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A Dead SONY Radio Model ICF-SW11 Restored To Best Working Condition

By Jestine Yong on January 31, 2026

This radio was brought by a new customer referred by some other regular stating that it was dead and he wanted it to be made ready as his wife used it in the kitchen. As he sounded genuine and the need was urgent, I took it up as my work table was free after completion of previous work. I opened the set removing the five screws from behind.

Just cleaned in the inside using long and smooth bristled brush. Let us have a look of the inside of this lovely radio:

First of all I cleaned and lubricated the on/off switch and band switch. Then applied 3V DC from external battery and found the radio working, though with distortions and low volume. I saw the battery compartment with marks of leaky batteries and the negative contact spring was rusted and corroded.

Since the radio had life, I went ahead and dismantled the dial unit and resorted to my ever time amusement of replacing all the electrolytic capacitors. This radio was using 6.3V small size caps, which I had in stock in abundance.

Replacing the caps were very difficult, as the solder joints were found hardened like cast iron. I had to apply solder and flux before the legs got free. So, I could not carry out retouching of the entire board. If I had tried to do that, it would have taken many hours of work and stood a chance of damaging the tracks and PCB due to excessive heat applied.

Then, assembled the dial unit back and applied power and found that the radio was working really very well. Many stations were picked up in FM, MW and the rest of the SW bands. It was a great happiness to listen to long distance foreign stations that brought back memories of my childhood, when I used to tune the old Philips Valve Radio for tuning in to Srilanka Tamil Stations. We used to listen to Malaysia and Singapore broadcasts also very early in the morning; i.e., 4AM.

Then removed the corroded spring and replaced it with another suitable one, extending its one end to solder directly on to the PCB.

I liked and appreciated the way the negative lead was taken over the positive rail, by isolating it with a fiber washer underneath. Good design indeed, Sony! Then loaded two batteries and played the radio for sufficient time before informing the customer to come and collect it. I finished the work on the same day by 11PM.

The customer collected the radio next day morning. I think this was one of the rare quick works done by me and I had all the reasons to pat myself, because of which a bulgy satisfaction made its entry happily!

This article was prepared for you by Parasuraman Subramanian from India. He is 76 years old and has more than 30 years’ experience in handling antique equipment like Valve Radio, Amps, Reel Tape Recorders and currently studying latest tech-classes conducted by Kerala State Electronics Technicians’ Association. He has done graduation in BBA degree, private diploma in Radio Engineering and retired as MD of a USA company. Presently working as Consultant to Hospital and other institutions.

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You may check on his previous article on The Labour Pain Of Reviving A Neglected SONY Two-In-One Model CFS-KDW40S

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Radio Repair

2 Comments

Albert van Bemmelen

January 31, 2026 at 6:24 pm

Solder joints hardened like cast iron are indeed very hard to re-solder! Which no doubt made it a very difficult to replace all those 15 old bad capacitors from that hardened solder!
Bringing this previous dead Sony radio back to life but also replacing the old rusted battery spring made this another well done radio repair!

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Yogesh Panchal

January 31, 2026 at 7:10 pm

Good Job!Sir
you have extended more 10 years to this device,
Hardening of old solder joint is also a headache specially in multi-layer PCBs like PC Motherboard can ruin your work. Thin traces, in particular, are more susceptible to damage that is beyond repair.
In market good micro grinding pens are available Like "Mechanic GDR2" which is very helpful to tackle these types of job & in India Price may be around Rs.1,000/-.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KcfqQOmN82E?feature=share

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