SOME LESSONS FROM A 'MONSTER'

Recently, another mass shooting in the U.S. hit the news. It occurred in the next state south of me, in Oregon. The city where the shooting occurred, Roseburg, is a nice area about 80 miles inland from the Pacific coast. Roseburg is in a small rain shadow, and the countryside resembles parts of Northern California more than it does the rest of Western Oregon -- broad, grassy hills with big oak trees. It's a beautiful area.

The economy there used to be timber based. Now -- like much of the rest of timber country -- it is economically depressed.

The young man in Roseburg who was the shooter was apparently disenchanted with his life, and held a lot of anger inside him before taking it out on innocent civilians at a community college where he apparently was a student. Like many such shooters -- the young man took his own life after the police showed up (in this case, the police shot him a couple times before he ran off to kill himself).

It's a common thread in many of these shootings: a usually young, disaffected man -- often emotionally or mentally disturbed (but sometimes not) -- writing a manifesto or saying dangerous things online before procuring a few guns and then going out to kill as many people as possible before killing himself.

Here in the United States discussions of these shootings always turn political -- on one side, you have those who blame the shooter's mental illness, medications, or some deficiency the shooter may have had -- usually defending the gun. On the other side, you have those who blame the gun above all else. Then the two sides throw names at each other and there is a lot of hate and discontent all around.

Granted, there are many guns here in the U.S. Granted, there is a lot of gun violence.

But no one seems to want to breach the idea that much of the reason for such shootings -- and other gun violence as well -- is economic in nature. I for one do not think that the fact that this most recent shooting took place in one of the most economically depressed areas of Oregon is a coincidence. While I don't think it's the factor, I think the lack of job opportunities for the young man in question was a contributing factor -- even psychologists I heard interviewed on the radio last week mentioned that he felt alienated and disenchanted with his prospects for a good life.

Recently, while at a thrift store, I saw this book, "Monster", written by an ex-gang member named Sanyika Shakur (former name, Kody Scott). Mr. Shakur was a member of one of the prominent gangs in South Central Los Angeles, and in his book he describes in fine detail the mechanics of gang warfare. I have read about three quarters of the book so far -- it is a grim read, but also a fascinating one.

Mr. Shakur doesn't necessarily tell us what the root cause of gangsterism is -- aside from his perception and belief that it is economic and racial in character -- a consequence of the U.S.'s history of economic warfare on black people.


The adage "there are more young black men in prison than in college" is an indicator of this. Our incarceration rate is devastating, even compared to the 1970's. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg mentioned this in a Seattle Times opinion piece Oct. 15: "If we were to return to the incarceration rate of the 1970's, we'd have to release 80 percent of all inmates in America." (Emphasis added).

Imagine that: The implication is that 80 percent of the inmates in the U.S. probably shouldn't be there. Either that, or there has been 80 percent more serious, felonious crime.

However, in the same article, Mr. Satterberg says that crime in the U.S. has been on a "downward trend", and has reached "lows not seen for half a century" -- 50 years.

Yet we also have a massive violent crime problem in urban America and an awful incarceration rate. And although incarceration reform can help part of the problem, the greater problem is that there are too many Americans who clearly feel they have no stake in society.

Young men who feel they have no future are prime recruits for crime, drugs, and gangs. And as we have seen in the mass shootings -- many young men who see that they have no future will turn to violence to lash back at society.

In the 1950's and 1960's, when the United States economy was at its apex, there weren't so many mass shootings, and less gun violence in general. And yet there were still a lot of guns per capita -- probably more than anywhere else in the world, save Switzerland or Israel.

Unfortunately, governmental trade and labor policies shifted manufacturing to other countries. A lot of good, well-paying jobs were lost. This hit the Rust Belt before it spread to the rest of the country.

California Governor Jerry Brown, when he was running for President in 1992, stated that during the 70's and 80's nearly 250,000 manufacturing jobs left South Central Los Angeles. Governor Brown blamed that job loss for much of the rise in gangs and poverty in L.A.

We have a large problem here in the U.S., and it's not just guns. And it's not just violence. There is something wrong with our economy, where not enough people feel they have a future.

Here in the U.S., our government seems to be rudderless when it comes to jobs and the ability to buy a home, support a family, have a future. Home ownership is on the decline. Even rental apartments are unaffordable for many.

This mostly bleak economic picture may not be the only cause of gun violence, but I think that it is a contributing factor that no politician, no pundit, and no press editorialist is talking about.

Which takes us back to "Monster". It's an excellent book. At the same time, it's a sad book. It's about a young man who got caught up in a gang because that's where his friends were, that's where his neighborhood was, and the gang, the 'set', was his identity. And -- it also provided him with a sort of living.

College was not an option. Education was not an option, either. In one part of the book, Mr. Shakur describes being bused to a high school in the San Fernando Valley, 15 miles from his home. He liked the school, but stopped going after the third or fourth day because the gang that held the territory just north of him shot up the school bus as it went up the road, and he didn't want to get killed on the way to school.

When I first heard of the shooting in Oregon, I was reading "Monster". It was like deja vu all over again. When a man shoots up a community college, it's national news. But large scale shootings take place nightly in economically depressed areas of major cities of the U.S. every day. Often such shootings don't get a mention.


Reading Mr. Shakur's book was a revealing look at a culture that a large percentage of Americans just hear about or read about. Mr. Shakur refers to the inter-gang violence in terms of war -- describing the clashes (wars, actually) between Los Angeles area gangs in terms of geopolitics -- the expansion of territory, street by street. Sending out scouts, and sending out carloads of shooters who are like the first prongs of an invasion.

His book is set in the late 1970's through the early 1980's. For much of it he was a teenager.

It was a bit discomforting to read about it, because in many parts of Urban America, this is still a very real situation.

The biggest thing I got out of it was that it was a picture of a young man who felt compelled to join a gang -- not just because of the camaraderie, but because there weren't really any other viable options. There were no jobs, and education was ineffective or unavailable.

One gets the feeling from reading his book that it's not just a race issue: it's also an economic issue.

Gun violence is everywhere -- and I can't help but think that much of it is because so many young American men feel they have no future.

Politicians can try to curb or ban gun ownership. Good luck. There are nearly 300 million guns in the U.S. With that number of guns available, it would take a long time to stop gun violence. Meanwhile, the root causes are still there.

Perhaps government leaders should try to improve the economy instead. Provide more opportunities for disaffected people to climb up the economic ladder. Improve education in depressed areas, combined with creating more decent paying jobs closer to home. And while they're at it, improve mental health care.

Try something that may work. Restricting gun access may help, but it's only a bandage on a much worse problem. If we really want to stop all kinds of violence in the U.S., we need to improve the economy.

People with good jobs, good homes and good futures generally don't want to shoot up the place. They usually want the opposite.

PS -- My thoughts and prayers go out to the French people after hearing of the terrorist attacks on innocent civilians in Paris. I have at least one reader who is from France. I hope you and your family are safe.
CC

NIKON COOLPIX L32 -- how to get decent pictures from one

My Fuji Finepix AX655 with lens stuck open -- it took terrific pictures when working.

If you have one, always use fresh AA's. Mine still works as an SD card reader -- so all is not lost. :-)

Recently my Fuji Finepix AX655 went belly-up. Well -- the closest thing to it: I was out taking some pictures with it and the lens locked up.

The camera gave me an error message, and no matter what I did, the lens remained stuck. The lens was stuck open, it wouldn't focus, and it was impossible for the camera to take any pictures.

One of the reasons I bought the Fuji was it took AA batteries. I just don't care for rechargeables.  Unfortunately, some cameras can lock up if you turn them on or off with low batteries in them. What happens is the lens will sometimes lock into place when the batteries run low. Your screen will still light up. But the lens is locked in place. And a "low battery" may actually be lower in charge than it appears on your battery meter.

When I got the Fuji back to the house I put in fresh alkaline batteries -- the lens was still locked, and wouldn't budge. I blew canned air into the crevices around the lens -- the lens was still locked. I tried all the tricks I found on the web, including taking the camera apart and blowing canned air all around -- no change. Still locked.

I even took the case off the camera to try and blow canned air around the lens without the case being in the way. No dice. The lens still was stuck.

My Fuji Finepix AX655 digital camera is now a Fuji AX655 SD card reader and paperweight.

I have an old Canon AX520 (which I bought at a thrift store) that I use frequently. When batteries are low with my Canon it simply won't turn on -- or it automatically turns itself off. Thankfully, it hasn't locked up on me. Apparently (hopefully) the firmware prevents that.

I like my old thrift store Canon, but I don't like having just one camera -- I'd rather have a spare.

Nikon Coolpix L32 -- a great snapshot camera -- just use the 'Scene' button.

ENTER THE NIKON L32

So I bought another camera. As anyone who may have read my earlier posts knows, I got a Nikon Coolpix L32. I got it at a local box store for around $100.

With my Fuji, everything seemed automatic: the camera would set the shutter speed and light adjustment for whatever light level -- bright sun, dusk, morning, haze, etc. -- and I always got good pictures. It truly is a 'point and shoot' camera. The only time I messed with the settings was to turn the flash off, or once when I took a night picture of the half Moon and Jupiter -- where I used the 'night scenes' setting.

This is a night shot I took -- of the half moon and Jupiter -- with my Fuji, using its 'Night' setting. It was the only time I used an actual setting with the camera. The rest of the time I just left it on full auto, and switched the flash off. Very simple. With my Nikon, there's an extra step.

I thought the Nikon L32 would be the same. Nope -- not quite that simple!

At first I tried some photos during daylight. The results were O.K.

Then I took some late afternoon photos, just before dusk. Blurry, most of them.

Then I took some morning photos, while the sun was still coming up. Same results. Blurry, most of them. Some of them were really bad.

I thought: what happened to the focus? What happened to the anti-shake that is built in to the camera?

ALWAYS USE THE 'SCENE' BUTTON

I was about to take the L32 back to the box store until I discovered the key to getting decent pictures from an L32: the "SCENE" button. The Quick Start Guide calls this the "Shooting Mode" button, but on the camera it says "SCENE".

It's a little green button just above the big multi-directional function button on the right side of the camera.

I pressed it. I got a menu.

There are all sorts of settings: Portrait, Landscape, Beach, Snow, Sunrise/Sunset, Night, Dawn/Dusk, etc.

This is the Scene Menu. As you can see, there are about 15 very useful light settings, from 'Portrait' and 'Landscape' to 'Beach', 'Sports', 'Snow', 'Party' (I think that's an indoor light setting), 'Sunset/Sunrise', 'Dusk/Dawn' (the one I use the most because there is a lot of low light outdoors in the Seattle area during Fall, Winter and Spring) -- and several others.
 *The "Night Landscape" setting also works very well in grey sky, low daylight conditions.*

Basically these settings tell the camera how to adjust for different light levels.

The straight automatic setting that many of us use with digital cameras just doesn't work well for most light levels using a Nikon L32. You have to press the SCENE button.

Being that most times when we're out with our camera it's during a morning, or an afternoon, or maybe indoors, or out in bright daylight, it really isn't that big a deal. It's just one extra button click.

After I took 15-20 shots in the morning and 90% of them came out great using the Dusk/Dawn setting, I was sold on keeping the camera.

Since then, I have discovered that the Sunrise/Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, and Night Landscape settings are similar in that they are all similarly sensitive to low light -- but they each emphasise a slightly different color tone to the pictures.

 PLAYING WITH THE LIGHT EXPOSURE BY POINTING THE CAMERA

One other trick I discovered is that the Nikon, like most snapshot cameras, will automatically meter (brighten or darken the exposure) depending on where you point the camera. So -- if you want a dramatic sunrise, for example -- you point the camera up towards the sky, where it is lighter. The camera will darken the exposure, and the sunrise will seem more dramatic.

A sunrise picture I took the morning of October 6th, 2015, using the Nikon L32. I aimed the camera up towards the sunrise. The clouds looked more dramatic that way.

If you want the lower area of the picture to be lighter so you can see the yard, bushes, etc., point the camera down towards those darker areas. The camera will lighten the exposure. Press the shutter button part way, and then move the camera back up towards the sunrise or sunset. The light metering will hold, and although the sunrise will be less dramatic, the lower part of the picture will be lighter.

I took this photo maybe 15 seconds after the one above on October 6th. The ground area is lighter in this picture because I pointed the Nikon L32 downwards and held the shutter button about halfway down, which seems to lock in the light setting. So -- the lower area of the picture is more visible -- the sunrise isn't as dramatic, though. It's a bit bleached out.

With this sunrise picture, taken October 5th, 2015, I pointed the Nikon L32 down towards the Trail and held the shutter button partway to lock in the light setting.

The main reason I'm putting this all in a blog post is because there really isn't much information online on how to get good shots from one of these L32 cameras, and frankly, many people who bought these cameras at the same box store where I got mine complained online about poor pictures.

BATTERY METER SORT OF HELPFUL, BUT CAMERA KNOWS WHEN BATTERY IS LOW

One morning a week or so ago I tried to shoot a picture with the Nikon, and the batteries apparently were too low for using the flash. Instead of locking up the lens, the camera said "Batteries Exhausted", and shut down. Good sign!

It happened to me again this morning. I took two photos and the battery meter -- a tiny icon in the upper right corner of the L32's screen -- showed what seemed to be a full charge.

When I pressed the power button about 10 minutes later I got the "Batteries Exhausted" warning message again. The lens didn't even try to come out of the camera.

The battery meter is fairly sensitive, but you get three settings: full charge, 'half' charge (which shows up just before the camera refuses to turn on), and "Batteries Exhausted".

The camera is also apparently designed to shut down if it's too cold (which will affect the batteries).

Considering I experienced a lens lock up with my Fuji, I have more confidence that Nikon figured out a way for the camera to just not do anything if it senses the batteries are too low to operate the lens. If this tendency holds, that is a very good sign. I'd rather have a camera that refuses to operate than lock up the lens.


Hopefully, my new Nikon will never become a paperweight like my Fuji has.

DON'T MOVE TELEPHOTO PAST THE LITTLE HATCH-MARK FOR BEST RESULTS

The only other glitch this camera has is the telephoto. If you press the telephoto button all the way to the right and hold it there, the telephoto function will eventually switch from physical telephoto to electronic zoom. In other words, the Nikon tries to make the camera pretend there is more telephoto available than there really is.

 An example of 'Electronic Zoom' -- you move the telephoto control past the hatchmark on the L32's screen, the 'electronic zoom' feature takes over. This picture was also taken when I hadn't understood the light metering of the camera, so it would have been a bit blurry anyway. Just a more extreme example.

On screen there is a little hatch-mark about 3/4 to the right when you use the telephoto. If you pass that little hatch-mark, you are no longer extending your telephoto -- the camera is electronically zooming into the picture, and it will be grainy. For the best shots using a telephoto, don't take it past the little hatch-mark on the screen. 

I took this sunrise picture using the 'Dusk/Dawn' setting and also the telephoto function -- I kept the telephoto to the left of the hatchmark and got good results.

This sunrise picture was also taken using the telephoto and 'Dusk/Dawn' setting (maybe the Sunrise setting? -- I don't remember. They're very similar).

I realise there is some information on the L32 out on the 'net, but finding any instructions online that were useful was very difficult, and unfortunately I couldn't download the extensive PDF manual on my computer. So I decided to go ahead and post some info on the L32 for anyone who has bought one of these cameras and hasn't had much luck in getting the quality of photos they expected. Hopefully this post will help someone.

A recent picture of the Cedar River in Autumn colors, Late October 2015, taken with the Nikon Coolpix L32.

FULL ON AUTUMN.

Moving away from cameras, it's full-on Autumn here in Seattle now, which means the hills are mostly greenish-orange-yellow (green from the fir trees, orange from the bigleaf maples, and yellow from the cottonwoods), and it's 11C / 50F and raining out most of the time.

Our weather was great throughout most of October, but after Halloween we've had a lot of rainy periods. Halloween itself was pouring rain. :-( Not many trick-or-treaters this year.

I have some Autumn pictures I took earlier in October which I will put up in a blog post in the next few days. 

Have a great picture taking day,
CC

PS -- As I said earlier in this post: Anyone who has a Fuji AX655: They're fine cameras but MAKE SURE YOUR BATTERIES ARE ALWAYS FRESH! It's a great camera -- very easy to use. But watch those batteries!

ADDENDUM, 2019:
As Google got rid of Google+, a couple comments from readers disappeared. One of them was a question from a reader asking me "Which setting is the best to use overall?"

I use the "NIGHT LANDSCAPE" setting the most, as light levels here in the Seattle area are often low during later afternoon or early morning. The NIGHT LANDSCAPE setting will also work during the day, strangely enough. If the sun is out bright, I switch to LANDSCAPE, which seems to be the standard bright daylight setting.

Even when using the NIGHT LANDSCAPE setting, I usually have the Flash switched OFF. Most times, it isn't really needed.

Sometimes I will use the SUNSET or SUNRISE settings -- they are similar to the NIGHT LANDSCAPE setting, except the color sensitivity is altered a little -- sort of like Kodachrome and Ektachrome slide films were back in film days. You usually can see the difference in the LCD display.

ELECTRONIC ZOOM: IT DOES WORK
ALSO: I have found that the Electronic Zoom does indeed work, and works well. It seems to depend on lighting. I have taken very sharp pics using the Electronic Zoom while photographing trees, flowers, and other subjects, both in my back yard and farther away. So L32 users, give the Electronic Zoom a try. You will see it sharpen in the LCD display.

Here is one of the pics I took with the Electronic Zoom, during one of the orangy sunsets we had two summers ago when there was haze from Canadian forest fires. This, I think, was when I first noticed the Electronic Zoom worked OK:

Thanks again to all who have read this article. It appears to be called up by people a lot while doing searches. These NIKON L32 cameras are handy little cameras. I still use mine several times a week.

Here is a pic of the river in snow last Winter.:

Peace,
C.C., 8-20-2019

ADDENDUM, April 5th, 2024:

After a frustrating photo session, where I decided to use my L32 after it had reset on me (the batteries had died, and I hadn't used the camera in a couple months), I learned the hard way that there is a definite difference between the "NIGHT LANDSCAPE" and "NIGHT PORTRAIT" Scene settings.

With the NIGHT LANDSCAPE setting, you can take pictures in almost any lighting, and by zone metering (aiming the camera at a lighter or darker area and setting the lighting that way, then aiming the camera at your subject) you can take good pictures in daylight, cloudy daylight, or dawn or dusk very easily. With this setting, the FLASH is always OFF. In most cases with NIGHT LANDSCAPE, you don't need the Flash, though. NIGHT LANDSCAPE is probably the most useful of the Nikon L32's settings.

With NIGHT PORTRAIT, you can NOT turn the FLASH Off! It's impossible. Trust me. I learned the hard way. Flash is useful at times, but it drains your batteries. I have a dead pair of new AA batteries because of it.

Do NOT confuse NIGHT LANDSCAPE with NIGHT PORTRAIT.  The semi-useful NIGHT PORTRAIT icon is in the first row of "Scene" icons. Don't use it unless you want to drain your batteries quicker. NIGHT LANDSCAPE -- the Very Useful setting -- is in the SECOND ROW of icons.

The SUNSET and DUSK/DAWN modes are also equally useful. As I mentioned in the article, they are like Kodachrome and Ektachrome -- you get different color highlights. With both of those settings, the FLASH is always OFF. Like with NIGHT LANDSCAPE, you probably won't need it.

PS. The manual isn't really ultra clear on much of this. There is a chart that shows the different settings and how they work, but overall, the manual is as clear as mud about a lot of this stuff.

- - - - - - - - -

I also made one small edit to one of the captions here -- changing "Night" setting to "Night Landscape" setting, and added "Landscape" in another part of the text, so that no one else has to go through what I just went through, after my frustrating attempt at getting good photos late this afternoon.

Looking through the manual, this camera was packed with interesting features. You can edit pics with just the camera. Remarkable. Nikon did put a lot of effort into coming up with a good product when they came up with the L32.

Just make sure you get the SCENE settings right, hey? :-)

C.C. 4-5-2024

Boosting the antenna circuit of a GE SUPERADIO 1 & 2

BOOSTING THE SENSITIVITY OF A GE SUPERADIO 1 & 2

My GE Superadio 1 (also the first photo I took with my Fuji snapshot camera). I had it in my car because the car stereo fried. I bought this radio at a local thrift store a few years ago for $5.99.

A couple blog posts previous, I wrote about my Long Distance AM Radio listening hobby, a pastime I have enjoyed since I was little.

I'm not a heavy-duty AM distance listening enthusiast. I just like to put on the headphones, switch on the portable radio while I'm reading, and tune around and see what's out there.

Sometimes I use an external loop antenna to boost the signals even more. Sometimes I don't bother.

I like to use the GE Superadio because it sounds so good through headphones, and it pulls in stations from distant places. The radio also sounds great through the speaker.

There are three versions of the Superadio, and I have all three of them. All are very good AM and FM radios, and they are still very popular among AM band long distance listeners ("DXers").

I also sometimes use my Superadios to listen to FM, as they pull in some stations my other FM radios usually won't. But for most FM listening, I use my boombox. The Superadio is mostly used for night time AM band listening.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE GE SUPERADIO

The GE Superadio was a radio model GE introduced in 1979. They originally just called it the Superadio, and a super radio it was. It had very good reception on FM, and excellent reception on AM, as well as excellent sound. It was intended for people who wanted to hear stations in other cities and regions -- either to hear a distant talk show, or perhaps to hear a sporting event.

As the Superadio is excellent on batteries (a set of D cells can last months, literally -- I just recently replaced a set of batteries in my Superadio and they had lasted at least eight months), it is great for taking camping, or for disaster preparedness.

In the early to mid-1980's GE updated the Superadio model to the 'Superadio II', which has a tweeter speaker for FM and a couple other small changes.  Then in the early 90's GE came out with the 'Superadio III'. All three models are quite good (although there are some bum III's out there, because of cheap tuner parts that were used in later runs of the radio).

SUPERADIOS ARE BUILT LIKE TANKS

Superadios generally are built like tanks (I've seen a Superadio II take a dive off of a refrigerator and still work normally afterwards, with not even a scratch) -- but the bandswitches on the Superadio 1 and Superadio 2 seem to be the weakest part of the radio. Sometimes the AM band will go dead, because years of switching between the FM and AM bands can pull on the switch's solder connections, and weaken the switch's connections on the main PC board. I haven't had this happen to my radios.

The AFC switch usually doesn't seem to have issues, probably because most FM listeners leave it in that position permanently.

The GE Superadio 1 with the back off, and the main PCB is loosened but still wired to the other parts of the radio -- picture was taken before I added the antenna circuit resistor. The bandswitch and AFC switch solder contacts are in the middle of the main PCB. Those are the ones I hit with the solder gun and added just a little more solder.

I have only done two 'modifications' to my Superadio I and II. That is -- if you could call them modifications -- because they are very minor ones (I haven't done any changes to my Superadio III, as it is one of the better ones).

The first modification I did was to add solder to the bandswitch and then plaster silicone glue around and underneath the bandswitch, to absorb the stress when you switch from AM to FM. On both the Superadio I and II, the AM-FM bandswitch can be a weak point, which is why I strengthened it.

The other minor modification I've done is to add a resistor in parallel with the the radio's antenna circuit resistor, boosting the signal a little. The resistor that apparently determines antenna signal strength, R13, ranges from 47K, to 56K, to 26K ohms on a Superadio 1 or 2 (the lower the resistance number -- to a point -- you get higher gain, and louder signals). The value of the antenna circuit resistor seems to depend on whatever resistors they had available at the factory.

My Superadio 1 came with a 56K ohm resistor, so I just soldered a second one across it to drop the value to around 25-26K. It did not cause a massive difference, but did boost the sensitivity of the radio, maybe by a db or so, without any ill affects. The improvement wasn't huge but was noticeable.

The back of the GE SR1's main PCB with the parallel resistor wired in. You can see the resistor I added: it's the resistor 'hanging' off the bottom edge of the PCB, in the center of the picture -- it is suspended by two short lengths of green hookup wire (it's near that dark orange plastic guard that covers the radio's AC transformer). I just took a 47K resistor and soldered it to some hookup wire, and then soldered those ends to the pads on the PCB, effectively soldering it across R13. There are no ill affects, and the signals were boosted by about a db or so -- not monstrous, but noticeable. The improvement may not be worth it to a lot of GE SR1 owners.

Before, when I compared my SR1 to another SR1 which had a 26K antenna resistor, my SR1 just seemed to be a little lax in reception compared to the other radio. After the resistor mod, they received the same.

If anyone has one of these radios, at the very least it would be advisable (if you have a little electronics repair experience) to at least hit the bandswitch solder pads with a bit of extra solder and then plaster the underside of the switch with silicone glue. You don't have to take the radio completely apart to do this: just take the back off, and free up the main PCB to get access to both sides by moving it when and where needed.

The inside, looking at the top of the main PCB. If you look closely you can see the clear silicone glue (greyish looking gunk) underneath the switch assemblies. Hopefully it will allow me to switch between AM and FM without worrying about the switch breaking and the radio being FM only.

I can't guarantee that it will keep your bandswitch from going south, but I think the glue absorbing more of the stress from switching the switch will extend its life. It's certainly better than doing nothing. Because if you do nothing (and use the switches very much) the stress from turning the switches up and down goes mostly to the solder pads on the PCB. My theory is the plaster of glue absorbs the shock away from the solder pads enough to lengthen the life of the switches.

DISASSEMBLY -- a Little Tricky, but Turn the Power Switch to the ON position

Taking a Superadio 1 or 2 apart is a little tricky. The first thing you do (after unplugging it and/or taking the batteries out) is pull the knobs off the front. Then you turn the tuner shaft until the flat side of the tuner shaft faces towards the bottom of the radio. This makes it easier for it to clear the hole when you pull the back and front of the radio away from each other.

Then you turn the power switch ON. This drops the switch downwards, giving it enough clearance to clear its hole, when you pull the radio's two halves apart -- if you leave it up, in the 'off' position, it can easily wreck the switch.

To get the front and back free, you've got to rock the two halves of the radio's body back and forth a bit, maneuvering them just right until you can wiggle the front and back free from each other. I've had my SR1 apart probably 4-5 times without wrecking the power switch, so it can be done.

However, I did ruin a power switch on my Superadio III because I forgot to switch it to the ON position, and I had to replace the switch with a toggle switch in the back of the radio.

Taking the main PCB off the radio is a bear, but most of the minor things can be done if you just unscrew it from its mounts, and then pull it away from the mounts carefully, making sure to keep your solder gun or iron away from the dial string if you do any soldering.

Unfortunately, I really can not describe well enough a step by step description of how I did my minor mods. I'm really lousy at describing such things. And to make sure you add the extra resistor to the radio to the right connections, you'd need access to a good schematic or wiring diagram of the radio - which I am unable to add to this blog article.

So this blog article isn't intended as a step-by-step guide, because I'm so lousy at that. But I just put this article on here to give GE SR1 owners an idea of a couple easy things they can do to mod / preserve the operation of their radio.

If you have one of these radios and are interested in doing minor mods, the best thing is to look at the excellent GE Superadio Tech page, http://earmark.net/gesr/sr1.htm , where there are numerous excellent photos, schematic and other diagrams, and step by step descriptions of taking the radio apart, and other fixes that the man who runs the website has done to all three Superadios.

A TERRIFIC EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS RADIO

Although Superadios are getting rarer to see at thrift stores, they can still be found from time to time. And -- of course -- they are still available used on places like EBay. Superadios are excellent for camping and also for emergency preparedness. In a disaster, when there may be no electricity for smartphone and laptop chargers and the like, and cell services and internet services are down, a portable radio like a GE Superadio is a great asset for receiving news and information, especially when batteries last so long.

I have featured GE Superadios in bit parts of two of my novels in progress: one of them is a disaster novel, where a family uses a Superadio to hear information because the power is off all over the U.S.. In the other novel, one about a homeless guy, a GE Superadio is his only form of entertainment.

My GE Superadio II, the last version (F model) built in China. With the Superadio II, GE added a tweeter, and put a smaller sized metal tuner inside the radio, lightening its weight a little (and probably lowering costs). This was my kitchen radio for several years. Last year, the radio took a dive off the refrigerator. The radio still worked perfectly. GE's are built like tanks.

I made my Superadio II a little more sensitive by adding some resistors in parallel, dropping the value of R13 from 55K ohms to 38K. The resistors can be seen in the center-right of the picture, soldered together. I used as many as I did because they were all I had at the time. They are soldered to the back side of the second PCB, the upper one with the tuner mechanism on it. Like with my Superadio 1, the increase in performance is small but noticeable.

If you look closely you can see a small slot I filed at the bottom of the tuner knob's shaft hole, to make it easier to get the radio apart in the future if I need to fix it. The slot makes it easier for the shaft to clear the hole, and makes the radio come apart easier because of it.

Here you can easily see the silicone glue plastered beneath the bandswitch as a preventive measure -- to absorb shock and keep it from disfunctioning in the future. The silicone glue and bandswitch are to the center-right of the picture. The chip in the middle of the PCB does most of the radio's electronic 'work' -- RF and IF amplification as well as providing power for the speaker. The small metal cans with colored coding  on them are the "IF cans" that help the radio's tuned circuits work. 

OLD TECH BUT BUILT TO LAST

GE Superadios are old technology, of course. But they are built to last.

My neighbor's teenage son has gone through four different cell phones, two Mp3 players, two laptops and a tablet (two of them broken) in just two years. Meanwhile, the Superadio 1 in the above pictures was built 34 years ago, and the Superadio II just above is probably 24 years old -- and they both still work just like new.