Bench: the bodega radio, before opening

Mon 9 Nov, 06:50. Not a repair day. Mr. Delacroix lends me the key on condition that I'm gone before he's in.

On the bench: pocket transistor radio, Panasonic, early '70s, black leatherette case, one 9 V battery. It belongs to Hamid, who runs the bodega on Newark Ave with the ice machine from Tape 15. It plays 1010 WINS behind his counter all night. Saturday it fell off the shelf above the register. He has worked in silence since. He says the ice machine is getting on his nerves.

Fault: dead. No hiss, no click. Battery tests good.

Fix:

• 07:05 · battery clip green with corrosion. Vinegar, a brush, dried.
• 07:20 · still dead. Under the loupe: a hairline crack across the board where the case hit. Two tracks broken.
• 07:45 · both tracks bridged with tinned wire.
• 07:55 · volume pot scratchy. Contact cleaner, twenty turns.

After: a click, a hiss, then traffic and weather on the eights. Ran it an hour on the bench. No dropouts when I tapped the case, which is the test Hamid will run.

It goes back at 09:00. He can return to not hearing the ice machine.