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What radio do I have? 38-40 what? - Printable Version

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What radio do I have? 38-40 what? - jepstr67 - 03-30-2010

Hi,

I found a good working Philco in a very nice cabinet at a thrift store. Then I found this Philcoradio.com and looked at all the photos of the 38-40s but none are like mine. Mine is a floor model made for 110v or 6 volt DC.

Here's a photo.

[Image: http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv206/jepstr67/Philco1.jpg]

Since the cabinet is so nice, I had planned to just make it into a speaker, but since it works that seems like a shame.
Can anyone tell me the value or what to call it besides 38-40 like it says on the back.

It seems the knobs are tuning, fast and slow on top. Then on/off, tone hi/low. In the middle, AM or SW and on the right volume. None are labeled, but that seems to be what they do. Are there other functions I'm missing.

I love the art deco styling of this radio.

Thanks,

Todd

Re: What radio do I have? 38-40 what? - Ron Ramirez - 03-30-2010

Hello and welcome.

You have a 38-40K, which is indded shown in my site's Gallery. See here:

http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1938a.htm#ao

It seems to me that you have covered all of the functions of the various knobs. Icon_smile

Re: What radio do I have? 38-40 what? - jepstr67 - 03-31-2010

Thanks Ron! What a great sight. What a lot of work. Thank YOU!!!

Now I see my radio there. So I have a 38-40K. Why K? I see the table top model is 38-40T which makes sense.

How does it differ from the 39-39? The cabinet seems the same, but the 38-39 is cheaper. The radio must be different.

We live in an off grid solar powered house so I have always been wary about buying old radios. I feared they would hog power because of the tubes. I was pleased to discover this one only uses about 30 watts! I assume they had to make them power frugal so they could run on battery for more than a few hours.

Thanks,

Todd

Re: What radio do I have? 38-40 what? - gary rabbitt - 04-02-2010

Hi Todd, welcome!

Here is a schematic for your set.
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Resources/251/M0013251.htm

It sure would be a shame to use this as just a speaker. Having a 'working' set is ok, but there are original parts inside that can fail rather quickly at any time, causing serious damage.
Please see:
http://www.philcoradio.com/tech/plugin.htm
You may not understand all of it, but you get the idea.

You could build or buy a small transmitter to broadcast to your radio, once it has been serviced and working safely.
Don't worry about the power consumption of the sets. You aren't going to run them 24/7. Get a battery setup so you can run it off batteries.If you are going to have other sets, mayne throw another solar panel up Icon_smile Or, unplug something else to make up the difference.
Good luck with your set.
Gary.

Re: What radio do I have? 38-40 what? - Ron Ramirez - 04-02-2010

jepstr67 Wrote:So I have a 38-40K. Why K?

I have a little information about the various letters Philco used to designate their cabinet styles here.

Quote:How does it differ from the 39-39? The cabinet seems the same, but the 38-39 is cheaper. The radio must be different.

I think you mean 38-39. The 38-39 was designed to operate from a 6 volt storage battery. The 38-40 was designed to operate either from a 6 volt storage battery or conventional 110 volt AC current. So a 38-40 could have been purchased by a farmer who did not have electricity yet, but anticipated getting it soon. (Many rural areas of the country did not have electric service available in the late 1930s.)