I LOVE my Philco 38-116 but recently its been giving me a real problem. The radio does not pick up on the AM band below 1300 on the dial and Shortwaave is spooty at best. I do not have a tube tester. Console was recaped and was working beautifully. Might have to replace some tubes. What do you think . I usually listed to this radio every nite!
This is not the first time this has happened to me on this set.
Well, if you have spare tubes, you know what to do for the next 1/2 hour
Had a similar problem on my 42-355, only to find a small dust bunny had made its home in part of the tuning capacitor. Once I took some compressed air and blew it out, the missing half of the dial returned. Can't say that it is something that simple causing the trouble on your 38-116. Of course my set has no back, which just invites dust inside. Not sure if your console has a back or not. Otherwise, yep, time to try different tubes.
My radio has no back also. Good point, It does collect a lot of dust. Will try that. Then its off to find some tubes if that does not work.
I capped my 37-116 back in the '80s but didn't pull out the RF deck. After a year or so of working well it died. A small paper cap in the osc screen circuit shorted killed the LO. Pain to replace but fixed it and worked again.
Terry