04-03-2011, 12:35 AM
Greetings,
I am new to antique radios and vacuum tube electronics, sorry if I ask what seems like dumb questions.
I recently got a philco 47-1230 and started to try and get documentation & knowledge on that model. That's how I found here, a goldmine of philco information!
The unit I got was sold in an antique store as "non-working."
Turns out a bit of TLC was all that was needed to listend to Hockey on AM tonight...
When I powered it the first time, all I could hear was a buzzing humming sound. The lamps all lighted up, so I tought I was pretty much set for a working chassis that needed only proper attention.
The knobs are all erased by age and I needed google to help me figure out what was where on the 4 of them - plus the phono-radio pushbutton. Once I placed it properly on BC with appropriate volume, I could hear radio (and hasard made that it was on the station I wanted to find.)
That's about as far as the success goes. The vacuum tubes are all good, the AM wave works fine, I can set some of the pushbutton stations but not all and not on all frequency (if I get about 10 AM stations here on BC, I only get 2 or 3 different ones trying to set the PB, and I can only hear something on 4 out of 5 presets buttons)
Maybe I am not changing the presets properly?
I do not get anything on the FM band. Nothing at all. I found some 47-1230 documents on Nostalgia Air (thanks to the threads on this forums) and they document that an antenna might be required for good FM reception, but we're not talking "bad reception" rather than no reception at all. I guess there's something not OK on the FM side... I am wondering what. If anyone has clues, I'm all ears.
The lights for the front dial were both blown. I tried with a LED replacement and both sockets are OK, just the incandescent lights are burnt. That's an easy fix.
Next is the phono... if I place the phono-radio PB to phono, I hear a humming sound. It intensifies when I touch the phono. But the motor does not turn at all. And there's no cartdriges to read a record so I have no clue if it works at all. I hope to be able to bring that turntable back to life.
I noticed 2 cut wires from the chassis, the pair coming out on the right-hand-side:
[Image: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r253/...0_8969.jpg]
see in this picture they go out under the 1230 part number. What are those for? Could they be the cause of non-working phono? I still haven't found anything about that, but haven't got my hand on actual schematics either.
The cabinet is in good shape, considering its age. I would like to bring it back to better condition, but I have no knowledge of woodworking. I think from reading around that we can wax the outter shell?
[Image: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r253/...0_8967.jpg]
How should I treat it? sand & complete refinish? or some shining and conditionning? Either way, I am uncertain how to proceed.
I wanted to take more pictures, but had no idea what would be of interest - and the camera's batteries are dead. If there's any particularly interesting pictures to be taken, please let me know and I'll post them.
I am new to antique radios and vacuum tube electronics, sorry if I ask what seems like dumb questions.
I recently got a philco 47-1230 and started to try and get documentation & knowledge on that model. That's how I found here, a goldmine of philco information!
The unit I got was sold in an antique store as "non-working."
Turns out a bit of TLC was all that was needed to listend to Hockey on AM tonight...
When I powered it the first time, all I could hear was a buzzing humming sound. The lamps all lighted up, so I tought I was pretty much set for a working chassis that needed only proper attention.
The knobs are all erased by age and I needed google to help me figure out what was where on the 4 of them - plus the phono-radio pushbutton. Once I placed it properly on BC with appropriate volume, I could hear radio (and hasard made that it was on the station I wanted to find.)
That's about as far as the success goes. The vacuum tubes are all good, the AM wave works fine, I can set some of the pushbutton stations but not all and not on all frequency (if I get about 10 AM stations here on BC, I only get 2 or 3 different ones trying to set the PB, and I can only hear something on 4 out of 5 presets buttons)
Maybe I am not changing the presets properly?
I do not get anything on the FM band. Nothing at all. I found some 47-1230 documents on Nostalgia Air (thanks to the threads on this forums) and they document that an antenna might be required for good FM reception, but we're not talking "bad reception" rather than no reception at all. I guess there's something not OK on the FM side... I am wondering what. If anyone has clues, I'm all ears.
The lights for the front dial were both blown. I tried with a LED replacement and both sockets are OK, just the incandescent lights are burnt. That's an easy fix.
Next is the phono... if I place the phono-radio PB to phono, I hear a humming sound. It intensifies when I touch the phono. But the motor does not turn at all. And there's no cartdriges to read a record so I have no clue if it works at all. I hope to be able to bring that turntable back to life.
I noticed 2 cut wires from the chassis, the pair coming out on the right-hand-side:
[Image: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r253/...0_8969.jpg]
see in this picture they go out under the 1230 part number. What are those for? Could they be the cause of non-working phono? I still haven't found anything about that, but haven't got my hand on actual schematics either.
The cabinet is in good shape, considering its age. I would like to bring it back to better condition, but I have no knowledge of woodworking. I think from reading around that we can wax the outter shell?
[Image: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r253/...0_8967.jpg]
How should I treat it? sand & complete refinish? or some shining and conditionning? Either way, I am uncertain how to proceed.
I wanted to take more pictures, but had no idea what would be of interest - and the camera's batteries are dead. If there's any particularly interesting pictures to be taken, please let me know and I'll post them.
-Mars
