I have a philco 16B which I have totally recapped. I get pretty good reception on the broadcast band and a couple of stations are clear as a bell but the others all have a whooshing sound. How can I troubleshoot this? Could grounding the radio to the wall receptacle help this? Any help would be appreciated.
-Carlos
4 band or 5 band set? Does it have all the proper tubes in it, no 6D6's or 6C6's for the 78's or the 77's ? After recapping did you do an IF and rf alignment ? Are you using a long wire ant? If so how long?
Not trying to play twenty questions but want to get a basic idea of what we are working with. More than likely it's some electrical interference from a modern charging device. But it's also a good thing to have it working up to it's full sensitivity.
Hi Terry,
Thanks for getting back to me. I have the 5 band set and I am using all the original tubes no substitutes. I followed the alignment procedure in the file that I have attached to this post. The alignment went well except for the 5.2 m.c. of which I could not set. I am using a 9 foot straight wire antenna. Would grounding the set help ?
Thanks,
Carlos
Very good. If you have copper water pipes to use as a ground I would pick that over the outlet ground. I know nowdays there's a lot of plastic pipe which is non conductive. Either way the outllet or pipe is better than nothing. Your ant is really short to get away from any noises that are in your home. If you can you could try unplugging things like chargers, cable converter boxes, computers, and any made after 1990 or so and listen to hear if it makes a difference.
All of the 16 and 116 sets are excellent players. On the consoles the 1939 not so much as Philco traded the hifi for the mystery tuning. By 1940 the 16/116 line was dropped. I have three of the 5 band sets aka code 121 sets. Two are up working one needs the cabinet finished. The third one I got in May and it's the '33 model (1st yr for the 16 cathedral) the others are peaked top sets.
Enjoy your 16 it's a fine set!!
okay so I ran a new electrical cord with 3 prongs to the radio. The hot and neutral I connected to the primary of the power transformer the exact same way they were connected when I was using the 2 prong cord. I connected the green or ground prong to the chassis of the radio. However, now when I connect the power cord to a power strip it immediately pops the circuit breaker on a GFCI outlet that is near by. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong ??
-Carlos
So is there a non GFCI outlet around you try the set out? I'm not to familiar with those outlets I only have a couple in the house in the bathrooms and kitchen. I've heard that they don't like inductive loads. Maybe it has a disdain for the power transfromer. You could connect thru a cap to the chassis like a .05 or .1 mfd.
I hooked up a .1 uF cap on the ground and it does not pop the circuit breaker anymore however the whooshing on all the broadcast stations except 2 of them that come in very clearly continues. Am I correct to assume that the whooshing can only be caused by interference or can it be something else? I am going to try another outlet next to see what happens. Appreciate your help Terry !!
-Carlos
I hooked up the radio to a non GFCI outlet with the ground connected to the chassis and it did not pop any circuit breaker. I also tried hanging a 20 foot wire out the window for the antenna but I still get a lot of whooshing on most of the broadcast stations. I also have a small modern AM radio which I noticed has the same whooshing on most of the stations but when I took it outside in the balcony of where I live the whooshing went away. As soon as I have a chance I will take the Philco 16B out on the balcony and see if that fixes the issue with the whooshing sound. Is there any other way that I can keep the radio inside and eliminate the whooshing sound ?
Thanks,
Carlos
<If you can you could try unplugging things like chargers, cable converter boxes, computers, and any made after 1990 or so and listen to hear if it makes a difference.>
If you are in a multi unit situation this might help you get away from it. For the bcb you could construct a loop ant which would connect to the ant and gnd terminals. A series or parallel variable capacitor may be necessary to keep peaked. Don't use the DO NOT ADJUST trimmer. It screws up the image rejection.
Unfortunately the interference has a two main avenues to invade your reception. One is thru the ac line which there are filters made for but finding one that works well for a particular situation can be difficult.
The other is thru the air. That can be helped by having a more effective antenna. Longer and higher is good and away from power lines.
My antenna is about 125' long up at it peak at 15'. I get noises from my cable converter some laptop chargers. When it bothers me I just unplug it. During the holidays my close by neighbors put out blinking light that emit a click rf noise. Not much I can do about it as I'm not comfortable with telling them to kill the lights. We all get along well and it's not worth it to make a deal out of it.
I have a GFI outlet in my workshop, in which I plug the isolation transformer and my pretty powerful vacuum.
It never breaks under load. Once in a while it breaks during the plugging-in, which I attribute to some capacitive uneven distribution of current. Though I might be off on that one. But never when I turn on the plugged inductive devices. (an unloaded transformer is pretty inductive).
Hi Carlos, I have found a source of a noise similar to what you are experiencing. Turns out that my electric company uses one of those electric meters that has a digital readout and it automatically sends my usage back to their main office I am assuming over my service wires. I found this by using a portable radio and when I get near my meter base, the noise is that strong it drowns out all reception. Even when I’m several feet away, I can still hear the noise in the background. I also have a lot of noise when I walk by my flat screen tv even when the set isn’t on, although it could be from my cable box or modem. Hope this helps.
Ron
For what it's worth, I have to keep my Keurig coffee maker unplugged when listening to AM or Shortwave, it makes the bands deader that a doornail.
-Simon
I appreciate all your feedback on what can be causing all the interference but I live on the second floor of a condominium complex so
I guess that does not help things at all. Terry had suggested I try using a loop antenna so here is another link to a loop antenna on Amazon that I could possibly mount on my balcony and I am wondering if this might work ?
https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-100kHz-30...111&sr=8-6
Thanks,
Carlos
That's something that MIGHT work according to the reviews, but every situation is different. I would be tempted to try it.
If it is possible to get on the roof of your apartment building, and you could drop a vertical wire down to your window you would open up some possibilities....
-Simon