I found this mono for only about 15 dollars with owners manual.

The radio is in good condition, with minor scratches, that's ok for me. Deck was nearly dead ... always the same ... thing went worse inside ...
Some stupid technician had made a mess. Auto stop didn't work because one plastic
piece was broken (and missing). Some caps weren't original, two resistor-traces from the PCB were cut and most of the amp soldering junctions were reworked ...
Really I became very angry seeing the board of this baby,

Restoration:

First of all, I checked the replaced resistors with the original ones (happiliy I were be able to read the original pcb carbon-trace resistors). They were ok. I put new ones in a more tidy way.

I recaped all the PCB with new capacitors, all 105º low ESR, and put 3300 instead of 2200 at the power supply.
Because the previous service (idiot) had reworked all soldering joints the entire PCB was a mess.
I cleaned it with plenty of alcohol, and finally give it a flux finish with a flux spray.
Looked really nice.

Cleaning all pots and switches was mandatory ... Done.

Happily the motor was new, so I don't have to change motor this time.

Of course new belts, new pinch and tire cleaning too.

Auto-stop function was broken. Since the broken piece was missing no much to do.

I decided to attach a little switch to the auto-stop lever. This switch turn off the main power
trough a little 5V relay. I took me lots of work to get it working ... but it's working rigth. The only objetable point is that play function remains enganged, but it's ok for me


Sound

This unit delivers 2.2W RMS. Really a lot for it's size.

Good overal performance ... nice highs but not much bass. Ok, it's a 4'' paper cone full range speaker.
Bass it's warn. That's you may expect from a classic box. This one doesn't have any IC, all discrete and ouput is tranformer coupled. The last really helps to the warm sound.
I would prefer a bigger speaker to take advantage of the good electronics inside.
It doen't distort, even at max volume position. Another nice point.
Featuring a tone control only (not separate bass/treble).

Deck

Not much to say. The most common Panasonic transport. Realiable and easy to fix.


Features

It has a needle meter. Multifunction, that shows battery level and recroding level, but NOT tunning ...
Radio is three band with excelent reception.
Source selector has the famous sleep position (a bit pointless for me)
It has mic-in and aux-in jacks. Both allows mixing.
It has a switch "monitor level" to change the volume output while recording (yes, volume and tone don't work while recording)
Because of this, aux-in is really pointless in this unit. First you need to press REC in order to listen the aux source. Then output volume can be adjusted in
one of two positions !!! raising the level of the source isn't a solution since the set has ALC that limits the input ...
Ok, by the time that National had designed this set, Ipod didn't exist ... aux was to hock
a record source, not to use the set as amplifier.
Of course it has a multivoltage transformer, and DC in.

Quality

A really well built unit, with of-board conectors. Transport mecha from Panasonic is always a good point, heavy, simple and reliable.

Design

Nice design from National. Friendly control layout. Nice size to take it with you in a bag.


Conclusion

A nice unit, quite reliable, with good features and good sound quality and power.







Pedro

Great to see someone taking the time to repair these kind of boxes and enjoying what they have to offer.
Maybe not everyones thing but i have a few mono boxes that i really like so i can understand the appeal of them.
Well done on the repairs too !

I have one like it too with manual..

quote:

SUCCESS

As usual:very professional review!
thanks a lot to share this.

here the brothers:
panasonic#-rq546 review IBBN 7-04523
&
panasonic#-rx1660 IBBN 7-04088

Thanks Jens

I had the RQ546 owners manual and the CF550A owners manual.
I'm seeing the way to upload them, because they are 20 MB and I can't trough my 56K modem.

Pedro

pedro puedes ir a una cafe internet donde tenga servicio de internet mas veloz y ahi puedes escanear . mira si tienes escaner en tu casa puedes escanear el manual y de ahi lo puedes guardar en un USB memory stick. y asi llevarlo a un cafe y de ahi mandarlo a donde lo quieras mandar.. es solo una pequena sugerencia..
attn javier..

SI si !!, sucede que aqui, los accesos de banda ancha son economicos y ya nadie va a los cyber-cafes. Por eso han ido desapareciendo.
Ademas hay mucha zona wi-fi en bares ...
Ya tengo lo manules en PDF y tengo una memoria flash. La semana que viene voy por lo de un amigo que tiene ADSL, voy a subirlos.

De donde eres ?

Saludos, Pedro