Portable radio won't tune into radio 2

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I've no other off the cuff suggestions I'm afraid. You would need to replace the variable tuning cap to test your theory but as mentioned, I've never come across that failure mode before.

Can you be sure your home transmitter is actually broadcasting on the correct frequency ?
 
Some credentials may be better...
I have repaired oceanographic instruments since 1982 from precision echo sounders to almost anything found in geophysical oceanography, including multi channel seismic instrument.
Now for the other skills...I have repaired mechanical SLR cameras and can repair anything, mechanical. You cannot do this if you are not born with a knack, and I have not studied mech engineering.
So please stop teaching me like I am a kid.

Now why these gangs have gone bad...reduced capacitance.
If you have noticed, both these are portable radios. The user tends to retune these over and over and DJing the tuning knob is very common. The matters are made worst by the way these are driven. In my radio, it is a knob directly fitted on top of it through a slot(!) coupling. Such harsh handling leads to the wear of the tensioning washer on which the shaft sits. Plus the dielectric will wear out after two decades.

I did not want to mention but...I am a natural born genius, at least that is what the net says. I believe it as I was the teacher for the class at primary on the next day for the lesson taught to me and the class, yesterday

Enough of my self boasting...

Gajanan Phadte
 
But then modesty is equated to ignorance...

Now why did I attempt this radio...insatiable curiosity. I wanted to know what is causing the problem.
When I found this post, of a radio having similar problem, I became curious as to what could be the problem. I never wanted to fix this junk radio as I have so many more(5-6) that serve the purpose. A mobile phone is much more convenient when you want to have a wireless audio link and that is the only use of this low frequency for me. This radio was even tuning the 91.90MHz station, the lowest here.

Gajanan Phadte
 
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Hi, I've just picked up an old Hitachi trk-5854e portable radio cassette player from a junk shop, it works well on FM and picks up stations clearly but it won't pick up radio 2 which is on the extreme left hand side of the dial. I have taken it apart hoping that I could alter the string that goes round the tuning capacitor but it seems the tuning capacitor is going right to the end of it's rotation so I,m not sure why it won't tune down to radio 2. Do I need to replace the variable tuning capacitor or can I adjust the screws on the capacitor somehow to get it to tune down to radio 2?

I wonder why the radio ended up in junk shop?
 
Mine is Philips product. Here is what I did to rectify the issue.
Opened the gang capacitor and measured the two FM tuning capacitors. One connected to the FM oscillator was reading less by 2 pF. I tensioned the moving plates and brought back it's value. Now, it tunes every station to where it should although, I won't guarantee the two extremes of the FM band as I have no test equipment meant for the purpose.

Edit:There is no air gap capacitor in this gang capacitor.
 
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One quality I have noticed in great people is to be what they need to be with the person they are with. A lady head of one of the Oxford colleges had me get her the later type Quad ESL. The room she had was about 14 x 4 metres. Not to be rude, she might have been mistaken for the cleaning staff of the college, perhaps boss of that staff. I was at a loss to think how she could do the job. I guess wanting the ESL should have warned me. I was about to say how we might use the room when she took the words from my mouth, it is a rare chance to have them half way. From then on we went through her interlectual gearbox. As she spoke it was like a fire came alive in her. I have tried without sucess to be like that. She taught Margret Thatcher, it didn't rub off on her as far as I could see. My maths teacher was a seemingly modest man. In later life I realised he was the engineer who built the display jet engine at the science museum. Our maths was based on needs of engineering and he was exactly the right man.
 
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