The PHILCO Phorum

I just took delivery of my "new" 40-130 that I got from Ebay. While I'm happy with the condition of the cabinet, reception is a far cry from the, "It picks up plenty of stations" description on the listing. I went to Lowe's and bought two 25ft spools of 16 gauge low-voltage wire with the intent of making a long-wire antenna by stringing it along the soffits of my house. Is this a good approach or am I wasting my time? The radio was supposedly electronically restored, but could it still be an electronic problem?

And yes. I'll be ordering new decals from Radio Daze.

In most locations now-a-days, electrical noise due to hi-frequency switching power supplies and HID lighting is so bad on the old AM band, that good antennas and sensitive radios buy nothing. If your old Philco can receive what a hand-held transistor set can, that's all you can ordinarily expect.

I don't have a hand held transistor set, but the AM recepion in my car is far superior to my old Philly.

Hey PT57--Iam in the process of finishing my 40-130----the chassis and recapping is done, and with the antenna on the radio cabinet back connected the radio is a very good receiver--no problem whatsoever of picking up stations all across the band--you should not need an external antenna ! think you have got some circuit problems sorry to say---you may want to see if recapping was completely done, and that all tubes are good----some folks on ebay are only interested in minimal work on radios that they market

Was your 40-130 restored electrically as well? It should have been recapped as well as any out of tolerance resistors replaced. If that has been done, your set may need an alignment to work the way it should. Something may have gotten jolted during shipping as well. If the chassis hasn't been restored, it definitely needs to be done as these sets have a lot of rubber coated wire that needs to be replaced. the old rubber dries out and breaks away from the wire setting you up for short circuits. I have a 40-150 which I restored and use often and it is a great performer! your radio should be pretty much the same. Good luck!
Kevin

Here is part of the Ebay listing which addresses the electronics questions:

"This is a 1940 Philco Table Radio, Model 40-130. It is a six tube (all Loctals) a.c. superhet receiver tuning the AM Band, 550 to 1500 Khz and a Short Wave Band, 1.5 to 3.3 MHz. The radio also has a built-in loop antenna mounted on the rear back board. I was able to hear plenty of AM stations but only a few signals on the SW Band. Back in 1940 this SW band was more active. There is a low level hum, but not present when a station is tuned in. The volume is loud with no distortion.
The filter capacitors and a few resistors were replaced, a nos 7C6 audio tube was replaced, a new line cord installed, two new dial lamps installed, repairs to the loop antenna and connecting leads, a new clear dial cover and finally the receiver was aligned."

Then it goes on to explain the cabinet restoration process.

I'm wondering if something did happen to it in transit. Also... there's what appears to be a small adjustment screw peeking through the back cover. What could that possibly be for?

I wonder what they boasted about in the "Cabinet Restoration Process" it looks like a strip and clearcoat job, no filler, no toner. Yes it should work better then it does, sets this old need all of the paper capacitors, and a fair number of resistors replaced, possibly new wire as well, they will also need an alignment job.
Regards
Arran

Thanks everyone for your input. I just wrote to the seller and we'll just have to wait and see what he says.

I have a little 6 tube Philco and I get quite a lot of stations. I also have high tension wires right behind my house. Try to pick up some stations that may be lower power in your area, like about 5k watts. If these are not coming in something is up. Alignment is a good bet. Are the tubes strong? Can you test them or swap them with known good ones?

Keep at it.

Paul

Yes, should get a few AM stations, of course more at night, and you can also try another room, or turn set around (reception is directional when built in loop is used.) Not much of anything on the old "police band," used to get some tone signals which I found out sent signals to Utility water pumps, and I think that's all done by now.

Agree alignment is very important after restoration, but not everyone knows how to do this.

I'd bet donuts to dollars that the radio needs an alignment. If you don't have the equipment to do a real alignment, you can usually improve reception just doing it by ear. Just take note of how things are positioned now, then make tiny adjustments, constantly listening for any improvement. You should be able to tune it right up..

The seller had recapped the radio. Then he replaced a few resistors and the 7c6 tube with a NOS replacement. Then he performed an alignment. But even though he did a great job packaging it for transit, there's always the possibility it was bounced around enough to knock something out of whack. Much to his credit, he offered to either give me a full refund, including shipping, if I were to return it, or he would go over it and make any additional repairs if needed at no charge and again, a full shipping refund. I've got to believe he truly wants to make things right. After all, he is a top-rated seller on eBay and it is in his best interest to maintain his perfect score.

I'll bet it is alignment or even a tube. Even fully restored radios can sometimes have something get out of sync a short while down the line. It's part of the fun of owning an antique radio and nothing fatal. I had one radio that fouled up a week after my friend rebuilt it for me and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. So, he flipped the chassis back over, moved all the capacitors around a little with his fingers, flipped it back over and it has worked fine ever since then. There were no obvious shorts, but for some reason that little bit of movement on the components cured the issue.

I tried an experiment today and brought the radio outside and plugged it in. There was a noticable improvement in reception. Not perfect, but considerably better. Oh, did I fail to mention my house is of concrete block construction?