[Jamie]

   

I bought several radios today. One of which is this Fada. There are no stickers that mention the model number. Radio Museum doesn't ID it from the tubes.

It has Broadcast and Shortwave..
Tubes are
6D6
6Q7G
25L6G
25Z5
6A7
and a Ballast tube 11541

I've found a Fada that uses the same cabinet, but it is only broadcast. I'm stumped.

[morzh]

I found FADA that uses not only the same cabinet but also has 3 knobs.
But it is also only broadcast. Which is weird.

[Arran]

FADA was also notorious for producing post war radios with a pre war cabinet. This is one thing I despise about most U.S makes, they often used cheap paper tags or decals to denote the model number, which of course often falls or rubs off making the radio hard to identify. Radio Museeeum is less then helpful much of the time, the site is run by Europeans who often steal photos and content from photo sharing and other websites with little clue what they are looking at when it comes to U.S or Canadian made sets.
Regards
Arran

[BrendaAnnD]

Well, searching for it by just the tubes is a waste of time. It appears that this was a standard tube lineup for Fada for several years.

[Jamie]

Thanks to everyone for looking. Prior to asking for help, I spent about 2 hours researching and came up empty. Someone else has already recapped and restored the electronics, so at least I'm not in dire need of a schematic. There is a partial sticker on the bottom that shows the tube lineup, but the top half is gone and I assume it contained the model number. Arran I agree 100% on both the stickers and Radio Museum.

[morzh]

Searching by tubes does not make sense as it is a standard AA5 set and many times many radios of different manufacturers will have exactly the same tube lineup.
Like that VEF from Latvia and the Emerson AH162. They use exact same tubes.

[Jamie]

Morzh, you can go to the Radio Museum website, input the manufacturer and tubes and it will tell you every model they made with that setup. From there, you can narrow it down by number of bands, etc. Sometimes there is a photo too. I've found that 20% of the time it doesn't work. As Arran said, it's not the best site. And like Brenda found, Fada used this setup on a lot of radios.

Anyways, that's why I mentioned the tubes... tubes, a photo and bands are the only real clues I could give to anyone hoping to help me find out the model. I was really hoping the ballast tube would ring a bell, but it didn't. I googled images of Fada radios for about an hour, searched every photo of Fadas I could find at several sites and nothing matches up.

Mafiaman suggested a guy on YouTube that specializes in Fada radios. I plan to email him and see if he knows anything.

[sam]

8)Hey guys
As I found out awhile ago fada is deferent as bad said used deferent cabinets with chassis I have a 608 & 38. No schematics at all for them 608 not even exists ? Rare no no one bid on I so I did
Ps iPhone sucks trying to type

[Arran]

It does seem to have an interesting mix of octal and older based tubes, like it uses a 25Z5 rather then a 25Z6 but uses a 26L6 instead of a #43, it also uses a 6D6 rather then a 6K7 but uses a 6Q7 and a 6A8. The ballast number won't tell you much, it's basically a standard pre war AC/DC design with five 300 ma tubes, the only thing that may differ is the pilot bulb tap/s on that ballast. While not exactly an AA5 it should be possible to use a schematic from another radio with a similar tube lineup for servicing if a model number can't be found.
I would think that if one could go through either the Rider books or Beitmans you could find out which set it is by comparing the other components to the schematics. It is a weird or uncommon model though, I could not find a photo of a Fada with a cabinet of that exact design, most seem to have the grille bars arranged in a "T" pattern.
Regards
Arran

[BrendaAnnD]

This should be pretty close to your radio. Doubt it's exactly the one.

http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByModel...005651.pdf

[morzh]

I wonder how many variation of an AA5 with the same tube set and bands one company would make.
I am pretty positive this sch could be used for a general check-up.

[Jamie]

Thanks again for all of the time spent hunting info. The radio plays great, has updated electrolytics and looks like it was gone through sometime in the past 5 years. I haven't had time to check voltages yet (not sure what they should be anyway), but I'll get to it eventually. Sooner or later I'll end up selling it.

[Arran]

I hate to be a stickler from detail but these sets don't fit the definition of an AA5, though they are the immediate ancestors of the AA5. The All American Five connotation came about with the advent of the 150 milliamp series string tubes in the early 40s which allowed manufacturers to produce inexpensive transformerless radios using five tubes and no ballast. RCA developed the 12Sk7, 12SQ7, 12SA7, 35L6 (later 50L6) and the 35Z5, Sylvania came out with their own loctal versions, which Philco used profusely, then in the late 40s came the 7 pin miniature versions. It was so successful a design, so ubiquitous, and produced in such prolific numbers, that it became the default tube radio circuit design used all over North America.
The Europeans even came up with their own versions of an AA5, in spite of the power line voltages ranging between 220 and 240 volts they used five tubes in a series string adding up to 117-120 volts as well, with a large dropping resistor to drop the rest. One difference being that the European and British made sets typically did not use pentagrid convertor tubes.
Regards
Arran