The PHILCO Phorum

So I started on this radio (in the November finds in the bar and grill) Pulled the chassis and found this:


Sweet. the cleanest chassis I've seen in a long time. The missing shields and the GT tubes a bit of a bummer but the speaker looks like new, and zero corrosion. The set was missing a power cord so I replaced it and rebuilt the RFI block cap. The rest of the underside was, well, not ideal.

on the plus side, it is clean as a whistle too, and the chassis mounts in the corners are in good shape. But the repairman has knocked several times, with some shoddy workmanship. After reattaching a broken connection at the .25uF cap in the lower right hand corner, I decided to bring it up on a variac to see where I stood.

No sound, nada, nothing. But I did have B+ and filaments. Get out the ohmmeter and start checking the speaker. Bummer, the output transformer has an open primary. Now where am I going to find the right output transformer on Black Friday? Pull up Ron's speaker listing to see what might have the right one, and bingo, my other November find would have one. So I'm, afraid I wont be restoring this model 60.


So I salvaged the transformer out of my flood victim 60 and it checked good so I installed it into the 37-62 and brought it up on the variac again.

At 70 volts I got a station! No hum so I brought it up to 110 and it played grand. So I started the recap, right to left, rechecking the radio  with every change. About 1/2 way through it started squealing like a stuck pig, so I noted where I was at and continued. By the time I was done with the recap, it still squealed like crazy. Flipped the chassis over and found if I put my hand around the 6Q7 the squealing stopped. Put a 6Q7G in its place and grabbed a shield of my already missing several 37-116 and no more squeal.

It is somewhat amazing that 2 of the 3 sections of the Philco electrolytic cap have stayed good for 79 years, I've had it playing on the bench for an hour and it shows no sign of leakage. I'll wind up replacing it, but I'm not sure if I want to restuff or not, there is a large empty space in the chassis forward of the power transformer.

More pics to follow...

SO I'm making progress, some of the evil GT tubes have been replaced with G tubes.



Note the shield has to be on the 6Q7G or else!



All the coupling and bypass caps have been replaced, and the blocks rebuilt. Only the electrolytics remain.


But I got to ask one question:


Did they give the graphic artist the rest of the week off? Were they trying to save on ink? You would think they would at least continue on down to 1700.

Got my first real surprise. I flip the switch to the second band and still get AM broadcast. A quick look at the prints and see why. Clean the switch and get WWV at 2.5 MHz. This radio only has one band, they just tune the front end to the other IF image. Cute but it works. But you have to be spot on with the alignment. But it works. 

Well I'd thought I'd seen everything, but was not prepared for this:



A good lamp base in a 37 Philco.

John, as you may have noticed I am working on a 37-61 at present. It is AMAZING how different that one little number, from 61 to 62 makes them. Best of luck with the restoration. I am waiting on some parts myself. My dial lamp was not as fortunate as yours, so I am going to have to rebuild it. I have been thinking about making a small piece of paper micarta board using 2 part epoxy and paper, then just cutting the little ring I need, and using a brass eyelet from a craft shop as the contact, or just running the bare part of the wire through up to the insulation, and using a curl of the wire and a solder blob. I know Ron has posted his method, but I am going to see how my own idea turns out. Anyway, it is great to watch your progress.