08-28-2013, 01:06 AM
By the time your radio was made, Philco had stopped using fabric-covered wires. Most of the wires in your radio were insulated with rubber, which hardens and crumbles with age. Some colors crumbled worse than others, and any exposed to heat crumbled badly.
Most of those rubber wires need to be replaced or sleeved before you power the radio. Ron Ramirez, our moderator, crumbles off all the rubber, unsolders one end of the wire and slips colored heat shrink tubing over it, then solders it up again. Easier by far than unsoldering both ends to replace the wire. He uses a particular diameter of tubing, I think. I don't know where he gets it in all the colors he needs.
Luckily, those battery-operated tubes did not get very hot, so the rubber wires were more likely to remain supple. You can tell which need to be replaced or sleeved by feeling them. It should be obvious. Any with cracks or that are stiff need attention.
The markings on most of those dial glasses were decals, so when you clean yours, keep the decal side away from water. Even rubbing with a damp cloth will damage decals. I've heard people say they've cleaned the decal side with mineral spirits, but I don't think I'd try it.
I've made new batteries to fit in old cardboard battery casings when I can get them. It's pretty easy most of the time. I don't know how to print new cardboard casings or make the connectors, so I "recycle" the old ones. I looked at your schematic, and the tubes are the same as my 41-80T, so I'm nearly positive yours needs 90 volts for B+ and 1.5 volts for A+. I built a battery for that one and am pleased with the little portable. With its push-pull output, yours should sound better.
Some people on the forum have come up with ways to connect iPods to old radios. Many radios were adapted by repair shops to add a phono jack, so that a radio could do double duty as a phono amplifier. You could do the same and plug your iPod into that. There are problems, I've heard, with impedance matching, but that is beyond my expertise.
Many of us use small AM transmitters. You can plug any audio source into them and broadcast it on the AM band. One called SStran is highly regarded. I have one. It works very well, so I can listen to anything I want on my old AM radios at home.
Most of those rubber wires need to be replaced or sleeved before you power the radio. Ron Ramirez, our moderator, crumbles off all the rubber, unsolders one end of the wire and slips colored heat shrink tubing over it, then solders it up again. Easier by far than unsoldering both ends to replace the wire. He uses a particular diameter of tubing, I think. I don't know where he gets it in all the colors he needs.
Luckily, those battery-operated tubes did not get very hot, so the rubber wires were more likely to remain supple. You can tell which need to be replaced or sleeved by feeling them. It should be obvious. Any with cracks or that are stiff need attention.
The markings on most of those dial glasses were decals, so when you clean yours, keep the decal side away from water. Even rubbing with a damp cloth will damage decals. I've heard people say they've cleaned the decal side with mineral spirits, but I don't think I'd try it.
I've made new batteries to fit in old cardboard battery casings when I can get them. It's pretty easy most of the time. I don't know how to print new cardboard casings or make the connectors, so I "recycle" the old ones. I looked at your schematic, and the tubes are the same as my 41-80T, so I'm nearly positive yours needs 90 volts for B+ and 1.5 volts for A+. I built a battery for that one and am pleased with the little portable. With its push-pull output, yours should sound better.
Some people on the forum have come up with ways to connect iPods to old radios. Many radios were adapted by repair shops to add a phono jack, so that a radio could do double duty as a phono amplifier. You could do the same and plug your iPod into that. There are problems, I've heard, with impedance matching, but that is beyond my expertise.
Many of us use small AM transmitters. You can plug any audio source into them and broadcast it on the AM band. One called SStran is highly regarded. I have one. It works very well, so I can listen to anything I want on my old AM radios at home.
John Honeycutt
