09-07-2013, 07:12 PM
Hey, Tom - welcome back! 
Well, Jayce's "17" is a Phactory-Phranken. I don't know why, but we all just started calling it a "mutt" and it sort of stuck. But what Jayce has is a rare oddball. It appears that Philco cobbled together a few of these during the 1939 season in order to get rid of remaining 38-17F stock. Perhaps they added the pushbuttons to make it more attractive to potential buyers, or to make it different from the factory 38-17F sets? We won't know because all of the men involved in that decision-making process are gone now.
Well, Jayce's "17" is a Phactory-Phranken. I don't know why, but we all just started calling it a "mutt" and it sort of stuck. But what Jayce has is a rare oddball. It appears that Philco cobbled together a few of these during the 1939 season in order to get rid of remaining 38-17F stock. Perhaps they added the pushbuttons to make it more attractive to potential buyers, or to make it different from the factory 38-17F sets? We won't know because all of the men involved in that decision-making process are gone now.
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Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
