[wjheil]

I noticed that when I align the push buttons on the 46-1209, the signals are not as strong as when tuning the same station using the dial tuning.

Is this normal?

Thanks,
Wayne

[Jamie]

I am not familiar with the 46-1209, but it is common that antique radio push buttons are not always the most accurate way to tune in a station. Many of the mechanisms were a little sloppy, and age doesn't help.

[Marsupial]

Something interesting is that the presets don't all have the same frequency range. The leftmost are meant for lower-band AM while the rightmost are meant to higher-band AM.

Technically you bypass part of the main tuning circuitery in favor of a set of secondary tuner circuits. Perhaps it has to do with your recap?

On my 47-1230 the stations that I get do tune in quite strong, but I am having the hardest time to find any stations. There isn't much AM reception anyway, everyone broadcast in FM.

Similarly to your problem, my FM tuner isn't as strong as my AM tuner...

[Warren]

Marsupial, interesting... I seem to get better reception on FM than on AM on my 47-1230. I dont get all the AM stations that other am radios get but the FM seems very good.

[Marsupial]

Warren, I get better reception on FM, but not as loud. I know it has to do with some still un-recapped capacitors. I have not touched most of that stage yet.

[shaler78]

With my 47-1230 I have good strong output on manual tuned AM and SW as soon as I turn radio on. The manually tuned FM tends to drift off station until radio has warmed up for about 10-15 minutes, then it stays stable, but at much lower volume than AM. Presets are louder than manual tuning. I receive all available stations, up and down the dial, on all three bands manually. As for my 40-180 and 39-35, All of my station presets sound much louder than manual tuning, I think because they can be individually fine tuned to almost perfect reception. Just wish the 47-1230 had a button or two for FM preset! Now my Zenith 8-S-563, the volume is the same whether tuned manually or with the push buttons.

[Marsupial]

I too would like FM presets.

There is barely anything in AM nowadays here, but FM has lots of good strong stations. They even stopped broadcasting news reports, traffic reports and sports (hockey) on AM. all on FM talk radio now.

I really need just one FM preset.