Old radio help

Hey there,
I have this old radio from the 1970s from my dad who's past away now.
Turns on, but all static.
Pretty sure it's the antenna is the problem. Doesn't even look connected to the board.
Any ideas on where to get one to replace it?
And second question is how/where to hook it back into on the board?
Or is it even worth it.
Thanks.

 

That's a Sear's Wayfarer 8227. Pretty popular in its day. It was built by Sanyo for Sears.

There are multi bands in that unit. I believe the regular AM broadcast band antenna is different from the short wave antenna. Try the regular AM band. The FM band should use the telescopic rod. Is that connected ?

Wayfarer 8227 collectors and technical info

 

No, it's not connected. Just buzzes when I turn it on.

 

As said, the telescopic antenna is for the FM band and those rods with coil wraps are for AM which is the signal type that AM radio and short wave receive.
You should be able to receive local AM radio without an external antenna.
There should also be an ANT connector for using an external full length antennae for short wave.

A common problem with vintage electronics is that the selector switches and potentiometers corrode and degrade with time.
You could try carefully using contactor cleaner on them or gently and repetedly cycling the switches back and forth to try to make the contacts make better contact.

If you try contact cleaner there is a way to use it without damaging anything that you can ask about if you want to go that way.

 

I don't know if I want to put all of that into this project. Just replacing an antenna maybe but it's so old that no matter what I do there are no guarantees it'll work.
But thanks for the input, folks!

 

Electrolytic capacitors do not age well when not powered about every six months. I'm in the process of "re=capping" an old bass amplifier from the 1960s, replacing all the electrolytics and doing some minor upgrades.