Found a Philco A801 - Printable Version

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Found a Philco A801 - Jayce - 03-17-2016

Had a message on my answering machine when I got home from work today from a gentleman and fellow collector I know in Canton, Ohio about a radio he wanted to know if I was interest in buying. When he told me that it was a Philco A801, I decided to get over being tired from work and went up for a look. He said he had brought the radio up on his variac, but all it did was light up and that was all the further he messed with it. Now I have both of Philco's converted car radio offerings from 1942!

   

I quickly found out the reason why this set had done nothing but light up, all the tubes had been pulled out! Now, I know the guy I got it from is not into yanking tubes out of any radios he sells, so why was this done?

   

Luckily, I had enough loctals to retube the radio, though they are not tested. Now, one other issue is the power transformer. All the wires have been spliced and taped together and there are two extra wires coming out that are just taped off. Possible replacement?

   

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RE: Found a Philco A801 - Arran - 03-17-2016

(03-17-2016, 11:09 PM)Jayce Wrote:  Had a message on my answering machine when I got home from work today from a gentleman and fellow collector I know in Canton, Ohio about a radio he wanted to know if I was interest in buying. When he told me that it was a Philco A801, I decided to get over being tired from work and went up for a look. He said he had brought the radio up on his variac, but all it did was light up and that was all the further he messed with it. Now I have both of Philco's converted car radio offerings from 1942!



I quickly found out the reason why this set had done nothing but light up, all the tubes had been pulled out! Now, I know the guy I got it from is not into yanking tubes out of any radios he sells, so why was this done?



Luckily, I had enough loctals to retube the radio, though they are not tested. Now, one other issue is the power transformer. All the wires have been spliced and taped together and there are two extra wires coming out that are just taped off. Possible replacement?

Jayce;
  Strange as it seems that cloth friction tape and splicing may be original, these sets were literally converted car radios and as such they lacked room on the chassis for 120 volt AC mains  transformers as they were intended to use a 6 volt vibrator transformer. You also have to remeber that Philco assembled these radios after civilian radio production was discontinued, so they were using up spare parts they had left in inventory, much like the car radios themselves. If I remember correctly the Chrysler MoPar A801 radio chassis used a 7Y4 rectifier tube, so the extra unused wires on the transformer are probably for a 5 volt rectifier with a directly heated cathode which the A801 did not need.
Regards
Arran

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