RCA 263 Console - Printable Version
+- The PHILCO Phorum (https://philcoradio.com/phorum)
+-- Forum: Various and Sundry Categories (https://philcoradio.com/phorum/forumdisplay.php?fid=37)
+--- Forum: Other Radios (Non-Philco) (https://philcoradio.com/phorum/forumdisplay.php?fid=12)
+--- Thread: RCA 263 Console (/showthread.php?tid=3153)
+- The PHILCO Phorum (https://philcoradio.com/phorum)
+-- Forum: Various and Sundry Categories (https://philcoradio.com/phorum/forumdisplay.php?fid=37)
+--- Forum: Other Radios (Non-Philco) (https://philcoradio.com/phorum/forumdisplay.php?fid=12)
+--- Thread: RCA 263 Console (/showthread.php?tid=3153)
RCA 263 Console - TA Forbes - 04-15-2011
I aquired this radio a couple of months ago. This is a fairly uncommon set. 10 tube, dual 80 rectifiers. Output is push pull 42s driven by 2-76 tubes. 14 watts max output. According to the previous owner the radio has been in the same house (not attic, basement, garage, or outbuilding) since it was bought new by his grandfather.
http://s1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa372/TAForbes/RCA%20263/
Re: RCA 263 Console - TA Forbes - 04-15-2011
Oh yes, it is a 5 band set, X band is the old "weather" band of 140-410 KHz.
Re: RCA 263 Console - Doug Houston - 04-15-2011
A mighty fine set, and phenomenal performer. The SW bands go to around 40 MC, I believe. I have a few of these RCA sets, and should remember. Get the set re-capped, and aligned, and it's a hot demon. It's a 1935 model set. If you have the orange dial scale, it will be an early manufacture. Around the first of 1935, they changed the dial scale to a dark maroon, with black lettering. You have all you can do to read them.
I'd have to look in the red book, but I don't think that this chassis was used in a phono combination. I have the 381, which is a similar chassis, and a phono combo. They're mighty nice sets. They're right neck and neck with the same year Philcos, that had a similar tube complement.
It looks like someone stripped and refinished this set of yours.....?
Re: RCA 263 Console - TA Forbes - 04-15-2011
Hello, Doug: it is lighter than any others that I have seen. But the finish appears to be original. Note that the finish under the doors is much the same as outside, just in better shape. I asked the previous owner about this and he did not believe that it had been moved from the same room it occuppied during it's previous life. He lived in the same house his grandfather lived in, the house was passed to his father and then to him.
HOWEVER, anything is possible with these things. Someone had done an older recap of the electrolytics using paper caps, but they did not do a very good job of it, and I assumed that they had. They basically replaced two electrolytics on either side of the field coil with one large (40mFd) cap on one side of the coil.
The result was that the power transformer smoked when I was listening to it. Shame on me, I usually will take the chassis out of any radio I get in to make sure everything is as it should be.
SO.... know anyone who has an RCA power transformer that would work on a 262 or 263 chassis?
Re: RCA 263 Console - Doug Houston - 04-16-2011
Well, at least, the tubes have 6 volt filaments, instead od 2.5 Volt. that RCA stuck with for so long.
Re: RCA 263 Console - Jim Berg - 04-17-2011
Might check with Gary at Playthings Of The Past. Large list of transformers online. Also may try the Radio Junkyard. I don't think these set are all that common.