Solution for the stability problem

GE and RCA SR-3 production suffers from an ill-advised change in tuning potentiometer. It causes the tuning to be unstable - the radio is almost unusable due to difficulty in tuning to stations and the radio has difficulty staying on stations.

The value of the pot is a bit unusual - 300k. I have found that a 500k pot, with 470 fixed resistors across each leg (low to middle, middle to high) allows the radio to tune the entire AM and FM bands, although dial calibration is really bad. The tuning voltage high and low pots will need to be adjusted at the very least, and the whole front end will probably need re-alignment.

I have modified at least a half a dozen of these radios this way, Fry's has an appropriate pot but the shaft is aluminum and needs to be machined. The radios are as stable as early production SR-3's, and are fine DX units.

The FM section can also benefit greatly from the narrow ceramic filter modification. I can routinely use the radio for stations over 100 miles away after the modification.