Working on a NuTone N2561 / N2562 Master Station with some Unusual Problems 

In this Video, I work on a customers NuTone N2561 / N2562 Master Station. It had the typical "age-related" issues, including a loud background hum. The owner didn't report much else in the way of problems, however there were many things that I discover during the course of the repair. These included the complete lack of any AM Radio reception and a big dead spot in the System Volume Control. - Chris

We know you bent those condenser fins and now it's "jacked up"! Kidding. Good work

I tinker with vintage/antique radios for fun (hobby of ~30 yrs). Few things: 1- Its possible that whoever bent the fins was some old timer way-back-when who knew-enough (obsolete) info to get himself in trouble. With very early AM radios, we're talking late 20s/early 30s, sometimes bending the fins WAS how you aligned them (!). I could forsee a scenario where someone remembering that from ~60+ years ago and thinking "hey, I know how I can make the dial more accurate..." and then going astray. 2- Tuning caps can be obtained, there's enough used parts and worthless parts sets out there that finding them is not hard. As long as the capacitance range is close-enough you can sub an incorrect one (from say a totally different brand/model) in and, if needed, use trimmers or padders in parallel to it to bring it close enough into alignment to get it to function. Now, what this would mean for a AM/FM set I don't know, but for AM sets, I've succeeded in doing this. There can be side effects, like the dial scale no longer being accurate or running in the right direction. 3- Recently a lot of radio enthusiasts have found that how sets are stored long-term make a big impact on how things like those pot-switch combo assemblies hold up, the hypothesis goes that if the set goes into dis-use in the "off" position, the contacts of the switch can then start to oxidize and then bringing them back into service can be difficult, sometimes impossible due to the damage to the switch contacts; if the set is stored in the "on" position the switch contacts are left touching which might preserve them. A supply of NOS 'nam era morale-sets sold on bases for military families was located a few years back and liquidated online... these were factory sealed, chemically treated (to go into bomb shelters & such) military contract fulfilled sets probably soaked in DDT or something to prevent bug damage, fungal damage, etc.... almost all of them had bad on/off switches from 50 yrs of being left in the "off" position but were immaculate otherwise and almost all worked after minimal tinkering. Shango066 (on youtube) has a video somewhere showcasing those sets if you're interested. 4- Pots have been a constant problem for me, and depending on what they're made out that can also seal their fates, I have two ancient healthkit scopes and had to replace both the horizontal and vert controls on both of them because of tin whiskers (afaik even chemists don't understand exactly what causes tin whiskers). How the scopes were stored seemed to have no influence, as one had been stored inside since-built and the other had been stored in an unheated garage with water problems for years and both were equally kaput. I have started to have a very-hard time finding pots of the right values with long (say 3") shafts to cut to length for what I need, finding pots without shafts or almost no shafts is easy (well, unless you need something strange like taps or ganged sections) AFAIK Hong Kong brand "Alpha" is the only current maker of 3" shaft pots and the only retailer I know to carry them is Radio Daze (It may even be a special contract they have going with Alpha to get them in that form factor). I have heard of people taking the more easy to find no/small shaft pots apart and using a lathe to create new shafts for them, but I have found that I can extend the length of a shaft by JB welding on an extension, and using heat shrink to center it so it doesn't feel out of round while turning it. This repair seems reliable so far unless its a switched pot, in which case it won't stand up to the torque requirements of operating the switch repeatedly. There's also 1/4-inch shaft couplers but they don't fit in all applications and won't help with multi-part shafts or worse, split shafts. There is a guy out there named Mark Oppat who can do repairs on unobtanium pots and rotary switches, and have heard good things about what he can do. Alternatively, the Playthings Of The Past hoard was mostly saved by someone who has been slowly liquidating the parts stash out of a warehouse in Ohio, but I know the current owner of the hoard (who bought them off the original business when its owner got up there in age & poor health and couldn't continue to run it) has been trying to get rid of the parts by selling off one parts category at a time and don't know what he still has (or has already gotten sold off or scrapped). Lastly, at least these nutone radios don't suffer from silver-mica migration disease, I shudder at the prospect of tackling it in my family's Hammarlund HQ-180 with its 30 (exaggeration) or so IF cans, which will get SMD one day, no way around it. SMD alone is enough to keep my interest pre-WW2 aside from a few things.

Very interesting video. Good warning not to ever spray the AM stator with any type of cleaner. That volume control/on/off/tone control looks like the same one used in the 2066-67 unit. I had to replace that volume control in my set (2066-67) back in the early 1982 and was still able to get a brand new control from NuTone in Ohio. It required a lot of patience to replace almost as bad as the Talk/Listen switch (I replaced that around 2015 ish and I was able to get a brand new one - lucky. I wonder if that is the same volume/tone control used in that unit? Would make sense that they would use that same controls in different chassis. Well, 2024 and the replacement volume/tone/on-off control still works perfect, so that's good for me.

Grandad was a ham (and I am too, use his call) I’m that old. Before you said it, I thought buried. That’s why it lasted (old stacked pot) 50 years.

There was one of these in my house, built in the early 60s, when I moved here in 1993. Was the repair successful?

Dear Chris: On minute 4:10 you said one pot is for radio and another pot is for auxiliary/phono input. I have a strange problem with one 2561; AM and FM sound great with high volume but when I turn to “Low level radio input” it sounds extremely low. Could it be that this auxiliary/phono input is damaged ? However, when I connect to “Low Level Radio Output” instead of “Low level radio Input” (the white input) the problem is gone. “Low level radio Output” sounds excellent with very good high volume. It’s quite strange. Original 1963 Chassis with no modifications. Cheers ! Luis.