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Support

Frequently asked questions

It hums, or crackles, or stays silent. Is something broken?

That is the set, not the game. Every ticket arrives with its faults, and the hum, the crackle or the silence is the symptom to find. The owner's words on the ticket are the first clue, and the service chart is the second: measure a few test points and see which one is off.

The iron won't melt anything, or a part won't lift.

Nothing on the bench can be worked on while the set is plugged in: switch the power to Unplugged first. A part lifts only once every one of its joints has been melted with the iron, and the game says which are still soldered.

A tube won't come out.

Unplug the set first. On an All American Five, pulling any tube opens the whole heater string, so every tube goes dark until it is back.

Where is the signal generator, or the tube tester?

They arrive with the second bundle of tickets. The first bundle can be found with the meter, the tracer and the iron alone.

Tickets in the storeroom are tied with string.

A bundle is untied when every ticket but one in the bundle before it is back on the air.

The dial won't turn, or the station isn't where the dial says.

A pointer that won't move is a broken dial cord: tap the tuning gang on the chassis and restring it. A station away from its mark is tracking: the signal generator and the oscillator's trimmer and padder put it right.

How do I know a set is finished?

Put it on the line, not the dim bulb, turn the volume up and tune to Radio La Ronda on 620. When it plays clear, with nothing left wrong, it is back on the air, and its cabinet comes next.

Why does the station play something different every time?

Radio La Ronda keeps a day by your device's clock: the news in the morning, at midday and in the evening, the pasillo hour at noon, the radionovela at seven, the match on Sunday afternoons, and time pips before every hour. After dark, distant stations come in on the sky wave, on the broadcast band and on the short waves.

I can't make out the words of the news.

At this version the spoken programmes are voices the game synthesizes itself, with the rhythm and vowels of Spanish and no words, like a radio heard through a wall.

I rubbed too hard and the cabinet is marked.

Harm done to a cabinet stays, as it would: paint off, lacquer cut through, numerals lifted from the glass. It costs the set's grade and nothing else; the set still plays and still goes on the shelf. Wash first, and use the gentlest thing that works.

A set I finished isn't on the shelf.

Some owners come back for their sets, and those go home. The storeroom keeps their tickets, marked gone home, with their stories.

Does my shelf follow me to another iPad?

Yes, through your own iCloud, with no account of ours and nothing to set up. Signed out of iCloud, the game saves on the device and plays the same. A set in the middle of a repair is not saved: leaving the bench starts that ticket over.

Is there anything to buy inside the game?

No. One purchase and it is complete: all sixteen sets and every update.

Is this a guide to repairing my own radio?

No. The circuits are real, and the game shows the work the way a restorer does it, but real sets run at voltages that kill. If you have one, take it to someone who restores them.

I found a bug, or have an idea — what now?

Email the address below with as much detail as you can: which ticket you were on, what you were trying to do, what the game said, and what you expected instead. Screenshots help a great deal.

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