RCA 128 back amongst the living! - Printable Version

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RCA 128 back amongst the living! - 37silverstreak - 12-11-2011

Hi to all,
I'm very pleased to announce that, after a lot of work, my RCA 128 is back to the land of the living! I've always loved the look of this model RCA and waited years to get one, but after working on this chassis, I'm not sure how much I like RCA's ! Or at least working on them .
This was my first time working on a RCA radio.I don't know if this was just RCA's way of doing things or if they just had a total lack of regard for the poor service guy in the field! Recapping this set was a job!! none of the old caps, apart from a part number, had any value or working voltage marked on it! You had to check the schematic for everything, and in my Riders manual the printing was so small I had to use a magnifying glass to read it !! Also, there are caps buried everywhere in this set, and getting to some was a pain in the you know what! Normally, when I do a recap I try to gut the old caps and put the new part inside the old case so it looks original, but after a couple of these I gave up and just put in the new caps as is. It was much easier to mount the smaller units in the space left by the old ones.
I will say that after all that, the set did reward me by playing beautifully pretty much right off the bat. After a long warm up on the Variac. I got some weak local stations which disappointed me a little, until I realized that I had forgotten to connect the antenna and ground wires ! After making the necessary hook ups the set pulls in stations loud and clear all over the dial, so I guess it was worth the effort.
So, all that's left is to align it and finish restoring the case. After this I'm going back to Philco! A model 90 to be exact !
Kevin

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Re: RCA 128 back amongst the living! - codefox1 - 12-11-2011

Always feels good to get one working again.

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Re: RCA 128 back amongst the living! - thirtiesradio - 12-21-2011

The 128 is a beautiful set. Glad you got yours going

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