Philco Jr. 80 - Printable Version

Philco Jr. 80 - Printable Version

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Philco Jr. 80 - rfeenstra - 10-26-2018

Another one saved. Picked this one up (delivered to me) for $10. Probably not even worth that. The glue holding the front panel to the curved side structure was completely broken so the cabinet had to be disassembled and re-constructed. I've done very little with toners in the past so this was a learning experience. Not a perfect job, but just ok. Interesting that areas of the sides had absorbed more stain or whatever they used originally causing a bit of a blotchy situation. I re-stuffed the caps  but replaced all of the dog bones with modern resistors. Didn't think the radio warranted the work of trying to salvage the dog bones. As you can see, there was a lot of rust so I opted to take the easy route and paint.

I did the mods that Ron recommended by adding a gimmic and re-wiring the cathode circuit. The radio works ok but needs a good antenna. When aligned per the instructions, I find the sensitivity at the low end of the dial to be much lower than the high end. The instructions say to adjust the antenna trimmer at 1400 kc. Sensitivity at the low end increases greatly if I readjust the trimmer with the dial set at 600. I compromised and set the trimmer for best signal in the center of the dial. Is this typical or is there a problem somewhere? Does the gimmic cap affect this? Ron, your experience please! This radio had the attachment on the 1st detector tube socket for a shield. I could find no photos of an 80 with that shield. I put one on anyway.

I miss AGC on this radio!

RE: Philco Jr. 80 - klondike98 - 10-26-2018

Looks great to me!
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RE: Philco Jr. 80 - Paul Philco322 - 10-26-2018

I am impressed I generally have not had sets with chassis that clean. Very nice job got rid the rust and the case looks nice as well. I hope you play it even though it may not be a super sounding set.

I would have it in my collection anytime. Icon_biggrin

Paul

RE: Philco Jr. 80 - rfeenstra - 10-26-2018

Thanks guys. A painted chassis certainly is not like original but it looks good to the average person. This set is not a collectors item, so it's the average person that I'm appealing to in my minimal collection.

I'm thinking that judicious plate bending on the tuning cap will help with the sensitivity across the band.

RE: Philco Jr. 80 - claude.france - 10-27-2018

hello Guys

very nice restoration !

RE: Philco Jr. 80 - rfeenstra - 10-27-2018

Hey, this thing doesn't perform all that badly! It picks up most of the stations that my Scott 16A does. Have to adjust the volume for each station, but they are all there. Using the same long wire antenna (200 feet long) with a tiny bit of isolation (1K ohm) for each radio. Also have the Scott 16 hooked up to the same antenna. Fairly impressive for a 4 tube radio.

RE: Philco Jr. 80 - Arran - 10-27-2018

I don't think there are many issues with the Models 80 and 81 sound wise, they are probably a little deaf in the front end but the audio output stage is basically the same as a model 60, a #42 power output, and a #75 first audio. They were entry level models, there is some debate over whether they were a loss leader for Philco to get people into the showroom, but I doubt this given how many they built, and they were obviously good enough for most purchasers otherwise they would be much rarer today.
Regards
Arran

RE: Philco Jr. 80 - rfeenstra - 10-27-2018

Did a little judicious bending on the plates of the antenna tuning cap. Was able to greatly improve the sensitivity across the dial. The low end of the dial is still a little less sensitive than the high end, but not too bad.

RE: Philco Jr. 80 - Greggshere - 11-01-2018

Nice Job, looks great!