I decided to work on my new Fisher tuner tonight. I haven't seen a lot written up on the MF-300 so I thought I'd add some info.
These are very interesting tuners and fun to use. Put the selector switch in automatic, push either of the bottom center buttons (tune o matic) and it will seek out the next station in that direction. Hold the button and it skips over stations until you let go. It automatically goes into stereo or mono depending on the signal received. Putting it in Mono disables this feature and in stereo locks the tuner in stereo. The 3 way muting switch not only eliminates the noise between stations but also provides 3 degrees of sensitivity for the automatic search circuit. There is a sensitivity pot on the rear that adjusts how sensitive the tuner's seeking is as well. AFC helps lock the station precisely in center of a station while scanning as well as keeping it from drifting. Fisher really talked it up in their brochures on how well the MF-300 finds the exact center of a station and it does seem to work exceptionally well. I notice much less drifting out of stereo mode on weak stations than when I tune by hand. The stereo filter switch does the same thing as a high filter. The MF-300 has lights to tell you what's going on. When seeking and it finds a station, the station indicator on the right side of the dial lights.Two lights on the left of the dial light up when a stereo station is being received. The dial pointer has a small light that moves along with it, showing you from a distance where you are on the FM dial. On the rear, besides the mentioned sensitivity adjustment pot are left and right volume pots. Left and right main output as well as left and right rec output jacks are provided.
Using the RK-20 wireless remote, you can turn the tuner on, volume up or down, and turn it off. You can also seek the next station in either direction, all from your easy chair. Very advanced for 1964!
Tonight I took a look under the hood. Nothing looked burnt or unusual and it looks to have never been worked on. I only replaced about 3/4 of the caps as I have a few on order. I will still need to finish the rest and do the filter caps, which for now are staying cool. This tuner had the typical bad power switch that I had to jump to test things out. The switch will need a good cleaning or more likely replacement. I brought it up on the variac watching the current draw and checking voltages. At 90 volts I heard relays click and it came to life!
This is a very, very sensitive tuner and it catches every station out there! The Los Angeles-San Diego area has so many AM and FM stations it only travels about a 1/4" before it finds the next station. All this with just a single wire clipped to one FM terminal. This one sure doesn't need an alignment and frequency is spot on. Everything is working like it should and it sounds fantastic. It is nice to find something that actually works well and just needs basic servicing.
These are very interesting tuners and fun to use. Put the selector switch in automatic, push either of the bottom center buttons (tune o matic) and it will seek out the next station in that direction. Hold the button and it skips over stations until you let go. It automatically goes into stereo or mono depending on the signal received. Putting it in Mono disables this feature and in stereo locks the tuner in stereo. The 3 way muting switch not only eliminates the noise between stations but also provides 3 degrees of sensitivity for the automatic search circuit. There is a sensitivity pot on the rear that adjusts how sensitive the tuner's seeking is as well. AFC helps lock the station precisely in center of a station while scanning as well as keeping it from drifting. Fisher really talked it up in their brochures on how well the MF-300 finds the exact center of a station and it does seem to work exceptionally well. I notice much less drifting out of stereo mode on weak stations than when I tune by hand. The stereo filter switch does the same thing as a high filter. The MF-300 has lights to tell you what's going on. When seeking and it finds a station, the station indicator on the right side of the dial lights.Two lights on the left of the dial light up when a stereo station is being received. The dial pointer has a small light that moves along with it, showing you from a distance where you are on the FM dial. On the rear, besides the mentioned sensitivity adjustment pot are left and right volume pots. Left and right main output as well as left and right rec output jacks are provided.
Using the RK-20 wireless remote, you can turn the tuner on, volume up or down, and turn it off. You can also seek the next station in either direction, all from your easy chair. Very advanced for 1964!
Tonight I took a look under the hood. Nothing looked burnt or unusual and it looks to have never been worked on. I only replaced about 3/4 of the caps as I have a few on order. I will still need to finish the rest and do the filter caps, which for now are staying cool. This tuner had the typical bad power switch that I had to jump to test things out. The switch will need a good cleaning or more likely replacement. I brought it up on the variac watching the current draw and checking voltages. At 90 volts I heard relays click and it came to life!
This is a very, very sensitive tuner and it catches every station out there! The Los Angeles-San Diego area has so many AM and FM stations it only travels about a 1/4" before it finds the next station. All this with just a single wire clipped to one FM terminal. This one sure doesn't need an alignment and frequency is spot on. Everything is working like it should and it sounds fantastic. It is nice to find something that actually works well and just needs basic servicing.
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This tuner had all original tubes and only 2 were bad. All of the 6AU6's, the 12AT7's and the 12AX7 tested as new so I don't think this was used much.
