From: jad...@vwtype3.org   
      
   On Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 7:03:10 AM UTC-5, Wu Ming wrote:   
      
   > On multiple accounts a simple turning of the selector forth and back    
   > repeatedly for few minutes should fix the issue. It did few years back but    
   > the trick doesn’t work anymore.    
      
   > Anyone with direct experience of it? Thanks for sharing.   
      
   If you look at the tuning capacitor in any older radio, you'll see that it   
   consists of a bunch of interleaved plates, half of which are mounted on a   
   shaft that rotates to let them mesh more or less. The more they are   
   intermeshed, the higher the    
   capacitance and the lower the tuned frequency. Taking a more careful look,   
   you'll notice that the stationary plates are insulated from the frame of the   
   capacitor while the rotatable plates are mounted directly on the shaft which   
   is in contact with that    
   frame. The electrical connection between the shaft and the frame is thru a   
   ball bearing on one end and usually a brass spring on the other end. Both ends   
   were lubricated at the factory, but, with time, that lubrication dries out and   
   oxidation occurs.    
   Metal oxides tend to be insulators. Once the contact between the shaft and the   
   frame, where the radio makes its connection, becomes unreliable or   
   intermittent, you'll stop getting reception or there will be a lot of noise as   
   the shaft is turned.   
      
   Moving the shaft back and forth can break thru those insulating films. You can   
   try Deoxit to remove the oxides and follow up with Shield to provide some   
   longer term conductivity. I like to also add a bit of high quality corrosion   
   preventive grease at the    
   same time, for the longest term benefit.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)