[Guest]

Hello everybody; my name is Matt I'm from New Jersey and I am 19 years old.
Recently my great uncle passed away he was 100 years old, he would stay with us a lot when I was younger and because our family was concerned about him living alone he eventually migrated to our home and moved in with us around 1993/94 a few years later he sold his house, and moved most of his stuff he thought was valuable or that he wanted to a storage unit and over the years never went to look and sort out the stuff at the storage unit, so it sat there until he passed and our family had to go over there and clean it out. During this process we found alot of old fashion goodies, among those alot of his military papers, and his uniform, a 1950s Dumont TV, and this Philco tube type radio (model number unknown)

I'm afraid to plug the radio in because the wire looks disintegrated and definitely not safe
Can anyone help me idenify this unit? I can provide more photos.. Is it possible to bring this back to life and have it rewired, is there a such thing as 'getting new tubes' ? Sorry all this stuff is foreign to me... But I learn quick so don't knock me as a noob to badly. Photos attached below.

[Image: http://lh5.ggpht.com/_wQzOLDIeXzM/S3SoRt..._0560E.jpg]
[Image: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wQzOLDIeXzM/S3SoR7..._0562E.jpg]
[Image: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wQzOLDIeXzM/S3SoSS..._0564E.jpg]
[Image: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_wQzOLDIeXzM/S3SoS3..._0565E.jpg]

Edit: Added model number to thread name.

[denver]

GO TO PHILCO RADIO.COM GO TO GALLERY FIND IT THERE. I AM NEW HERE TO JUST HANG ON GET ALL KIND EXPERT ADVISE SOON.
DENVER

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply Denver, I already went through the philcoradio website gallery and did not find anything matching. I'm sure some of the experts will be able to identify it.
-Matt

[Chuck Schwark]

DO NOT PLUG IT IN unless it's fully restored!!!
A 1942 Model 42-1013 radio-phono combo; AM, FM and SW. Fairly hard to find. Has the unique Beam-of-Light tonearm changer.
See Beam-of-Light section on my site. Note that on this pre-war set, the FM band is the older 42-50mHz. band before it was shifted to the current 88-108mHz band. There is no FM broadcasting in the 42-50mHz. region.

BTW, there should be a paper tag on the inside of the cabinet with the model number and possibly the rear apron of the chassis should also have a black ink-stamped model and code number as well.

Is the record changer missing? You don't show it pulled out in your picture series.

Chuck

[Guest]

DO NOT PLUG IT IN unless it's fully restored!!!

Believe me, I have no intention to, I don't want to possibly ruin it, or get thrown on my rear.

Is the record changer missing? You don't show it pulled out in your picture series.

I assume you mean the record player? (thats what I know it as) no the record player is not missing, I can post up photos of it pulled out, and I can also get shots of the chassis and some other details. Thank you so much for identifying it.
-Matt

[Ron Ramirez]

Thanks for your reply Denver, I already went through the philcoradio website gallery and did not find anything matching.

You can find it here:

http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1942a.htm#bb

I see Chuck has already identified it for you - good job, Chuck!

Matt, I've always thought that cabinet was one of Philco's best looking consoles. Congratulations on your acquisition!

To reiterate what Chuck has already warned you about: You mentioned the wire looking disintegrated. The wiring underneath the chassis is probably just as disintegrated...which makes it even more imperative that you heed Chuck's warning and do not plug it in until it has been restored!

[Guest]

You can find it here:
http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1942a.htm#bb

I guess I went flying through the pages a little quick and missed that... But thanks for pointing that out. I see the original selling price is $230, what would that equal out to today? Where can I have it restored?
-Matt

[Ron Ramirez]

$230 in 1941 when these sets were put on the market translates to $3,356.70 in 2009 dollars.

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

[Arran]

You are a lucky young man to have inherited that set, especially in such nice shape the beam of light changer is an amazing gadget for it's time. The DuMont TV sounds interesting, but it would be best to ask about it in the non Philco section here or about it in the television forum on the ARF site, is it a round tube DuMont?
Best Regards
Arran

[Guest]

Ron, thanks for the inflation calculator site...

Arran, thanks for you kind words. The Dumont is a round tube TV, it's bulit in a cabinet. It had to be stored at another family members house because we did not have the room here. Here is a attached photo that was shot as we were moving it from storage. Sorry about the shanky quality...
[Image: http://lh5.ggpht.com/_wQzOLDIeXzM/S3sDog....21.51.jpg]
Below is another photo I snapped (and forgot about) of the internals of the Philco (42-1013) while we were moving everything from storage.
[Image: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wQzOLDIeXzM/S3sDo9....22.39.jpg]
Edit: Here is the high resoloution photo of the same photo so you can see a little more detail
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wQzOLDIeXzM/S3sDo9....22.39.jpg

[Sean]

That DuMont looks like it might be an RA-109 model from 1950. I have an RA-113 that is a 1951 model with the continuous tuner that covers FM as well as an AM tuner and phonograph. I'm going to restore it one of these days. DuMont was the Cadillac of TV at this time. You might want to post on the Video Karma forums about it. There are a number of vintage TV collectors and restorers over there.

[radiorich]

Hello Djonemore,
Wow I think you hit the jackpot with both of those items .
Far as that Philco it would be great to be able restore it .
I bet would make your Unlce happy to see it in good hands .
Sincerely Rich

[Arran]

Matt;
When you get around to the DuMont there are a couple of guys on the television forum over at the Antique Radio Forums who have restored old DuMont TVs from that era. At least it looks like the picture tube is still holding it's vacuum, no dark bullseye in the middle of the screen or anything. One thing that it will likely need is the tuner taken apart, cleaned, and lubed, if it hasn't been used for a long time as the old grease sometimes hardens up. It's sort of a strange design, it rotates continuously like a radio dial rather then having a click for each station, because of this most also have an FM radio band.
One thing that I would suggest before you work on either the big Philco or the DuMont is that you pick up a five or six tube radio to work on for practice, some say a series string AC/DC set but a smaller transformer set would be more comparable to the Philco. If you can figure out how to solder and use a volt ohm meter you should be able to get the Philco and the DuMont working again if nobody has messed with them with goofy repairs or modifications, it just takes time and patience. You can pick up a decent digital volt ohm meter in some hardware stores or a Radio Shack, you can get almost any other tools or test equipment you need from a ham fest, sometimes parts as well. If you need any help you know where to call.
Best Regards
Arran