11-23-2010, 12:30 AM
Matter of factly, there are a few interesting idiosyncracies about the 140 family of RCA sets. I've had several, and have a few, just now.
They're usually seen as the 140; a 4 band set, and the last one of the RCA deep chassis radios. They were made as a 5 band model, with the 140-410KC band added. Those sets were known as 140-E, and AVR-1. One model (140-E?) had a rather handsome art-deco inspired case (a table model). The set also appeared as an AVR- (?) forgot, It was made for, and used in airport towers. I've never known of one for sale....dangit!
The set was a very hot radio. For the SW bands, an extra RF stage (58) was switched in. Indeed, the tube types had 6 volt equivalents, for direct conversion. If you'd want, there are even direct octal equivalents. The 53 became 6A6 (both fat pin), then 6N7G (octal).
The power transformer had dual primaries on all models, which made them a 240 Volt set, if you wanted. I haven't heard of burned out power transformers, but somebody is gonna have one sooner or later! The biggest bugaboo on those sets is an open speaker field. the field is 6950 ohms, and is open, lots of times. The field is connected directly across the 300 volt output of the 80. This is because the 53 is a class B power amplifier, and the B+ current is all over the map, so it wasn't practical to use the field in series with the power supply. A PM speaker can replace the speaker directely, and forget about the field.
The killer part of this set is the big coil rack in the chassis. If you're going to re-cap the set, the coils have to come out....with their 23 leads, to unsolder, and replace. Don't work on one of these sets with small children present.
But, in spite of all that, it's a terrific radio.
They're usually seen as the 140; a 4 band set, and the last one of the RCA deep chassis radios. They were made as a 5 band model, with the 140-410KC band added. Those sets were known as 140-E, and AVR-1. One model (140-E?) had a rather handsome art-deco inspired case (a table model). The set also appeared as an AVR- (?) forgot, It was made for, and used in airport towers. I've never known of one for sale....dangit!
The set was a very hot radio. For the SW bands, an extra RF stage (58) was switched in. Indeed, the tube types had 6 volt equivalents, for direct conversion. If you'd want, there are even direct octal equivalents. The 53 became 6A6 (both fat pin), then 6N7G (octal).
The power transformer had dual primaries on all models, which made them a 240 Volt set, if you wanted. I haven't heard of burned out power transformers, but somebody is gonna have one sooner or later! The biggest bugaboo on those sets is an open speaker field. the field is 6950 ohms, and is open, lots of times. The field is connected directly across the 300 volt output of the 80. This is because the 53 is a class B power amplifier, and the B+ current is all over the map, so it wasn't practical to use the field in series with the power supply. A PM speaker can replace the speaker directely, and forget about the field.
The killer part of this set is the big coil rack in the chassis. If you're going to re-cap the set, the coils have to come out....with their 23 leads, to unsolder, and replace. Don't work on one of these sets with small children present.
But, in spite of all that, it's a terrific radio.
