[morzh]

Well, Avery built quality stuff and he'd never use anything that would compromise the sound.
But then he sold it to Emerson....we all saw their 5-tubers......in Ingraham boxes and the it became "Lo Fi".

[Ron Ramirez]

...and then Emerson sold the Fisher name to Sanyo...and the brand really went into the toilet from there.

I have one Fisher built around the time Avery sold out to Emerson (a 202 Futura), and another from a year or two later (401 with automatic FM tuning). I won't buy any of the Sanyo Fisher crap.

[morzh]

When I came here in 89, Fisher was already a tainted name, and though the prices were good for what seemed to be like a solid equipment, I knew the reputaiton from Russia (some people brought samples of Western HiFi equipment back and eventually the opinions were formed) and so did not buy it.

[BrendaAnnD]

I know a lot of US music and audio equipment used to leave Astoria with Russian fishermen that docked there back in the early 70's. Some days, it seemed there were more Russians in the stores than locals.

[morzh]

I heard they exchanged caviar for equipment.

But, seriously, you cannot imagine what the conversion ratio was.
One VCR (remember, they did not build them in China back then) could recoup all your trip costs plus give you as much or more mark-up.
A VCR was about 2.5-3 years worth of an engineer's or a doctor's pay.
A pair of any American jeans - 2 month pay. (India made jeans - 1/2 month pay).
A vinyl of any major known performer - 1/3 - 1/2 -1 month pay. New or used.

So....

[BrendaAnnD]

Wow... I just figured they were buying out the town because they could get things for themselves that weren't available in the USSR. They bought a lot of Motown type stuff on both 45's and LP's. Not so much the teen idol types like Bobby Sherman, the Osmonds, etc. that were popular at the time.

[morzh]

I had friends who were into that black record market.
They would convene openly in a well-know place, exchanging record, or trading them.
Every once in a while militia would come and confiscate some records. Partly because it was against the law, partly for their own use. If you knew whom to pay off, you would not be touched.
No one was really arrested for this although some unpleasant consequences for vulnerable folks like college students could happen.

Well, that was long time ago, it all ended with perestroyka pretty much persecution-wise and then when the curtain fell so did the black market. Good equipment was (and is) still expensive but no comparison to the price/earning ratio that existed then.

[BrendaAnnD]

It's interesting to be able to see this little bit of history from both sides.

[morzh]

I got my first vinyl from a school friend who joined a navigation school and while in the second year they sailed abroad. And not just abroad - to Western Europe. Which was a rare opportunity for any Soviet person, let alone a kid who is not from an elite family.
They went to Spain.
He brought me a gift - a vinyl "Animals" record by Pink Floyd.
That was my practically only true foreign vinyl. Then another friend who was into disks exchange talked me into swapping it for "Hey Jude". The latter was not even in the greatest of conditions.
Anyway, I still keep it.

Actually two days ago I got my second part of my birthday present (end of Feb but I bought myself a gift in advance; the first part was the Philco 66). The "Procol Harum" album with "Whiter shade of pale".
They came together the same day.

So now I have to play it, transfer it to a metal tape on my Nakamichi ZX-9 and enjoy it.

Old habits are hard to quit.

[Ron Ramirez]

Ummm, getting back on topic...

Today, a CARE package arrived from Mansfield, Texas:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00001.jpg]

A bag full of capacitors plus a couple 2N2924 transistors, some zener diodes, a few new mica TO-3 insulators and some heat sink compound so I can make sure the right channel driver and output transistors in the 4400 are installed properly.

This also arrived:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00002.jpg]

Advertised as "fully operational," it isn't - the AM section puts out a signal around 895 kc and will not tune up or down. The FM section does not work at all. I was hoping to use this to make aligning receivers easy. Well, I will just have to find another and hope the next one actually works.

Fortunately, the seller accepts returns and covers return shipping, so I'll be getting a refund for this unit.

So this weekend, I'll be replacing electrolytics in the 4400...and then starting on the 440-T.

[morzh]

It is in nice shape though....I would probably try to get some money back and fix it. Well, then, I enjoy fixing oscilaltors

[Ron Ramirez]

morzh - check your PM inbox.

[Ron Ramirez]

OK, folks, I opened the 4400 back up this evening, and began to replace electrolytics.

How things looked as I began:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...0001-1.jpg]

The two newer electrolytics you see in this picture are the two I used for testing purposes when I was troubleshooting the receiver.

I just quit for the evening, and as you will see below, I made substantial progress:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...0002-1.jpg]

As I removed the original West German electrolytics, I noticed they were rated at 70 degrees C.

I should have the electrolytic replacement complete tomorrow. I'm not replacing the electrolytics on the PC boards yet - perhaps later.

Oh, do you notice the capacitor at lower left in both photos, under the power transformer? That is connected from one side of the AC line to ground, and will be replaced with an X/Y safety cap. I happened to have some on hand from my restoration work on vintage Philcos, which I bought to replace the line-to-ground caps in bakelite blocks.

[morzh]

Yeah, the death caps. Out with them.

BTW as I told before, these devices do not require 105C caps.
PS. Unlike in the tube rectifiers, the more capacitance you have in the rectifiers in solid state, the better. I designed amps about 60 to 100 Watts.....when I could get my hands on 10,000uF for each leg, positive and negative (and those were unavailable and expensive in my former country) - I would put them in.
And if you have old Germanium diodes.....that will cut down on dissipation big time.

But....what you have is probably good the way it is.
What capacitances do they use in the power supply?

[Ron Ramirez]

The power supply has a 1500 uF and a 1000 uF...and then, with the various branches, four 500 uF and a 200 uF. You can see the 1000 uF snap-in cap which I replaced this evening in the second picture...it is almost the same diameter as the original, but much shorter.

I had read that somewhere else about using larger electrolytics in the power supply, but I decided to leave it the way Avery & Co. designed it. The only change I made was to replace the 1 uF coupling electrolytics with metalized film, as I mentioned previously.

At least the new caps are smaller than the originals, making the unit look neater underneath.