Deep Space Wandering Fleet

After a long while, the radio finally went back to normal and played the music from the tape.

"Sweet honey, your smile is so sweet, as if flowers bloom in the spring breeze..."

An unknown singer, but the voice was quite pleasant.

"This is exactly the problem. It's only like this when it first starts up; it gradually gets better afterward, no idea why..."

Young Uncle said, suddenly feeling uneasy in his heart.

He had approached several shops, trying to get the thing repaired.

But these shops didn't dare to take the job because if it was damaged, they'd have to compensate.

These old electronic products were very delicate; just a few touches might break one of the internal lines.

Moreover, the various components of the radio had long since ceased production.

Even if factories still produced them, they wouldn't fetch any price. Antiques, after all, needed the "antique" aspect; if modern electronic components were installed in ancient instruments, what difference would it make from sticking a band-aid on it?

Since it could still play normally, Young Uncle just made do with what he had.

Zhang Yuan was eager to try and walked up to the radio: "Let me try to fix it!"

"But... sigh."

"Give it a try."

The tone was obviously one of distrust.

Young Uncle was suffering in his heart, feeling he might have overboasted.

Even though his nephew was quite impressive, studying something called "spaceship management" and even capable of fixing spaceships, fixing a spaceship was vastly different from fixing a radio!

The most critical part was, if it broke, he couldn't possibly make his nephew pay for it!

Seeing Zhang Yuan's hands already touching the radio, his heart clenched tightly!

But, for the sake of face, he couldn't say much, only glancing viciously at his daughter.

Ye Qingqing wasn't intimidated; she returned her father's glare, her heart blooming with laughter. In her view, this old antique had long been out of production, and even the design drawings were lost. Who could possibly fix it?

Especially since... dealing with minor issues was actually far more challenging than major ones.

Knocking her cousin, this "child from another family," off his pedestal, at least temporarily, seemed to prove that "studying was useless," and maybe she could study a little less in the future...

At this moment, Zhang Yuan had already unscrewed the radio's casing, exposing the internal electronic structure: switches, power supply, variable capacitors, potentiometers, magnetic rods, and so on, which were not too complicated.

It was precisely these uncomplicated things that had withstood the test of time and survived to the present.

The more complex and delicate the things, the more prone they were to damage; few remained from 21st-century Huawei and Apple smartphones, with those retained commanding sky-high prices.

Zhang Yuan had never repaired such an old artifact; this was a brand-new challenge.

In the past, he might have avoided it, but now, he felt a strange, eager curiosity.

He took a deep breath, his brain began to spin rapidly.

He tried to predict the working mode of the radio using knowledge learned before.

Any electronic equipment dealt with electricity and magnetic fields; essentially, they weren't much different. The working principle of a radio was merely to convert audio signals through various circuit structures.

"And this radio used tape playback just now, so the antenna, variable capacitor, and demodulation circuit basically didn't come into play. The noise at the beginning was unlikely to be caused by these parts..."

"Could it be a tape issue?"

Zhang Yuan removed the tape, manually reset it, and inserted it back in.

"Sweet honey, your smile is so sweet..."

This time, it played from the beginning without any noise.

Zhang Yuan changed another tape and pressed the play button.

"My love for you is endless..."

Still no noise.

"So, it shouldn't be due to the tape."

Young Uncle watched him trying again and again, growing more anxious, hastily saying, "There's only noise when it first starts; afterward, there isn't any. If it doesn't work… just forget it..."

His heart always tightly clenched, just hoping his nephew would give up.

Don't break it.

Dear Lord, don't break it!

"Is it only like this at the start?" Zhang Yuan waited for a while, then brought the radio under the air conditioner to cool it for ten minutes.

He plugged it back in, and surely enough, the cooled-off radio started blaring again.

"Buzz—buzz!"

The piercing sound was gut-wrenching.

After a while, it finally quieted down.

Zhang Yuan was thoughtful.

The whole troubleshooting process was somewhat like debugging in computer programming. The way for the bug to appear was already identified; now it was only necessary to find the cause and fix it.

Zhang Yuan paced the room back and forth, quickly contemplating suspicious points.

Poor contact?

No, poor contact wouldn't cause the mad blaring at the beginning, only intermittent stoppage.

"Nor is it the current hum issue."

After thinking it over, it was most likely a preheating issue.

This old-fashioned radio utilized vacuum tube technology.

In this nearly vacuum-sealed chamber, there were two main devices: one was called the heater, located at the center of the vacuum tube, which would glow when operational; the other consisted of the cathode, metal grid, and metal plate.

"If the vacuum tube warms up improperly within the circuit, it can cause the circuit's voltage to be chaotic. This disordered voltage would erroneously transmit into the subsequent amplification circuit, causing the recorder to blare in the absence of an electrical signal."

"And eventually, once the RF circuit fully warmed, the vacuum tube voltage adjusted, everything would return to normal, and the recorder would work properly."

Zhang Yuan clapped his hands; that should be the reason!

Young Uncle watched Zhang Yuan pacing back and forth, just eating fruit, feeling terribly disheartened: how could a normal repairman be pacing around like this?

Ye Qingqing just covered her mouth and snickered.

Zhang Yuan lowered his head, squinting while he began disassembling the vacuum tubes one by one.

He actually started dismantling!

I…

Young Uncle nearly wanted to cry, trembling all over: "Zhang Yuan, if it really doesn't work, how about going to a professional antique repair shop! I know a very skilled craftsman... albeit a bit expensive."

Zhang Yuan paid no heed, wholly engrossed in his work. He truly hadn't heard what Young Uncle was saying.

He restructured the arrangement of the vacuum tubes and then screwed each of them back in, waiting for the radio to cool down.

Young Uncle's face was bright red, unable to help but wonder to himself: would it be broken? Did any extra parts appear?

Even Aunt could hardly bear watching: "Why are you so tense? It's just a radio; what's the big deal?"

"What do you know? Even if it's just a radio, do you know its history? It's very..."

Zhang Yuan did not answer but pressed the play button instead.

With a click—

The radio behaved like a docile lamb, warming up obediently with no more noise.

"Sweet honey, your smile is so sweet..."

The gentle song echoed in the air.