This is the radio that I was supposed to get two months ago, but that deal fell through. Well, I had something the guy wanted more and since this radio had failed to sell at his store, I did an even trade for it. Basically, I traded a $40 (repaired) 45-player for this repaired 84B that he had been trying to sell for $125. Plays really good and has joined the 37-84 in my bedroom. Only issue I had was it would play for 15-20 minutes and then slowly go silent before coming back on. Turned out the filament in the 42 was going out for some reason. I tossed in an untested 42 I bought for 50 cents at a sale and it now works fine. For some odd reason, these little Philco cathedrals are the only 4 tube radios that will work at my place with what antenna I can muster. I wonder why they do better than other makes?
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Jayce, re-solder the pins on your original 42 tube and try it again.
Steve
Looks like the tube is fine. Last night the other tube did the same trick and when I wiggled it, it would light again. So, it appears to be a socket issue, hopefully from some dirt. I gave the socket a couple shots of cleaner and put the original tube back in. It's working so far, so I hope that is all that was wrong.
Congrats on the new addition! Those are good looking sets. Sounds like you got a good deal too.
Thanks! That 42 socket is still being a bit fussy, but the cleaning made it better. I'll keep babying it.
I just love these four tube Philcos! They work amazingly well for the low tube count and they sound better than the model 20 I listened to last year. Good tone from that big speaker. Now, should I try to find a model 80 or 81 next?
Try removing the 42 and carefully squeezing the tube socket contacts with a pair of needle nose pliers to restore spring tension against the pin. Sometimes a tube with a blob of solder at the end of the tube base pin will overstress a contact and cause a loss of tension.
Ok, will do if it doesn't settle down. I figure the issue is with the two biggest pins on the tube as I think those are the filament on a 42.