Wandering Spaceship in Deep Space - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Studying Is Still Useful

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

It took some time for the radio to stop emitting loud noises and play the music on the cassette tape.

“As sweet as honey, your smile is as sweet as honey, just like flowers blooming in the spring breeze…”1

It was an unknown singer’s voice, but her voice was rather pleasant to hear.

“This is the problem with it. But it only happens at the beginning and it would revert back to normal working condition after a while. I don’t know the reason behind it…”

While Zhang Yuan’s Uncle explained, he suddenly became uneasy.

He had previously sought for a few shops to fix that antique. However, none of them dared to accept his order as they had to pay him if they broke the item

These types of antique electronics were very delicate. Perhaps a few rough touches would cause the internal wires to snap.

Moreover, the spare parts of a radio this old had already been discontinued a long time ago.

Even if there was a factory that produced it, it was of no value. The reason why antiques were antiques, was because of the history the gadget had experienced. If they were to install modern electronic parts into these antiques, what was the difference between pasting a dog skin plaster?

In any case, it was still working and his Uncle could only make do with what he had.

Zhang Yuan eagerly went up to the radio and said, “Let me try fixing it!”

“Then… sigh… give it a try.”

Clearly, it was a tone of distrust.

His Uncle could only cry bitterly in his heart as he felt that Zhang Yuan was too overconfident.

Even though his nephew was capable as he was in some ‘spaceship management’ major, repairing a spaceship was totally different from repairing a radio!

Most importantly, if it broke, he could not possibly ask his nephew to pay!

When he saw that Zhang Yuan’s hands had already touched the radio, his heart clenched tightly.

However, due to the issue of his pride, he could not say anything, and he only fiercely glare at his daughter.

Ye Qingqing did not falter and returned a glare as she gleefully smiled deep down. In her point of view, these types of antiques had already stopped production, even the design drawings were lost. So, who could possibly fix it at this point?

In particular… the difficulty of fixing minor problems was, in fact, greater than major problems.

If she could overturn her cousin’s image of the neighbor’s smart child, she could vent some of her anger and in addition, she might be able to prove that studying was, in fact, useless. With that, perhaps she could study less in the future…

Currently, Zhang Yuan had already begun unscrewing the screws, revealing the radio’s internal structure that included the switches, power supply, variable capacitor, potentiometer, magnetic rod and several other parts. Overall, the structure was rather simple.

It was precisely because of the simple structure that had allowed it to withstand the test of time and last until today.

The more complicated and delicate it was, the easier it was to spoil. There were very few remaining Huawei and Apple iPhones from the 21st century that still remained today, and every single one of those devices could be sold at an astronomical price.

Zhang Yuan had never repaired an antique so this was a new challenge for him.

If it was in the past, perhaps he might have avoided it. But right now, he was burning with an urge to explore the unknown.

His brain started spinning after he took a deep breath as he began to make a conjecture of the radio’s internal working based on his previous accumulated knowledge.

All electronic appliances had either dealt with electrons or magnetic fields and the nature of such appliances was similar. The operating principle of a radio was nothing more than transmitting and receiving electromagnetic fields through various circuit structures.

“We had used the cassette earlier to play music, so the antenna, variable capacitance, and detection circuit should be irrelevant in this problem. In that case, it’s unlikely that the initial loud burst of noise is the malfunction of those parts…”

“Could it be the problem of the cassette?”

Zhang Yuan took out the cassette and manually spun it to the beginning and reinserted it.

“As sweet as honey, your smile is as sweet as honey…”

This time, the song played from the start and surprisingly, there were no loud burst of noises in between.

Zhang Yuan switched for another cassette and pressed the play button.

“My love for you is never-ending…”

There were no other noises except for the melody.

“It should not be a problem with the cassette.”

When Zhang Yuan’s Uncle saw him repeatedly testing it out, he became increasingly anxious and said hastily, “The sound only happens when I start it up. It never happens after that initial burst. If you are at your wits’ end… just forget about it…”

He was basically on the edge of his seat every single second as he hoped for his nephew to retreat in the face of difficulty.

‘Please don’t spoil it. Oh god, please, please, please don’t spoil it!’

“Hmm, it only happens when you start it up?” After thinking for a few moments, Zhang Yuan held the radio under the air-conditioner for another ten minutes.

After he plugged it into the power source, as expected, the cooled radio once again released those loud bursts of noises.

*Buzz* *Buzz*

The ear-piercing noise was extremely jarring, and it only stopped after some time.

Zhang Yuan fell into deep thought.

The entire troubleshooting process was somewhat similar to debugging in coding. Right now, he had already determined the root cause of the bug, and now, he needed to find the reason for it and resolve it.

Zhang Yuan paced around the room as he swiftly pondered over the suspicious aspects.

‘A bad connection? That doesn’t seem right, the bad connection would not cause that burst of noise. It would only cause it to stop working intermittently.’

“It doesn’t seem to be a static problem…”

After he thought about it, it was likely to be a problem with the preheating. The antique radio was using vacuum tube technology.

There were two main components in this near vacuum-sealed chamber. One was the heating pole that was located in the middle of the valve which would light up during operation. The other component was composed of the cathode, metal grid, and metal plate.

“If the vacuum tube does not heat up in accordance with the circuit route, it would cause voltage turbulence, and the disorder here would be mistakenly transferred to the amplifier circuit. As such, when there is no electrical signal, the radio would produce loud noises. But, when the radio frequency transmission line is completely heated up and the vacuum tube voltage is adjusted, everything will revert to normal and thus, the radio would then work normally.”

Zhang Yuan clapped his hands and thought, ‘That should be it!’

His Uncle munched on a fruit as he looked on at Zhang Yuan pacing back and forth. He was currently in a bad mood as he thought, ‘A normal repairman would not pace back and forth!’

Ye Qingqing only secretly laughed in response.

Zhang Yuan lowered his head and squinted as he started to dismantle the vacuum tubes one by one.

‘Oh my god, he really started dismantling it! My…’

Zhang Yuan’s Uncle wanted to weep but no tears came out as he shivered convulsively. “Zhang Yuan, if it doesn’t work, it would be better to find a professional antique repair shop! I know an expert… just that the price is slightly too expensive.”

Zhang Yuan turned a deaf ear to his surroundings as he poured all his concentration into the radio. Honestly speaking, he had not heard what his Uncle said.

He changed the sequence of the vacuum tubes, screwed the screws back into place, and waited for the radio to cool down.

His Uncle’s complexion turned red and he could not help but mutter internally, ‘Don’t tell me it’s broken? Are there any parts that are left out?’

Even his Aunt could no longer continue watching his reaction. “Look at how nervous you are. It’s only a radio, is there a need for such a reaction?”

“What do you know? Even though it’s a radio, do you know of its history? It’s very…”

Zhang Yuan had not said anything in response and he only pressed on the play button.

*Click*

The radio was just like a gentle sheep. It gradually warmed up obediently as it no longer released the initial loud burst of noise.

“As sweet as honey, your smile is as sweet as honey…”

Following which, a soft, melodious voice sounded.