After six frustrating years of trying to achieve a nice finish on my late version 116, I’ve finally finished. I must have stripped and finished, stripped and finished, probably five times over the years before it came out looking the way I wanted. It’s a fantastic performer with a dead-on dial and for the time being will keep the 8” PM speaker that I put in years ago. The photo doesn't do it justice.
Oddly, I couldn’t align the IF to 460 KHz, nor 465. It only wanted 470 KHz so that’s where it stays. Being that this is the very last 116 model and somewhat scarce, I wonder if Philco production techs didn’t use IF transformers from the 1937 series.
Nice job Pete!
I've got it's brother but haven't done much with yet. Some moron drilled a 9/16 hole in the side of the cabinet. I was hoping against hope that it was for an AVC switch but Ron sez NO.
TA has one with a 116X chassis and spkr in it, no clairfiers.
It's funny that I offered this chassis for free, fully recapped, aligned, and functioning but no one ever came around to pick it up! After that I decided to go ahead with a full cabinet restoration. Tnx much for the person who never showed up! Its now among my most treasured Philcos. These 11+ tube Philcos are spectacular performers and I wish I only had the room to show (and use) them all!
John Rider in his book recommended moving the IF up or down in some regions of the country due to local noise.
Also, based on Philco's tendency to use parts/cabinets from previous or subsequent year-production runs, it would not surprise me if they used different IF xrfmrs.
Probably doesn't matter all that much between 460 or 465 all other things being equal, most alignment stuff of the era was not that accurate, or needed to be. If your reference is about coastal RF beacons of long ago, I think they are long gone. As always work from right to left on schematic to pinpoint the troubled stage.
