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Philco 46-1213 Power Consumption - Printable Version

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Philco 46-1213 Power Consumption - Hymie023 - 10-10-2023

Hello all,

I have a 46-1213 that should be drawing 125 watts.  It is drawing a little high, 130 or so depending on if a station is tuned or not.  A strong signal lowers the watts to 120 or so.  Is that normal?  I have not noticed a radio doing that before.

Second question, turning on the the phono, the power consumption up to 170-175 watts.  

Does this sound normal?  What causes this behavior if it is not normal?
Thanks.

RE: Philco 46-1213 Power Consumption - Radioroslyn - 10-11-2023

Hi and welcome to the Phorum,

Wouldn't be concerned about the extra 5 wts of power. 

The reason for the variance in the wattage when tuning in a strong station vs a weak one is that the avc circuit is biasing the gain of the rf and IF tubes down to keep the volume even. This in turn lowers the plate current of these tubes thus dropping the total power consumption. 

I'm not all together sure where the 175w number comes from. Is it just the radio chassis or the radio and phono? 

This number comes from a brand-new chassis with all new everything. How does your chassis stack up to that?

RE: Philco 46-1213 Power Consumption - morzh - 10-11-2023

I put my 46-1213 through a Kill-a-Watt and it is 60W (shows 0.06kW). Without the phono, but my phono is a VOM, not the original. I tuned the local station. The volume did not make much difference (it shows kW so it would not notice it).

https://www.philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=21963

This is my thread on my radio.

RE: Philco 46-1213 Power Consumption - Hymie023 - 10-11-2023

Thanks guys,

Radiorosyln,
I wasn't very clear in my second question, sorry.  The 175 watts comes from just pressing the phono button, turning off the FM or AM radio and running the turn table, so I think it is bypassing the radio sections and just running the turntable and power section of the radio.  The radio is in good shape, with all electrolytic and paper capacitors changed, which was quite a lot of them.  I finished tracing the schematic looking for any mistakes I may have done and all seems fine.  That's when I asked the forum for help, mainly on the phono watts consumption.

Morph,
I am familiar with your thread.  The wattage changes tuning the signal strength, not the station volume.  I have a Kil-o-watt meter somewhere, I'll check consumption with it.  I am reading watts on a Sencore PR-57.

RE: Philco 46-1213 Power Consumption - morzh - 10-11-2023

Well, what you have not told us is this:

1. Has the radio been recapped? Does it work?
2. Does the radio play the records when you use your turntable?
3. Has the turntable been gone through?

RE: Philco 46-1213 Power Consumption - Hymie023 - 10-11-2023

Yes, it has been recapped and out of spec resistors have been changed.  The radio works OK, has a slight hum in FM but FM works, gets AM and SW.  It could be louder, but OK.  

The phono arm was stuck and I freed it up, greased and oiled everything and have a new needle in it.  The controls are not right but it spins the platter so I can test it.

I finally got the phono to play through the radio faintly, and it seems the speed is OK.  I guess it could be straining to play at speed, which would cause the power consumption to go up I would think.  I will check that.

I hope that answers your questions.

RE: Philco 46-1213 Power Consumption - morzh - 10-11-2023

Faintly: you do use the transformer that is in the back, right? And the pickup is original, EM type?

RE: Philco 46-1213 Power Consumption - Hymie023 - 10-11-2023

Yes, that is correct.