07-31-2008, 10:48 PM
Brian, for Pete's sake. To hear you talk, you'd think I was some sort of a hoarder. Heck, there are lots of people out there with bigger accumulations than I have!
Now, on that 650. The cabinet looks to be in nice enough shape to just do some touch-up on it. I've re-capped a couple of mine, and they will whip the slats off of quite a few decent radios. Get that 650 back up to full performance, and you'll see what a good radio is, and how well it can work.
By 1936, radio technology had come to a plateau that wasn't bested until the appearance of tlevision-special tube types, and Loktal tubes, in 1939. Metal tubes, introduced in 1936, had some advantages, but Philco proved vividly, that fat pin tubes still had it in the delivery of performance.
By memory now, I think that Philco used the triode 42, driving push-pull triode connected 42's. You may be wringing about 10 watts out of that ensemble. If Philco would have pushed those tubes a bit harer, the tube charts say that they can get 20 nwatts out of them.
I think that Jim Skinner's policy carried through to the upper level sets like this one. He started with having the model 16 done as an extended fidelity set (in its day). That was one of the things that drew customers to Philco. The other feature of the 16, that carried through to all their sets, especially the upper level ones, was the short wave performance. The model 16's sold exceptionally well. Investigating, Philco learned that the buyers were going for those radios for the short wave bands. World tension was growing, and that was how listeners kept up with it. If you had even a decent short wave receiver, it was a status symbol. In that regard, Philco was one of the very best and tneir prices always cinched the sales.
Now, on that 650. The cabinet looks to be in nice enough shape to just do some touch-up on it. I've re-capped a couple of mine, and they will whip the slats off of quite a few decent radios. Get that 650 back up to full performance, and you'll see what a good radio is, and how well it can work.
By 1936, radio technology had come to a plateau that wasn't bested until the appearance of tlevision-special tube types, and Loktal tubes, in 1939. Metal tubes, introduced in 1936, had some advantages, but Philco proved vividly, that fat pin tubes still had it in the delivery of performance.
By memory now, I think that Philco used the triode 42, driving push-pull triode connected 42's. You may be wringing about 10 watts out of that ensemble. If Philco would have pushed those tubes a bit harer, the tube charts say that they can get 20 nwatts out of them.
I think that Jim Skinner's policy carried through to the upper level sets like this one. He started with having the model 16 done as an extended fidelity set (in its day). That was one of the things that drew customers to Philco. The other feature of the 16, that carried through to all their sets, especially the upper level ones, was the short wave performance. The model 16's sold exceptionally well. Investigating, Philco learned that the buyers were going for those radios for the short wave bands. World tension was growing, and that was how listeners kept up with it. If you had even a decent short wave receiver, it was a status symbol. In that regard, Philco was one of the very best and tneir prices always cinched the sales.
