[Guest]

I have a Philco Transitone Model 5 and need a key to turn on or off. Does anyone know if all the keys are cut the same or if possible local locksmith might be able to make one. How hard is it to get out? Also, is this model a 6VDC positive or negative ground? Thanks in advance Dave

[BILL]

HI:
I'm also in need of a key for my Transitone 5 and my 3. Were the key's all the same or not ,I'm not sure ,Many early auto radios had simple keys ,somewhere not, the 1932 Chevrolet did not have a simple key they used the same lock with tumblers as the ignition and door locks I've taken the locks a changed the tumblers to match the keys.
Generally if the radio has a tube for a rectifier, as the T5 does, it will play on positve or negative ground. When you have a syhcroness vibrator polaity becomes a problem, but even some of these old radios had a polaity switch[or wires to changed] to - or pos. ground, BILL

[Guest]

Thanks for the response Bill. I don't know what type of vibrator is in this it appears shorter in length than the original. I have a battery eliminator don't know if it has a 6vdc tap. I got a 12vdc power supply that I could possibly put a resistor to drop to 6vdc. Did you use the car or a 6vdc battery. Could I use my batery charger it has a position for 6vdc? As for the key.. A fellow on ebay has a radio with key and I asked if he would make a duplicate and sell it. He asked me what is was worth to me. I said about $10. He flatly said his time was worth more than $10. I thought to myself, how many keys could a guy sell for $10 on ebay?....I guess I'll never know. Anyway the thought was trying to see if it would work. I may take the radio to the locksmith and see what he thinks. I'll let the phorum know. If it can be done I would be glad to share the key. Dave

[BILL]

A battery charger could be used only they are noisy, a lot of RF interference,I have a old ART power supply for working on auto radios , a rule of thumb, you need one amp per tube and another amp for your dynamic field speaker on a 6 volt radio.
Your radio has the four pin standar vibrator,BILL

[codefox1]

Back in the old days, when my dad sent his old Packard to the bone yard, I took the radio out the night before. Of course I didn't know what I was doing, but I took an old television power transformer, connected the 6.3 volt windings to the tube heaters, removed the vibrator, and hooked up the h.v. from the old TV transformer to the plates of the 0Z4, at least that's how I remember it. To my utter amazment the radio played very nicely. I was around 12 years old at the time.

But if I were going to restore more than one or two of these beasts today, and they were going to be put back in an antique with a 6 volt system, I think I'd get a 6 volt car battery, (needen't be all that good, just safe.) and make a little trickle charger to keep it up. Then I could fix the D**n things in my nice warm basement, rather than in the garage.
(Disconnect the trickle charger offline when using the battery to power the radio.)

Key locks are not hard to come by, of course probably not exactly in the same shape and size as the original. I suppose the ones you are talking about are kind of like the keys they used on old Hammond Organs (yes, I have one, no I don't have a key, and yes, they were all the same, and you can get one for a few bucks.) If I still had rug rats inthe house, I might have gotten one.

If a key operated the radio and the ignition, I suppose the lock would be designed so you could turn on the radio, remove the key with the lock in the "on" position, then use the key to start the car. But wait a minute, then if you turned off the engine, the radio would still be on, and drain the battery.

Ron, I know you will read this, and you are studying computer science, you have probably heard, or will soon the phrase
"The key, the whole key, and nothing but the key so help me Codd" Nothing to do about auto radios, it is about the third normal rule in database design. It's a lot nicer than the rote resistor code mantras.