Our survey has now closed

Here are the results from the survey where we asked

If your radio stops working, what do you do?

Poll showing 45% try to repair it and under 10% throw away and buy new.

Poll Results – January 2023

As we hoped, nearly half of our readers want to repair their devices and less than 10% buy a new one. Some try the age old technique of thumping their device in the hope it may recover. Sometimes this is effective if there’s a loose or oxidised connection although often the fault will reoccur and require a proper repair.

No one in our survey takes their broken radio to a service centre — there are very few now available. But don’t throw it away! It’s very likely someone had a similar fault and documented a way to repair it as we have tried to at Radio Retro. There are also Repair Cafes, often held monthly, and other volunteer run events where like minded people come together to help fix all kinds of items.

If you too would like to lean more about retro tech repair and restoration search our pages and visit our Useful Links page for some ways to get involved.

Finally if you can’t fix your radio or other retro tech try putting a free advert on Gumtree or eBay and let someone else try. The parts may be exactly what they need and it helps the planet. Don’t throw it away!