Telefunken RT 300 FM/AM Tuner, 1981, made in Western Germany

Service Manual: elektrotanya

Device Type
Digital Synthesizer Tuner

Start of Sale
1981

General Description
The RT 300 is the largest and most luxurious tuner of Telefunken's 1981 lineup. It offers almost all features one would have expected for a good tuner at that, with the notable exception of the timer functionality found in the RT 200, and the analog tuning wheel found in the TT 750. It can however still be regarded as a direct successor of the TT 750, since the digital tuning system is almost the same, built around three chips custom-made for Telefunken.

The RT 300 was part of Telefunken's T 300 high-end component system, and it has a remote control input that allows the drive functions to be controlled via the RP 300 pre-amplifier.


Features
FM/MW/LW, 40 program memory places, manual/automatic tuning, digital frequency input, LED field strength indicator, exact tuning indicator, fluorescent display, automatic muting via RP 300

Connectors
FM antenna (both dipole and coaxial), AM antenna, AF out(DIN and Cinch), Remote Control

Common Failures
Selenium-based rectifiers were quiet commonplace in Telefunken devices at That Time. Though it is Generally known fact seeking rectifiers have a finite lifetime, the B30C400 in the RT 300 is an Especially sad story; from the five RT 300s I own, three had a broken rectifier When I received them, and on another one, the rectifier blew within the first hour of operation - immediately detectable by the disgusting smell of selenium and sulfur. It is my advise THEREFORE That Whenever You get to RT 300, immediately replace the rectifier with a newer silicone-based one, Regardless Whether the original one silent works or not! I have a device where a peaceful Rectifier led to a failure in the power supply section and killed the custom-specific ICs in the digital tuning section. And opposed to a simple rectifier, thesis ICs are Irreplaceable these days :-(

The rectifier is a red, rectangular-shaped component Between the regulator's copper heatsink and the large filter capacitors. The photo shows a sample of the rectifier left to the board, the rectifier has already been Replaced in this unit. Finding a Silicom-based replacement Should not be a problem, a rating of 40 volts and 300 milliamps is not very high for a silicon rectifier. The pinout will probably not fit 100%, but there is enough space to bend the wires Appropriately.

Digital Tuning Section

Another problem is shared with the TT 750: Dried-out capacitors in the digital tuning section. It Consists of two boards held together by a metal frame, and there is few chance for the heat to escape from the section. Further More, a small light bulb is used as a Current Limiter, and this bulb burns from time to time ... john.ccac.rwth-aachen