The Microcraft Morse-A-Word is a Morse code reader that translates and displays the alphanumeric output on a LED display real time.  The Morse-A-Word has two modes, the Receiver jack can be connected to the audio output jack of a CW Receiver and can it can decode Morse code from a received transmission. The second mode is for Morse code practice.  You can connect a Morse code key into the Key jack and use the built in oscillator to send code which you can hear from the internal speaker and it will be decoded on the LED display. The later is great way of improving your performance and accuracy of sending Morse code.

The Morse-A-Word has one control labeled "Speed". This control is used to also turn off the unit when rotated fully counter-clockwise. The Speed control, when turned clockwise, controls the unit's ability to decode morse code from 5WPM up to 35WPM. 

My Morse-A-Word has three modifications from a previous owner:

- An audio jack was added to the front so the audio output could be listened to with headphones. 

- A potentiometer was added to the top of the cabinet that modifies the frequency of the internal oscillator when used in code practice mode. 

- One of the speaker wires was detached so that audio output could only be heard from the headphone jack.

The Morse-A-Word in 1980 retailed for $169.95 in kit form or $249.95 for a fully assembled unit by the Microcraft Corporation. 

The Morse-A-Word was featured in March and April 1979 Popular Electronics construction article.
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The Morse-A-Word's bottom enclosure is U shaped and contains three printed circuit boards:

• Power Supply Board - Converts AC line voltage to low voltage DC required for operation, hangs from the back panel.
• Logic Board - Provides the Morse code oscillator signal and translates morse code into alphanumeric text.
• Display Board - Contains the LED alphanumeric display readout. 

The Morse-A-Word was in operational condition when acquired. I will be doing some cleaning, repair, and replacement of some components that don't age well.

The bezel in front of the LED display was held to the inside of the enclosure with masking tape. I removed the masking tape and cleaned up the residue, then I used a couple dabs of superglue to hold the bezel in place. I placed two D batteries on top of the bezel to hold it in place while the glue dried.

Three of the four nylon standoffs that held the Logic Board in place were broken. I was able to source new nylon standoffs from computer hardware I kept from when I used to build my own computers.

As electrolytic capacitors age, their electrolyte dries up causing their electrical capacity to drop and leakage current to increase. It is definitely a good idea to replace electrolytic capacitors that are over 30 years old!

I replaced all of the electrolytic capacitors on the Power Supply Board. All electrolytic capacitors should be replaced with one of the same or slightly greater capacitance and working voltage rating. 

During the electrolytic capacitor replacement, I discovered some greenish corrosion on one lead of the bridge rectifier. 

​Fearing eventual failure of the bridge rectifier, as the corrosion makes its way into the package, I replaced it as well. See area circled below:

I also replaced the one capacitor on the Logic Board. See area circled below:

Meguiar's Motorcycle All Metal Polish did wonders for cleaning up corrosion on the aluminum cabinet.
Here is just a sample of what this polish can do! I buffed gently around areas on the cabinet with silkscreened lettering as I didn't want to remove it.

Here is how the back of the cabinet looked after a few minutes of polishing.

The first step of the re-assembly process is to fasten the Logic Board to the bottom of the cabinet. Notice the two new nylon standoffs?

Be careful not to crimp any wiring when securing the Logic Board.

For some reason the previous owner removed one wire from the speaker to silence it. I soldered the wire back in place making the speaker functional once again. 

Here is another "mod" from the previous owner. He drilled a hole in the top of the cabinet and attached a potentiometer and knob to it. This control modifies the frequency of the internal oscillator when used in code practice mode. 

The Power Supply Board is attached to the back of the cabinet with three screws. See area circled in the picture below:
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Here is the picture off all of the parts replaced in my Morse-A-Word.

Time to do some initial testing before buttoning up the Morse-A-Word. I connected my straight key to the RCA Key jack then powered it on.   

The Morse-A-Word functioned as expected. A tone could be heard from its speaker when the straight key was pressed. Here I am practicing my Morse code "I" and "E". 

Here is the finished product with the cabinet lid on place!

The Morse-A-Word was a pretty impressive device for its time. It enabled novice amateur radio enthusiasts the ability to practice their Morse code skills while giving novice and experienced operators the ability to effortlessly read amateur code traffic.

The Roberts 1630 was the jewel of father's stereo equipment collection. He only brought it out on special occasions, typically on a Saturday afternoon when we were snowbound during a harsh Northern Ohio winter. No-one but my father was allowed to touch the Roberts 1630, in fact, only recently after my father had passed away did I actually handle it.

​My father would place it under the front picture window in the living room, as this was where the only free outlet was available, thread one of his many tapes and soon the whole house would be filled with the sweet sounds of  Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. My father also listened to Glen Campbell and also had many "Big Band" recordings. One of my favorite songs my dad would play on the Roberts 1630 was Up, Up, and Away by The Fifth Dimension. I would ask him to replay this song over and over until he got frustrated  and told be "The tape is going to wear out If I play that song one more time!" This was life in our 1970s household.

Then 1980 came, and the Roberts 1630 would stay banished in my father's closet for over 30 years until it came into my possession. Reasons for the banishment of the Roberts 1630 was that our family grew with the addition of my two younger siblings reducing "free time". In addition, this new fangled device called a cassette player became an addition to our household. It was much easier to plop a audio cassette in our new Panasonic tape deck then to fiddle with miles of open reel to reel tape. Dad even trusted even us young'uns with the cassette tape deck as it was simple operate and difficult, but not impossible, to break. 

I inherited my dad's complete collection of reel to reel tapes along with his Roberts 1630. One of the first obstacles was to figure out how to thread the tape. As mentioned, I was never allowed to touch the Roberts 1630 as a kid and, growing up mainly in era of  audio cassettes, never have done this before. After many failed attempts I "Googled" Roberts 1630 and found several pictures of this reel to reel model with a threaded tape. One of the first tapes I picked was a recording of me playing my interpretation of "Oh when the saints come marching in" on my Trumpet circa 1979. I was in fourth grade at the time.

The Roberts 1630 needs some cosmetic repair, as you can see the vinyl covering the front cabinet is curling at the edges. I want to restore it to its grandeur, like what it looked like when it was first removed from the box in 1964.

In addition, one of the posts that hold the Roberts logo has broken. This also needs to be repaired. 

The rest of the case is in pretty good order with very few imperfections.

The original take-up reel and rubber caps that hold the real in place are still in pretty good shape. The take-up reel has yellowed over the years but that is to be expected.

​I consult books often during radio restoration. I grew up in the transistor and rectifier era and these books taught me a lot about vacuum tube and selium rectifier technology.

Below is a picture of the bottom of the Roberts 1630 with all its connections. Looks like you have the ability of using the built in or external speakers. You could also feed the output  of the reel to reel into an external audio amplifier or you could use the Roberts 1630 as an amplifier for a phonograph or modular FM stereo receiver. 

In the next couple months I will completely refurbish my father's vintage Roberts 1630 reel to reel tape recorder, inside and out. Stop back at http://www.radioboatanchor.com/ to the see restoration process and amazing results!

​The Piccolo SR-F300A Transistor Radio was a product of Standard Radio Corporation of Tokyo Japan.

This model was first introduced to the US  market in 1960, although I am not sure which year mine was manufactured. 

The SR-F300A is standard AM Radio broadcast receiver of the Super-Heterodyne design. It employs 6 transistors in  a Mixer/Oscillator and three IF (Intermediate Frequency) stages. In addition, it uses a Germanium diode as the Detector to strip the RF (Radio Frequency) envelope from the audio signal. 

A Ferrite antenna is used instead of a whip antenna, the radio is powered by two type N 1.5 Volt Batteries. 

The Piccolo SR-F300A typically came with a brown leather case with strap, emblazoned with the words "Standard" and "Piccolo" in gold lettering. I am not sure what happened to the case for my radio. 

I installed two fresh type N batteries in the back of my Piccolo SR-F300A then powered it on by rotating the Volume control to the position labeled "2".  All that came out of the speaker was this strange "motorboat" sound that change pitch and got higher in frequency  as the volume was turned up. The Tuning control had did not have any affect and no atmospheric sound, typical of AM radios, could be heard from the speaker.

The first step to repairing this 50 year old radio was to take it apart. The back cover just snap fits in place so it comes off pretty easy. The printed circuit board is held in place by two screws and a nut circled in the picture below. Note, I already removed the top screw when this picture was taken.
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The next step was to remove the speaker from the front cover. It is held in place by a screw and standoff. The standoff is also used to secure the printed circuit board in place. See picture below:

The thumbwheels for the volume and tuning control will need to be removed in order to get at the printed circuit board. The volume thumbwheel is held in place with a small nut, while the tuning thumbwheel is held in place with a tiny screw.

As electrolytic capacitors age, their electrolyte dries up causing their electrical capacity to drop and leakage current to increase. It is definitely a good idea to replace electrolytic capacitors that are over 50 years old!  I always replace vintage electrolytic capacitors before performing any other troubleshooting. There were eight electrolytic capacitors that needed replaced in this radio. I have circled them in the picture below:

I am a firm believer in a clean workspace. I use small containers to hold loose parts during a radio restoration so as not to loose anything. I clean my workspace at the end of each work session. A clean workspace allows me to continue my restore project, free of clutter, the next time I sit down.

Standard Radio Corporation decided to place a lots jumpers and some resistors on the foil side of the printed circuit board for this radio. This made replacing electrolytic capacitors difficult. On several occasions, I had to unsolder jumper wires so that I could get to the pads that held an electrolytic capacitor in place, then re-solder the jumpers when finished. I took several close up pictures of the foil side of the printed circuit board so that I had a record of where the jumpers and resistors terminated. 

I noticed that the cases of the replacement 4.7uF 25Volt Capacitors were extending past the edge of the printed circuit board. This was a problem as it would prevent the printed circuit board from fitting back into the front cover. I had to switch to 4.7uF electrolytic capacitors that had a smaller physical dimensions. The smaller electrolytic capacitors actually had a higher working Voltage rating of 50Volts!   

Here is a picture, component side, once all of the vintage electrolytic capacitors had been replaced.

It was time to retest the Piccolo SR-F300A radio, after all of the vintage electrolytic capacitors had been replaced. I reinstalled the Volume and Tuner thumbwheels, inserted two fresh N type batteries in the battery holders, and hoped for the best as I turned on the radio. SUCCESS! The "motorboat" sound was replaced with AM atmospheric noise. I was able to immediately pick up several stations by carefully rotating the Tuner thumbwheel. In fact, I was able to pick up stations across the full tuning spectrum of the radio.  The Volume control worked as expected. 

I was so happy that no further troubleshooting was needed for this radio as I could not source a free copy of schematic. It seemed kinda silly to purchase a SAMs PhotoFact Schematic for $20 when the radio was F-R-E-E free!

To assemble the Piccolo SR-F300A radio, first install the speaker back into the front cover and tighten the screw and nut that hold it in place. You have to put the printed circuit board in sideways so as to allow the Tuning thumbwheel to protrude from the slot in the case. Two screw and a nut hold the printed circuit board securely in place. The back cover is just a snap fit to the front of the case. Below is a picture of the finished product.

It always pays to replace the electrolytic capacitors FIRST in a vintage radio before doing any other troubleshooting. I have fixed many a radio with a just a "re-cap" or electrolytic capacitor replacement.