Philco 60MB

[Jim Dutridge]

Found this radio today at a flea. No tubes or logo but everything else looks nice. Haven't pulled the chassis yet but looking at the top it looks original. Any pitfalls to repairing the chassis on this I should know about?

[Ron Ramirez]

Hey, congratulations on your find, you lucky dog! I just narrowly missed out on one of those at the Nashville swap meet last Saturday.

Jim are you sure that isn't a model 66? Usually the model 66 has grille cloth as shown on your set; the 60MB's cabinet is identical but the cloth is a strange mottled combination of black and gold, unique to the 60MB:



In any event, watch for the usual pitfalls: bad antenna and/or oscillator coils in addition to the usual necessity of replacing all paper and electrolytic capacitors, and replacing all resistors more than 20% off tolerance.

[Jim Dutridge]

(05-06-2012 10:30 PM)Ron Ramirez Wrote:  Hey, congratulations on your find, you lucky dog! I just narrowly missed out on one of those at the Nashville swap meet last Saturday.

Jim are you sure that isn't a model 66? Usually the model 66 has grille cloth as shown on your set; the 60MB's cabinet is identical but the cloth is a strange mottled combination of black and gold, unique to the 60MB:



In any event, watch for the usual pitfalls: bad antenna and/or oscillator coils in addition to the usual necessity of replacing all paper and electrolytic capacitors, and replacing all resistors more than 20% off tolerance.

No Ron, not sure if its a 60MB or 66. The top of the paper tag on the inside has been ripped off so no concrete model number to go on. Other than the grille cloth is there any other way to distinquish between the 2?

[Ron Ramirez]

Yep - the 66 has a SW band that tunes 4.2 to 12 MC. The 60 only covers 1.5 to 3 or 4 MC on its second "police" band.

I think the 66 tunes up to 1600 or 1700 kc on AM; the 60 only goes to 1500 or so on the first (AM) band.

[Jim Dutridge]

(05-07-2012 03:11 AM)Ron Ramirez Wrote:  Yep - the 66 has a SW band that tunes 4.2 to 12 MC. The 60 only covers 1.5 to 3 or 4 MC on its second "police" band.

I think the 66 tunes up to 1600 or 1700 kc on AM; the 60 only goes to 1500 or so on the first (AM) band.

Ron, you were right. It is a 66B. AM tunes to 1700 KC and the SW tunes to 16 MHZ. Thinking the grille cloth maybe hard to find so I will probably leave it as is.

[Ron Ramirez]

I don't blame you on the cloth. That is one of the patterns that was never reproduced. It's the same cloth as used in the larger 1935 model Philco cathedral sets (AM-only 18B, 118B, 144B).