Astor BPJ

This Radio was purchased at the HRSA Action in April 2021. It is in fair condition.

This example has a grey case, but an inspection of the inside shows the "Blossom Pink face plate. However, this may have been done at the factory as photo's on the web show a pink tinge to the front plate on a number of examples.

The radio itself worked but didn't pick up stations. A recap improved the situation, but it is still very weak.

This is a very similar design to a number of other radio's of the era, most notably the HMV Little Nipper.

I have started to restore this radio with a full recap of the paper and electrolytics. It is humming, so the output stage is working. 

I have also started on restoring the case. These "craze" with the Australian heat and are not easy to restore. They also develop stress cracks around the knobs.

After the purchase of a further 3 of these radio's, including a glorious red cabinet, all have had the same fault. The Mica capacitors in the front end have failed. Whether the radio design puts undue presure of these caps or the were poorly made in the first place will never be known. Having four examples fail in the same way suggests something fishy. Previous examples that have come through my work bench have not had this fault, but maybe the time has come for the bad Mica's to rar the head.