[Gene Pederson]

Found this on CL the other day. Called and set up an appointment for today. It was about 2 hrs away, but I am very happy! An Airline MOVIE DIAL 13 tubes with motorized tuning and a 12" speaker. This was another of my "holy grail" sets.

I scratched the case getting it out of the car........but it will work out ok. It has two broken buttons. I have one of them and the other may be inside the chassis somewhere as this is where the previous owner found one.

The radio was bought brand new by the owner's grandfather and has been moved only once since it was purchased. The purchase price was $150 and I think I got a really good deal!
I am a VERY HAPPY CAMPER!!!

[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345.../movie.jpg]
[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345...efront.jpg]
[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345...ieback.jpg]
[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345...grille.jpg]
[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345...iespkr.jpg]
[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345...epaper.jpg]
[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345...hassis.jpg]
[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345...vietag.jpg]
[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345...erside.jpg]
[Image: http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345...elside.jpg]

[murf]

Sweet.
Nice find.

[Eliot Ness]

That is really nice Gene. I always thought the Movie Dial sets were pretty cool but far too often stuck in a plain cabinet. Yours has a nice cabinet, a very cool escutcheon, 13 tubes, and motorized tuning. Congratulations, a very nice score indeed!

[codefox1]

Nice.

[Jayce]

Very nice find. Never have seen one in such a nice cabinet and never knew they had motor tuning on some of them. With those 6L6's, it should have some good sound!

[Doug Houston]

This set was well worth going after. It's the top of the Ward's movie dial sets. Notice the "WG 24", on the tube location card. It is the model number of Wells-Gardner; the manufacturer.

W-G made a lot of models for Ward's, and they were the best sets that Ward's sold. I have the W-G 16 tube chromium set, made as the Ward's Airline. Really fine stuff! The 1936 models with the round dial, were sort of the peak year for them.

[TA Forbes]

Agree about the WG sets. Also made some nice chassis for Truetone and Coronado.

Your Movie Dial set should be an outstanding radio. Two 6L6s and 20 watts to play with.

Color me impressed!

[Joe Rossi]

Gene, The chassis looks to be in sweet shape. Congrats! Joe

[PhilcoMike]

You gotta love the well done brown paint on the chassis and IF cans....

Thanks,

Mike

[Gene Pederson]

Thanks for the nice comments guys!

This should be an interesting set to work on. Quite a complex motorized tuning section (as long as I don't screw it up). The chassis paint is almost like brand new. I believe from the tags that were inside the cabinet it was originally in Amesbury, Ma and then moved to Dover, NH, which is where I got it. The fellow I bought it from is 68 and his father is going to be 102!

I really like the look of it and have all winter to work on it. I had just decided that I didn't need anymore radios until I get through the ones I already have.........and then I saw this one.........Tis a sad thing to be afflicted with this radio disease

Gene

[Paul Philco322]

Wells Gardner stuff rocks, they are still in business I believe making gambling machines for casinos. She will sound sweet.

Paul

[Arran]

The service info says 20 watts undistorted power output, 30 watts maximum, looks like when Wells Gardner designed a set with a pair of push pull 6L6s they actually built a power supply with enough grunt to run them at their full potential. Some companies, like brand Z, would use 6L6s in their sets just as a marketing gimmick, but then would only run the plate and screens at a paltry 220-240 volts so they were really acting as a pair of glorified 6F6 tubes. But aside from the power output stage the front end of the radio doesn't look to be a slouch either, it has a tuned RF amplifier stage, a separate mixer and oscillator, and two IF amplifier stages, add a BFO and it would make a decent communications receiver.
With regard to the motor drive I've never seen a setup like this before, on most of of my motorized dial radios the drive motor runs at 24 volts not 117, the way the stations are programed is through a rotating disk and a series of spring loaded contacts. So you push a button, the electrical circuit between the 24 volts and the motor is closed, and the motor keeps rotating the disk until the contact for the station you selected hits the insulated gap between the two sections of the selector disk and breaks contact.
The system this Airline uses looks much more complicated mechanically as opposed to electrically, but at least the service info has three pages of instructions explaining how it works and how to set it up. The way it seems to work is there is a series of selector disks that each have an adjustable pawl that you set to a station, the button is pressed, the motor starts, and the selector disk moves until that pawl hits a lever which engages a switch that shuts the motor off and stops the mechanism, hopefully on the right station. Apparently they even had seven tube Airline models with this motor drive system. By the way, if you don't like working on record changers you will hate this device.
Regards
Arran