I took pity on it.. -
Jayce - 03-13-2014
Found this covered in a dusting of snow today at an Amish country antique shop. They like to set items out under large awning or covered walks in front of most of the shops in Holmes County Ohio and this radio was in a bad spot to get the wind-blown snow all over it last night. I warned them about it inside the shop, but they didn't seem too concerned, so for the $15 price tag I bought the set and brought it home to a warm, dry place.
It is an Airline 62-2704 from around 1942 with a phonograph behind the grill. It's more cabinet than radio really! The good news is: the cabinet is solid and can be easily refinished, also I was able to get some audio after repairing the speaker wires and bringing it up slowly, though no channels. The bad news: The lettering on the dial is falling off and someone scavenged the motor and the idler wheel out of the phonograph. Odd..
RE: I took pity on it.. -
morzh - 03-13-2014
The way you said it first I thought you shot it.
RE: I took pity on it.. -
Radioroslyn - 03-13-2014
It's those $15 consoles that will get you in trouble fast!! Eat up space fast and not the easiest to pass along short of gifting.
Terry
RE: I took pity on it.. -
morzh - 03-14-2014
This is why I buy expensive burbom and scotch - keeps me from becoming an alcoholic
Few can resist the temptaion of affordability.
RE: I took pity on it.. -
exray - 03-14-2014
At least you didn't buy a boat....so you 'saved' a lot of money.
RE: I took pity on it.. -
fields 100 - 03-14-2014
Amazing... I took pity too. (See
this post). Airline, too. But you are lucky to have good radio knobs
on her.
RE: I took pity on it.. -
Jayce - 03-14-2014
I am surprised the knobs are all there and in good shape. They are as bland as can be, but intact. Not thrilled about the missing phono parts though. They even removed the power socket for the phonograph from the chassis to boot, and even bent the chassis around the hole to boot. They must have really HATED the phono in this unit or something...
RE: I took pity on it.. -
Jamie - 03-16-2014
Quote:Exray - At least you didn't buy a boat....so you 'saved' a lot of money.
Thanks for that comment. I literally laughed out loud! ...
Mostly because, I have owned three boats. Never were truer words spoken!
Jayce - It's hard to tell from the pics, but that cabinet looks very suspicious of having a photo finish?? If so, refinishing it will be tough.
RE: I took pity on it.. -
Jayce - 03-16-2014
It only has a band of photo finish along the top, the rest appears to be regular finish. I checked that before I even bought it.
RE: I took pity on it.. -
Jayce - 03-17-2014
Just pulled this radio apart this evening to get it ready for servicing. Other than the missing phono motor plug, the chassis looks unmolested. Looks a like a new power cord was added at one point and the motor plug was removed due to the tight space in there. Only worry I see so far is that the speaker cone is warped near where the voice coil connects. Will have to see how that pans out. It is a 10 inch, PM magnet type speaker.
RE: I took pity on it.. -
Jayce - 03-19-2014
Ok, I definitely need some help on this unit. I couldn't find a schematic for this model of Airline, so my friend and I had to go by the values on the caps, resistors, and electrolytics that were in the chassis. It seemed to work, but one major problem has appeared. It seems to have too much bass! Either that or my speaker is junk. It's a pm unit, so wouldn't be too hard to replace, but I still need voltages and the proper impedance to replace the speaker if that is the culprit. So far this $15 bargain is turning out to be a wee bit of an albatross. Oh, it also either has a tube issue or another issue that causes it to cut out from time to time. I might have narrowed that down to the 6SJ7 or its socket.
RE: I took pity on it.. -
klondike98 - 03-19-2014
Jayce, I think this is the schematic
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByModel/791/M0011791.pdf . They made several versions (2504A,B & C and 2704A, B and C) 2504 is without the phonograph. If the cabinet has a WG number on it it was made by Wells Gardner for Montgomery Wards. I took pity on a 62-2504 but model numbers for these seem strange as it also shows up as 74WG-2504 and on the cabinet mine is marked WG-751A...
[Image:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54621529/WG751A.jpg]
...and yep, the strip at the top of the cabinet is a false veneer, don't ask me how I know.
RE: I took pity on it.. -
Jayce - 03-19-2014
Thanks! I'll have to check and see if my cabinet has a stamp on it like that. Never thought to look for something like that on mine. I usually find stuff like that by accident.
Edit: That schematic looks just like mine. I think we hit paydirt!
RE: I took pity on it.. -
klondike98 - 03-19-2014