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The Surprise Philco 38-3 - Printable Version

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The Surprise Philco 38-3 - Jayce - 12-14-2021

If this is the wrong section, feel free to move. Icon_smile

After posting about it in the December 2021 Finds and Losses section, I did a little more work on this console I ended up with by surprise yesterday. I noticed neither one of the shortwave bands were working, though the lower one would work with wiggling the band switch, so out came the chassis for inspection and cleaning. The contacts in this thing are crappy looking, rather black to be exact and could see an attempt at cleaning had already been made. Sadly, the guy who does this for my buddy is in his mid 70's and is stingy with the contact cleaner... I am not! I gave all the controls a good cleaning and noted two wax capacitors that still need replacing, one on the tone control and one up in the center of the chassis. Actually, that section is much easier to access than the on on my 37-116! So, got the radio back together and we have major improvements. The tone control now works on at least two sections now, better than none, the Magnetic Tuning works just fine and the band switch is better, though still fussy. Actually, it cut out on me earlier on AM, but it was the band switch. I swear, I have had issues with Philco band switches from this era for some reason with only my 37-116 being good.
Still a little work to go though. Those last two wax capacitors will leave the radio after the start of the year and the upper shortwave band is not working. I get some response on the low end of it, but after 8.0 it disappears. Could be something major, could be that band switch. Time to invest in a can of Deoxit! On a plus note, the power transformer on this radio runs the coolest of all my daily driver sets. I always thought Philco used a bit of an over-sized power transformer on the 38-4 and 38-3 sets, which is fine by me. While it doesn't have the fidelity of the 37-116, this radio is a bass thumper.

RE: The Surprise Philco 38-3 - Jayce - 12-15-2021

I now have most of the upper shortwave band working again. I was suspicious of the 6A8 tube as it did act a little odd on one side when testing it. It showed very strong on my tester, but on one side the needle would bounce slowly while two over 6A8s I tested did not do this. Now I have up to at least 20.0 on the dial for the upper shortwave, but will have to compare with the 37-116. I think that section of the band is dead for me on all my radios in my area, but a comparison must be made first.

RE: The Surprise Philco 38-3 - Jayce - 12-22-2021

Not much else to report right now. On a whim, I decided to swap the 6u7 tube, knowing them to be fussy just like the 6D6 they replaced. (Went through three on a Silvertone one time looking for one the radio was happy with and just jammed a 6K7G in there instead!). This radio now plays even better with that tube, so no harm there. So far I have played this radio for at least an hour a day since getting it last Monday without any major issues and it is looking like the previous owner dumped a solid daily driver radio, even as it sits now. My buddy told me it was going to get parted out if I hadn't wanted it. Oddly, the 6u7 in the radio now is the one that came in the Silvertone console that it didn't like. Perhaps because it is a Philco tube? ;)