacitor is missing from my radio. I’ve been doing AM radio alignment for over 50 years and still found your video an eye opener. Ya learn something new every day. I have never had the equipment to do a sweep alignment setup. Now i might look for a sweep Generator. When I learned the AM alignment process we used a. Simpson 260 on the AC scale and output function.

Looking forward to the entire video dedicated to “visual alignment”! You mentioned, as an alternative to the spectrum analyzer, using a sweep generator and oscilloscope. I’d be very interested in that procedure!

I came in w/ discreet components and moved forward into digital having worked for & @ T I, but my heart has always been tube sets. Now after seeing this.......I believe I'm going to go back and perform a realignment on all those I've restored recently....only this time....do it right.

I didn't read through all comments so heres mine. Please include the Model number of the radio so I can get a schematic to follow, also I know you showed your test equipment, but listing what was used would help. Great demonstration!

I still remember when I was about 5 man dad tried to "fix" our TV flash crack and yes man can fly he lived so I can indeed attest the fact that tubes are dangerous I'm 65 now and still remember the amazing flight

This is crazy at around 35:20 how much more sensitive you got it from a visual alignment compared to the audio one. I don't understand about getting the unwanted oscillation away when you adjusted. At the time before you used the spectrum analyser.

Thank you, now someone who can explain why i see 4 crazy dislike on this video??

Thanks Paul, nice tutorial. The dial alignment was a little different to what I'm used to but made sense. Cheers!

So looking forward to the sweep generator alignment process!!

Mr. Carlson is the Albert Einstein of electronics. Thanks so much for making these videos, so interesting, even for the lay-person like me.

Thank you Paul for being prompt regarding our request for compiling, and uploading a video dedicated to AM radio alignment: very much appreciated. I found, when you started the peaking process, you began at the 1st IF, or IF transformer associated with the frequency changer, very intriguing since it makes sense. I was taught that it was not always beneficial to set the output on the signal generator to less than 200mV. I now have a more clear idea as to why I was taught that. I was also taught how to apply the sweep method but have not used it for several decades. The test equipment in most of the television and audio repair shops I was employed at was largely old, poorly serviced, and none too accurate. For most of the time, radio, and television alignment (if one was warranted) was little more than a ‘quick peak-up’. ‘Revenue’ was the most most important word in the domestic electronics servicing industry ...”get it working, and get it back to the customer!” Now I’m retired, I want to refine my electronics skills so I’ve made my mind up to begin by re-familiarising myself with the sweep method since I’m reminded of its benefits. There are many other areas within electronics where I intend to focus attention on refinements.l For me, this has certainly been a very inspiring video: I’m further encouraged to become more motivated, and determined. Once again, thank you very much my friend. Best regards, Phil. P.s, might you upload videos where you restore, as well as do an in-depth alignment on a VHF valve radio sometime in the near future?

Man you would be an interesting fun neighbor .

Ive searched and searched. No one has made a service grade AM Sweep generator , I say again no one. Yes, you can get a lab grade unit for Big bucks. Eico once made a wobulator type, but it sucked and none of my fellow techs used it. The old guard of the 1950’s swore by the peaking method , a signal Generator and simple meter.RCA made the 501 that swept the 455 Kc IF range. You had to plug in a Crystal, that RCA never supplied. Whats that say? I had that one once and again it sucked on IF alignment. Sooo..back to the peaking method and I done in 15 minutes. Once I had access to lab grade equipment, bit could never see any advantage of sweeping 455Kc. Back in the 1970’s. Company called Murata made a ceramic filter to replace the entire IF stage. It worked but added 5 cents to the cost of manufacturing, so it was nixed .

Could you please do a tutorial on audio processing? You could also teach all the other RU-vidrs, 'cause you have the best audio on RU-vid.

Paul, in the (very) unlikely event this electronics stuff turns out not to be your thing, you have a brilliant career ahead of you being a DJ for an easy-listening radio station. Your mic and voice are perfect ASMR! Keep up the great work we love every video you put out!

Thank you Mr. C. 50 years ago, I was a kid, going with my dad to various 2 meter repeaters in Maine and New Brunswick. Sometimes there were just 4 of us and I watched them set up and powered the new rig. We had a 50Kw AM radio station - CFNB - and when it switched on high power - it washed out a lot of stations. Still - we had a 100 ft antenna and i enjoyed searching the dial for stations in the US. The further - the better. And as the evening went on stations would come in and go. Cheers to you!

This video was published the day I turned 17.

APPLAUSE! thanks, Paul, super interesting and clear like always. It will be nice to see the visual alignment as well. so much information from such a little radio, awesome!

WOW! This was so educational! Thanks!

Could the reason for requiring a cap in the antenna lead for wire lengths > 100 ft be to prevent the inductance from detuning the front end?

I don’t think any of your viewers would object to an extra half hour to talk about the spectrum analyzer. I’m not into vacuum tubes and know nothing about radio circuits and even I find this fascinating!

I'm going to share this video with my students. Thanks Mr. Carlson!

Yay, I get to watch a Mr Carlson's alignment on my birthday!

Hi. Again a very instructive video. I was wondering how you would do the alignment with a radio you don't have the instructions from and you don't know what IF it has? Thx

Thanks, although a long video every second was interesting. Now I feel comfortable to align my Racal RA17....... well maybe not.

In the old times, they just expected you to know what you´re doing. BTW: Didn´t expect the old receivers to go down to -80dBm. Impressive!

The amplitude and quality of those signals at the end is testament to your work. Its always pleasing to peak out a radio with a signal generator at a seriously low input and watching huge results on a VTVM.

Very interesting thankyou for sharing 👍

Very nice explanation! Greetings from The Netherlands PA3FTP/ Louis.

Very good video Paul! Thanks for creating this one and sharing it with us. I agree about the sweep pattern...really can use a video of its own. I think many of the things you covered in this video, while "simple things" are very useful, needed, and unknown by most, so you did a great service to many. This video is an excellent one to show how aligning using the proper instruments is superior to trying to "tune by ear" on a set. Concerning the toggle switch you used to activate the speaker or remove it...did you use SPDT or DPDT?

Hey Paul, enjoyed the video as well as all of them. I would have like to have seen the slope shape on the spectrum analyzer move as you adjusted it. Cool video though. Thanks. Dave

Thank you, I have always peaked them by ear, looking forward to see the difference

So you need a spectrum analyzer for visual alignments. I thought you needed a scope.

Very late breaking news on there. You got this video out fast!

Screwdrivered into orbit is a cool term.

This video is like the missing link for me in gaining an understanding on how these radios work. I can read books and watch videos and gather as much knowledge as I can and then find myself in front of all the hardware at the bench and say now what? It’s hard to dive in sometimes because I don’t want to damage my equipment or the radios I plan to work on. Those little tiny details between steps are what makes the difference for me. Thanks Paul.

13:08 - So one could add, say a 3-position switch (provided the connections are short and don't add stray inductance & capacitance) with various capacitors and label the switch "AVC response time"?

Great Video. I always learn a lot. A idea for a future alignment video , that I'm sure a lot of people would like is alignment using a rf Gen and a analog scope like a tek 465. Describing how and why's . Particular band pass filters. Thanks

So if we are arbitrarily picking the 'tone' that is modulated onto the 455 kHz why not pick something like 440 Hz Concert A (A4). It is relatively nice to listen to.

Thank you! I have over 35 years experience building/repairing/designing and modding guitar effect pedals, and about 25 years experience doing the same with tube guitar amps. Outside of this narrow bit of electronic knowledge, many things are still a bit of a mystery to me. Your channel has taught me a lot about radios a test equipment. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!

Anyone watching with curiosity is going to get a real education in alignment and how there is a difference in peaking and visualizing signal integrity. Doesn’t do you much good to peak without seeing the influence it has on the signal. If you want to learn the how and why, you’ve come to the right place. You continue to stress safety aspects when working on this gear. Being injured or killed because you are not sure is both dangerous and stupid. Anyone listening and watching is going to be warned of the dangers. There is no limit when safety is concerned. Being injured or killed is overrated. Anyone who has worked on tube gear and hasn’t been shocked or rudely woken up hasn’t worked on it much. Avoiding injury is key and following your methods are key. Your warnings are valid. Thanks for another great video. Stay safe mates!😊👍🏻😷

One aspect that you brought out, which many alignment videos do not, is that it is possible to tune the IF too ‘tightly,’ which can produce oscillation. That is a weakness of the output metering method of alignment. It is unfortunate the spectrum analyzers are so expensive.

Back, back, back and forth, my pointer goes...in the words of Cameo. My favourite part of alignment is the padders and trimmers. Always popular here for those tongue at an angle moments. Good stuff Paul, basic knowledge but well presented as usual.

Thanks for the info...👍👌

I love you video's.They are great way to relax and learn too.You do a excellant job of explaining what your doing.its hard to believe all the stuff our last generations invented. just getting radio to work and radios to recieve it were great inventions. i remember my mom and dad had tube radio's. i remember the heat coming from it would keep us warm in the winter. And it had a certain smell too if dust was on the tubes...lol. please dont stop your video's i ve learned alot about electronics. Thanks Again be safe have a healthy year.

Is it possible the test gear in use in that time frame defaulted to a modulated signal? That might explain why they would not mention that.

awesome Mr. Carlson👍

Dear Mr Carlson , ive been unwell , unable to watch your excellent videos ...im back feeling better alresdy hearing and seeing you on screen ...peace ✌️ to all

Thanks very much Mr. Carlson! Many asked for this video and I am truly impressed how quickly you responded. I look forward to more of your videos!

Your an unbelievable guru. I graduated electronics in the TTL era. Dogbone resistors, non standard color codes, tubes, they are a complete dark art. Thanks for removing the mystery out of tubes.

Hi! By far, the best lesson on radio alignment I have seen over the last 50 years of electronic repair. All was so well explained and all so accurate. Unfortunately, I do not have all the equipment that you appear to have collected. Next, the restoration of a transistor radio or other transistor electronics. Will you use cold spray to temporarily reactivated a burned out component? Do you use cold Freon spray for repairs?

That is a great mike you use in your introduction! Your old radios bring me back to my childhood in the 1950s we had an old wooden cased radio that got short wave and we listened with fascination!

Excellent explanation as usual. Thank you.

If you didn’t have a VTVM would it still be useful to disconnect the voice coil of the speaker from the output transformer and connect something like an AVO8 across the output transformer? I’m thinking the impedance would still be far higher than the speaker and allow for better sensitivity?

I wonder how many people it took at the end of an assembly line to keep up with that line? I realize this is an instructional video (and a very good one) and the majority of your time was spent explaining the procedure, but even getting it down to 10 minutes a unit one person could find their self surrounded by untuned radios.

Thanks for another awesome video, Mr. C! Even though I thought I had a good grasp on aligning AA5 radios, you still managed to offer some nice little gems. Seeing alignments done on different radios and from a variety of perspectives, using different tools is really useful. You provide such a wonderful service to all of us. Thank you. A video that I'd like to see would be focused on AA5 loop antennas, their designed length, number of winds, rebuilding/replacing them, and anything you can think of to add. I had an old Crosley that had no loop antenna, and I couldn't locate a Crosley replacement. I could have just used a long external antenna, but I really wanted the radio to be complete with an internal loop antenna. Therefore, I decided to build a replica but really struggled to gather all of the necessary information from a variety of sources. It seems to work ok, but I suspect it's still not quite right. I think you could do a wonderful job explaining everything we could want to know about AA5 loop antennas.

Excellent as always. I think you must have lived in the 1920's as your knowledge about these old radios is so complete.

Merry Chrismas Mr Carlson's all the best for new year good best you.

These videos just seem to get better and better. Love your description of the AVC circuit! The video quality on the was perfect. On all the videos that I've seen of yours, you always say you need to adjust the camera or pardon yourself for being hard to see a dial or whatever, but I've never had any problems seeing anything in your videos. Thanks!

Thank you Mr. Carlson. I can't imagine the number of hours of joy and wonderment radios like that brought to families world wide.

I love this video. I still have my RCA tube manual. If you have time, could you tell what microphone you are using? It sounds sooooo good.

500 microvolts? My waveform generator only goes as low as 1 millivolt...would this be too much?

How was the spectrum analyzer connected to the radio?

One of my favorite videos you have done. I guess I have a penchant for alignment work.

I can't say how much I enjoy these videos. Watching the process of tuning is a great classroom and helps me greatly as I learn about these old radios. Well done, Mr Carlson!

Always an exceptional video effort from Paul... Thankyou...

Oh nice midweek surprise. Will get it on shortly. Have done alignments on vacuum tube stuff for many years but be interesting to see if you do anything different, though there isn't really a lot you can align on a 5 tube radio

Looking forward to many more video's, you are great at explaining everything! I have a RCA WR-50B sweep generator here, but cannot get it to work with my Hantek 5102P digital oscilloscope. Patiently awaiting the video or series in which you describe visual alignments using sweep generators in conjunction with digital scopes.

Mr. Carlson, would you interested in fixing a Portable Motorola Golden Voice 56B1A. I can't find anyone in my area that fix tube radios and I'm too busy to do it myself. You could make a video of it, may be fun. Thank you!

Aaahhhh, those old radios! When you were going to "align" them, you had to take a look on their enclosure , or the schematics, to find out the real intermediate frequency because it was not standardized. Nowadays it is 455KHZ for MW and SW and 10.7MHZ for FM. But those old days it was 450-460 KHZ for USA radios and 455-465 for european radios. Some MW only radios had an IF of 260-280 KHZ. Your radio IF is probably in the 455KHZ area and has a so called "bum" variable capacitor because it is only for MW. The lower capacity is for the local oscillator and the higher for antenna tuning. I remember a radio of my father (rest in peace) similar to yours (RCA) having MW and one SW (HF band) having a symmetrical 500pf variable capacitor. When i was 13 years old i cannibalized it to make a regenerative receiver using only the 12sk7 of its tubes. Now i am an electronic technician, in the digital age ,programming PIC etc but i do not forget how smart were our grandfathers when (for example) they were using the secondary winding of the power supply choke , in series to the speaker to counterbalance the "hum" noise. Or the so called "woobler". Nowadays we have swing generators and spectrum analyzers but those heroic days there was another way. An electric motor connected to a variable capacitor in order to represent a scan generator for IF tuning . Combining it with an oscilloscope they could adjust correctly the IF transformers. HATS OFF to those people!!!! Kostas from Greece