Hello Divu,

Welcome!

The first question obviously is:
Did you plug an antenna into the FM-antenna socket? Saba 9250 is fully metal shielded. Therefore it always requires an antenna. If there is generally good FM-reception at your location a wire of 80cm may already be sufficient.

Prior to turning the frequency dial knob for locating reception, did you push the "U" button on the station memory panel? Does the LED on the station memory panel indicate that "U" is activated?


Because I cannot know if you did this allright, please excuse that I ask these very basic questions, before we dig deeper into the matter.


And...btw.
Sorry for beeing so bloody direct, jumping right into the matter rather than starting with a bit of small talk first, i. e that this is a nice receiver, worth of beeing well maintained/repaired, etc.. You may know, that there isn't even a German word for "small-talk". It's not intended to be rude, i's just "typical German". If you are from a northern country you can perhaps understand that. But in England and southern countries as in Spain (and already in Switzerland) it is common to talk first about the weather (no politics), the children (no religion), the grandma (no, not the mother in law), "how are you today" (but no true answer expected),..etc. etc. ...

Regards,
Reinhard

Buenos dias, Diva ...

if you check the details, please also check whether the hiss that you mention is always there, or only sometimes. If the tuner does not work, I think the muting threshold should still act, at least "in between" ...

Adios, Michael

Your photograph tells differently.
namely that you didn't push "U" (fm) but U1 (fm1)! That's a hell of a difference!



Then of course, you cannot dial a station, because you always stay locked into the pre-saved frequency fm1. And if that happens to be a frequency where you have no reception in your region.....hiss, of course!
It would be good to read the owners manual so that you become familiar with the unit and how to use it.

regards
Reinhard

Yes, indeed ! The idea here is that, upon switch-on, the receiver always goes into U1 --- where you can dial into your favourite station for the wake-up call in the morning, should you want to use the receiver for that ...

You need the button "U" for the variable tuning. Most likely, all will be fine if you try ...

Good luck,

Michael

So, you are saying that, even in FM1, you always have the same hiss, no matter how you rotate the little trimmer on the upper side ? If so, then first check whether inside all connections are fine. There are some typical problems (for instance a broken PCB track just before the tuner) one should now check.

Of course, there can be a real problem, e.g. caused by some surge on the line (lightning damage, or a power surge on the cable input). Do you know anything about the previous history of this receiver ?

Best regards,

Michael

Can you get some information as to whether FM did work prior to shipping ? If so, I'd look for broken PCB tracks due to transport. I had that several times in the past. Locate them with a strong LED lamp on one side of the main PCB, while looking from the other side, and perhaps gently pressing against the PCB with one finger. If there is a rip in the PCB (which is quite common after transport, unfortunately), repair it with super glue, and solder bits of wire (old resistor pins or similar) acros the fractures in the tracks.

Best regards,

Michael

I had two instances where the tuning voltage was interrupted by a crack in the printed wiring board close to the fm tuner module, right at the edge near the corner of the board. In that case check tuning voltage and inspect the board as described by Michael.

Regards
Reinhard

Yes, that is the track I meant in particular. Whenever I revise one of these receivers, I ALWAYS bridge this short track (just a few cm long, but very thin and fragile) with bit of wire. This is also one of the recommended measures in the repair guide from Tommy (which is in German).

Michael

Hi, Divu,

regarding fluctuation of Tuning: Is it the case with AFC switched off? If yes, you should measure the stabilized output voltage on the Module with the TCA530.
If the changes in tuning occur only with active AFC, you should check, if the differential voltages of Pins 10 and 11 fluctuate between approx. -0.2 to 0.2V and if this is also the case near the AFC-Outputs of the ZF-module. Here this differential signal is beeing generated.

ZF-IC and Voltage Regulator TCA530 are both prone to partial defects. But also dead electrolytic capacitors could be the root cause.

Good luck,
Christian

The fluctuation, which you described is a symptom of poor contact of the broken traces. Hence you may carefully check if you really re-connected both broken printed wires reliably.

Best Regards,
Reinhard.

Dear Divu!

You can upload photos in the forum.
Go into the editor window you use for answers.
There is a button "Erweiterte Antwort".
Then use "Dateianhänge".

Andreas