40-190 antenna, ground - Printable Version

40-190 antenna, ground - Printable Version

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40-190 antenna, ground - fenwayfitz - 05-13-2026

I have poor radio reception and loud buzzing/interference sound. Both chassis and cabinet have been restored with no sound problem at their workshop. Can someone help with advice?
Need advice to improve reception and noise (buzzing, etc). Would external antenna wire and 8’ rod ground wire or something else be helpful?

Thanks, Gerry

RE: 40-190 antenna, ground - morzh - 05-13-2026

For the reception, if your radio is known good - the GND and the antenna.
For the noise, if you do not live next to the power line, see if you have a DCDC converters (any modern electronics, wallwarts, wall chargers, CCFL/LED lights so on, so foth) nearby or in close vicinity. Or the neighbor across the wall with all that.

One way of mitigating (but not necessarily eliminating) this problem is an X-cap across the power line inside the radio (0.1uF - 1uF, X-rated for 127VAC at least). Or a box with a good AC power filter inside (like those by Schaffner).

RE: 40-190 antenna, ground - MrFixr55 - 05-18-2026

Hi Fitz,

First off, Welcome to the Philco Phorum! I assume that by your handle, you are a Red Sox fan. I am a Yankee fan, but we are "family friendly" here. Secondly, congrats on having a nice radio.

This set has a built in antenna for both broadcast and shortwave. I believe that this antenna is of a more conventional type as opposed to the heavy wire "Plumber" antenna of some of the later multiband sets.

One of the issues is determining if the noise received is radiated noise or noise that comes through the power line. Caps #64 is a Bakelite block that has 2 0.01 uF caps in series with the junction connected to the chassis. The original caps could short, making the chassis "hot" or blowing a circuit breaker. There are 2 types of safety capacitors- X type or Y type. X Type caps can be placed across the line. Y Type are placed between each pole of the line and the chassis. X type caps may short when failing. Y type caps will fail as an "open" The person rebuilding the set should have replaced the original EMI caps with Y type safety caps. Most restorers will place these caps after the switch as opposed to before the switch the way Philco did. Morzh is advocating putting an X type cap between the line and neutral (Across the transformer), not between the line and chassis or neutral and chassis. X type caps should NOT be placed between line and chassis. X/Y type or Y type can be substituted for X type. If placing an X type across the power line, it should be after the fuse and switch. If there is no fuse, one should be installed if using an X type cap. If a fuse will not be installed, use a Y type cap as if an X type cap shorts, there will be an overcurrent condition that can burn out the power switch, trip the branch circuit breaker or cause other issues.

Try the following:

The antenna in this set is directional. Try rotating the set for minimum interference and maximum signal. In fact, if you rotate the set for maximum interference, it may be used to locate the source of interference.
If you live in your own house, shut off all power except for the line to the radio. Is there improvement? If so, the source is inside the house or radiated by unshielded wiring. (Many suburban houses are wired in "Type NM" non-metallic un-shielded cable, sometimes referred to as "Romex" one of the original brands of this cable. Older houses and houses in more urban areas were wired in "Type AC" or Type BX" armored cable or in metallic conduit. Assuming that the shielding is correctly bonded at each junction to the breaker panel pr "Service Entrance" equipment, this system is somewhat less likely to radiate noise.)
Install an outdoor antenna and ground. In this case, do not use the electrical system ground. If you have city water, the water pipe may serve as a good ground although the electrical system is also grounded to it. An alternative is to sink an 8Ft rod into moist soil. This is easy to do on Long Island but may be difficult to do if you are in the greater Boston area. The antenna should not be parallel to power lines. Anchor one side of the antenna to something stationary (like the house). Temporarily connect the other end to a pole and stretch the cable. Walk along the arc that you will be forced into by drawing the wire taught and walking through a section of the circle that the "radius" describes. The point with the least noise and a reasonable gain in signal is the best location. Erect the antenna as high as possible. There are members of this Phorum that are HAMs or hold a 2nd Class or 1st Class Radiotelephone operator's license to run broadcast transmitters, that can be of much more help than I cna in the area of antennas.