07-03-2012, 08:08 PM
Ron;
I hope that you put in a claim on the broken cabinet, that is the breakage that was caused by the improper shipping. It's rather a mixed blessing in a way since the Philco Tropic already had a damaged cabinet that someone had glued back together, you would have needed to repair or replace the cabinet anyhow. I'm not sure but I think that they sold some of the Bakelite Philco Tropics in the Canadian market as I've seen at least one that used the same cabinet as the U.S FM model 49-905 or 50-925 but had a shortwave band (or two) in place of the FM band. One thing I do know is that a hot chassis set would not have been allowed as it contravened the Canadian Electrical Code.
Just a guess but maybe the hot chassis had something to do with the Philco Tropic 3010 being an export model, although I can't imagine why unless using the usual isolating capacitor and resistor wouldn't work on some foreign power systems. In any event it's easy enough to change, you just have to copy the layout of the common negative bus used in a similar domestic model and then tie the chassis and the B- together through a .2 mf cap and possibly a 220,000 ohm resistor for the shielding and the tuning condenser and antenna coil grounds.
Drilling the Bakelite seems like a risky activity but it can be done, you will need to mark where you are going to drill like you would with sheet metal. Start with a series of smaller drill bits and work your way up to the size hole you need, but run the drill bits in reverse to start with so they don't catch, and unlike steel run the bit dry. Since you already have a broken cabinet experiment on that first, then you can figure out the best technique with no risk.
Regards
Arran
I hope that you put in a claim on the broken cabinet, that is the breakage that was caused by the improper shipping. It's rather a mixed blessing in a way since the Philco Tropic already had a damaged cabinet that someone had glued back together, you would have needed to repair or replace the cabinet anyhow. I'm not sure but I think that they sold some of the Bakelite Philco Tropics in the Canadian market as I've seen at least one that used the same cabinet as the U.S FM model 49-905 or 50-925 but had a shortwave band (or two) in place of the FM band. One thing I do know is that a hot chassis set would not have been allowed as it contravened the Canadian Electrical Code.
Just a guess but maybe the hot chassis had something to do with the Philco Tropic 3010 being an export model, although I can't imagine why unless using the usual isolating capacitor and resistor wouldn't work on some foreign power systems. In any event it's easy enough to change, you just have to copy the layout of the common negative bus used in a similar domestic model and then tie the chassis and the B- together through a .2 mf cap and possibly a 220,000 ohm resistor for the shielding and the tuning condenser and antenna coil grounds.
Drilling the Bakelite seems like a risky activity but it can be done, you will need to mark where you are going to drill like you would with sheet metal. Start with a series of smaller drill bits and work your way up to the size hole you need, but run the drill bits in reverse to start with so they don't catch, and unlike steel run the bit dry. Since you already have a broken cabinet experiment on that first, then you can figure out the best technique with no risk.
Regards
Arran
