65 or 87 chassis?

[k8zhd]

I have a pretty nice unmolested Philco 65 highboy which my wife loves enough to allow into the living room. I bought a beat-up 87 on Craigslist to get a complete set of knobs for it, and recently got a rusty but apparently never-serviced 87 chassis. Alas, all 3 have audio transformers with various open windings, though the RF coils and power supply parts seem OK.

The 87 looks like the better chassis, despite being a neutrodyne rather than the more modern screen-grid circuit in the 65. Since there's no way I can keep two large heavy chassis around without them earning their keep, which chassis should I restore for occasional use in our living-room highboy -- the 65 or the 87?

I'll offer the "losing" chassis to members of the Phorum.

Mark Nelson
Natick MA

[Ron Ramirez]

I would prefer to restore the chassis which was original to the cabinet. But if it is in very rough shape, I would consider restoring one of the 87 chassis. Those Neutrodyne-Plus models are actually pretty decent radios, considering how primitive they were compared to the later Screen Grid Plus 95/96 and the Superheterodyne-Plus 111/112.

I have yet to restore a 65 so can't comment on its performance.