[glyphmon]

MrFixr55,

Thanks for the tips on the grounding rod and the antenna.  My options are pretty limited for arrangement but I think what I've got now improves upon having the wire balled up as I did.  Yesterday I strung the wire (I think originally I had purchased it as a 100 foot length about 15 or 20 years ago) out the window, along the side of the building, and wrapped around the back.  Not ideal, I know, but again, it's the space I've got.

Today I succeeded in driving the rod down at least about 7 feet before it found an immovable impediment and decided to settle there.  The good news is that the water table is probably only six feet down given the sump pump that I keep in a dug well to keep the basement from being a shallow pool.

When I connected the antenna in its new arrangement I did get an appreciable improvement on the strength of the local station and did pick up, last night, some other stations from further away - not sure where exactly.  With the ground connected today, I think there is an improvement in sound quality, in fact the local station is almost crystal clear - less of the whine that even modern radios pick up on it.  The bass in modern music seems to be a bit much for this 12" speaker at times, but we'll see how it performs when it's mounted back in the cabinet.

Speaking of which, I think this does it for this chassis.  Transitioning to the veneer repair and refinishing for this project.

Thanks everyone for the dedicated assistance with this one.  It's been a confidence-boosting process whereas the 37-620 was a trial by fire that I'm not sure is quite over.

Best wishes,
Roy

[MrFixr55]

Congrats, Glyphmon!! Try the antenna on other sets of the same period to compare the performance of the 6K3 with. Looking at the circuit, this is a good set but it is not really supposed to be a long distance performer, as there is no RF amp. It should perform like a transformer powered 5 tube circuit. However, I have a Zenith 6S52 (only the chassis) which is a similar circuit with unexpected performance. The only difference between the Zenith and your RCA is that both the primary and secondary of the antenna circuit are tuned on the Zenith, giving an improvement in selectivity. The separate detector, AVC Diode and 1st AF amp on your RCA lends to better fidelity.

I can't help much with cabinet restoration, but many here are experts in splicing veneers, regluing, matching wood, staining, etc. Just follow Ed's repair on that table leg! Search the Cabinet restoration section of the Phorum. This covers only Philco cabinets, but don't limit yourself to your set, look for projects with issues similar to yours. There may also be cabinet restorations for non-Philco sets in the Non-Philco radio section where your thread already is.

Good luck with the cabinet restoration!

[glyphmon]

As a fairly long aside, my workplace where I am the IT Manager, is a non-profit partner of Acadia National Park, responsible for operating the Research and Learning Center there.  The campus where we're located is a redeveloped former Navy base where they did a lot of radio work, especially during the Cold War.  Pretty sure it's where the Navy CTs would come to train.  It had a satellite location nearby with an AN/FRD10 antenna the locals used to call the elephant cage.  The original radio station was on Mount Desert Island, but John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was developing his network of park roads and it ran through the location where the base was, so he orchestrated the acquisition of the land and even some of the construction for the new base.  The caveat was that if the base ever closed, the land would revert to the National Park Service.  Now, the non-profit does a lot of research and education work, bringing in many recent college graduates or some still studying to work with scientists.  One of them is focused on science communication and shares a bit of a fascination for radio and was interested when I told him about this new hobby I was developing, and I said I would bring in the 6K3 when I got it "finished".

That being said, I'm not yanking my antenna off of the side of the building now that it's in place. I know I frequently see ten feet as a common length for a random wire antenna. Also, I'm probably not going to be able to have a great ground connection, but you never know; the building I'm probably going to take it to for a demonstration probably has some big honking metal pipes I could tie a ground wire to. (The building was the old medical center on base.)

So what's the consensus? For a quick and easy demonstration, would ten-foot length of wire in a straight line be sufficient for a temporary basis? I get that it may not have the sensitivity of 100-feet. Would going longer make an appreciable difference? Obviously with AM, directionality matters and I suppose a 10-foot wire would be easier to experiment with and direct than a super long one. May have the advantage of less noise from transmission lines there as well.

Best wishes,
Roy