02-18-2010, 10:28 PM
I went to the Radio XLI show in Westford, MA last Sunday and a nice 41-250 followed me home. I bought it from the fellow who restored it, who described it as "8 tubes, works well." I tested it in the car in the parking lot before leaving the show, and it did work, running on an inverter.
This is my first Philco (most of my other radios are GE), and is the first radio I have ever bought restored by someone else. I checked it out thoroughly. It had been completely re-capped, done very nicely by unsoldering the old ones, although I re-did the electrolytics and the line bypass caps, moving them to their original locations. There had been only one bakelite condenser, originally holding the two line bypasses, and from the looks of the tar residue it seems that the departure of the bakelite condenser may have been dramatic. I cleaned off the tar and cleaned up quite a few solder splashes and other residue left behind from the re-capping. I measured a few voltages and they were right on.
The rubber insulated wiring is still there, but amazingly enough it is still in excellent condition, soft and flexible with no cracks. He had replaced the power cord, and had done a nice job fabricating a small aluminum bracket attached to the rear of the push-button assembly with spacers, to hold a new push-on/push-off power switch to replace the old one while preserving the original operation.
The escutcheon is clearly one of the new reproductions.
All put back together, the set works really well. Highly sensitive including on shortwave, and it really surprised me with its excellent sound quality. It is about the nicest sounding set I have except for the full-on hi-fi/stereo system.
Note from site admin: Sorry, but the photos which were attached to this post are no longer available.
Now I have some questions for the Philco experts:
1) Are these the correct knobs for this set? The photos I have seen on radio attic and elsewhere show plastic knobs which match the escutcheon. These knobs are wood.
2) There are no label tabs for the push-buttons, not even Off-On or Television, and I don't see any way to put any tabs in. There is a single transparent plastic strip behind the tab windows which seals off the space. How to insert the tabs? Are they being reproduced or do I have to make them myself?
3) I have never seen this funky output circuit. It seems to be a push-pull output stage but with no phase inverter or interstage transformer. If I understand the schematic correctly they seem to be using the top output tube as a phase inverter, using the screen grid as a second plate, which they then couple to the grid of the bottom output tube. I would never have thought this would work but it sounds excellent. I notice that they use this circuit in the 8 and 9 tube consoles also, but the 10 tube consoles get a real phase inverter. DId I understand this circuit correctly?
4) The schematic (which also applies to the 41-255) shows separate indicator lamps for the different bands, switched by the band-switch. This set has only one lamp in that position, in a pivoting lampholder operated by a second dial cord driven by the band-switch shaft. The set-up is clearly original. Was this a running change or was the schematic always incorrect for this model? Both the schematic and the set indicate Code 121.
That all for now, I'm sure I'll have more questions later. Thanks!
-David
This is my first Philco (most of my other radios are GE), and is the first radio I have ever bought restored by someone else. I checked it out thoroughly. It had been completely re-capped, done very nicely by unsoldering the old ones, although I re-did the electrolytics and the line bypass caps, moving them to their original locations. There had been only one bakelite condenser, originally holding the two line bypasses, and from the looks of the tar residue it seems that the departure of the bakelite condenser may have been dramatic. I cleaned off the tar and cleaned up quite a few solder splashes and other residue left behind from the re-capping. I measured a few voltages and they were right on.
The rubber insulated wiring is still there, but amazingly enough it is still in excellent condition, soft and flexible with no cracks. He had replaced the power cord, and had done a nice job fabricating a small aluminum bracket attached to the rear of the push-button assembly with spacers, to hold a new push-on/push-off power switch to replace the old one while preserving the original operation.
The escutcheon is clearly one of the new reproductions.
All put back together, the set works really well. Highly sensitive including on shortwave, and it really surprised me with its excellent sound quality. It is about the nicest sounding set I have except for the full-on hi-fi/stereo system.
Note from site admin: Sorry, but the photos which were attached to this post are no longer available.
Now I have some questions for the Philco experts:
1) Are these the correct knobs for this set? The photos I have seen on radio attic and elsewhere show plastic knobs which match the escutcheon. These knobs are wood.
2) There are no label tabs for the push-buttons, not even Off-On or Television, and I don't see any way to put any tabs in. There is a single transparent plastic strip behind the tab windows which seals off the space. How to insert the tabs? Are they being reproduced or do I have to make them myself?
3) I have never seen this funky output circuit. It seems to be a push-pull output stage but with no phase inverter or interstage transformer. If I understand the schematic correctly they seem to be using the top output tube as a phase inverter, using the screen grid as a second plate, which they then couple to the grid of the bottom output tube. I would never have thought this would work but it sounds excellent. I notice that they use this circuit in the 8 and 9 tube consoles also, but the 10 tube consoles get a real phase inverter. DId I understand this circuit correctly?
4) The schematic (which also applies to the 41-255) shows separate indicator lamps for the different bands, switched by the band-switch. This set has only one lamp in that position, in a pivoting lampholder operated by a second dial cord driven by the band-switch shaft. The set-up is clearly original. Was this a running change or was the schematic always incorrect for this model? Both the schematic and the set indicate Code 121.
That all for now, I'm sure I'll have more questions later. Thanks!
-David
