I was about to find out what the end result of two weeks of work on this Philco model 65 would be. I had rebuilt everything that could be rebuilt; replaced some wires; tested the tubes and replaced half of them. It had a new AC cord. It should be safe to operate.

It was time to find out how safe it was, and whether or not it was going to work.

First, I plugged the radio in and turned it on with no tubes in the set. I took voltage measurements. All seemed well. There was no smoke, no sizzling, nothing out of the ordinary.

Then I pulled out the 87 speaker from my Philco 87 project which is currently on hold while I look for a power transformer for it. The 87 speaker was plugged into the 65 chassis. All tubes were installed. My outdoor longwire antenna was connected to the ANT terminal.

Did it work?

Watch for yourself and see…

(video)

I noticed right away that this set goes into oscillations (squeals) if the volume control is turned up too high. I can’t help but wonder if this is a characteristic of Model 65 sets, and if this is why they were only on the market for a few months before being replaced by Model 76?

Other than that, I am very pleased with this radio which is eight years away from being 100 years old.

The next thing to do is to get this chassis reinstalled in its metal cabinet. In the forthcoming final chapter of the model 65 saga, I will do that as well as examine its matching speaker to determine what needs to be done to it.