Rare Radio Receiver Teardown

We’ll admit we haven’t heard of the AGS-38, it reminds us of the shortwave receivers of our youth, and it looks like many that were made “white label” by more established (and often Japanese) companies. [Jeff] found a nice example of this Canadian radio and takes it apart for our viewing pleasure. He also found it was very similar to a Layfayette receiver, also made in Japan, confirming our suspicions.

The radio looks very similar to an Eico of the same era — around the 1960s. With seven tubes, radios like this would soon be replaced by transistorized versions.

[Jeff] gives us a look at the inside and the always interesting hand wiring under the covers. As is often the case with radios this old, it appears this one had a repair done to its power switch and it didn’t mean [Jeff’s] approval so he redid the repair. He also had to replace the filter caps, another common failure on these old radios. Otherwise, the radio still seemed serviceable after all these years.

There isn’t much to hear on the shortwave bands anymore, especially during the day. [Jeff] did manage to demonstrate picking up some AM broadcast stations, though.

This radio reminded us of the Radio Shack DX-160, although that one was solid state. If you want to learn more about restoring old radios, we have just what you need to get started.