Posts: 177
Threads: 19
Joined: Feb 2014
City: The Motor City,Detroit MI
I'm going through the chassis on my Model 60, taking inventory of where everything is and what I need to order. I have details of the production changes, and it appears that mine is the last variation of design.
While going through this exercise, a question was going through my mind.... if I was working on an earlier iteration of design, would a proper restoration include changing the chassis to reflect the final design iteration? This assumes that radio performance trumps historical accuracy of the restoration.
Posts: 5,087
Threads: 270
Joined: Nov 2012
City: Wilsonville
State, Province, Country: OR
Personally, I would keep the electronics at the version that came from the factory at the time the chassis was built. Each version tends to have a different cabinet version (
http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=15007 ) so I'd keep the chassis consistent with the cabinet version...but hey...that's just me.
Posts: 126
Threads: 13
Joined: Sep 2013
City: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The 60 is a bad example of that question. As I recall it went through some major changes, like removing a trimmer and adding a wave trap that would be hard to bring an older run "up to date". But as far as some of my other Philcos, I have made updates based on the run change notes - if it made sense. Like they changed a resistor value to improve oscillation or something. But not in cases where it would require adding some parts that would be hard to source or no apparent benefit.
Really it's up to you. But if it's simply changing the value of a resistor or cap to improve performance or correct an issue per the notes, I see no harm in doing so. Especially since I like to use my radios, not just park them on a shelf.