[ducretet]

Buenos días,
Una de las dificultades para restaurar las radios Philco de la primera mitad de la década de 1930 son los cables de altavoces tricolores.
¡No hay forma de encontrar los cables apropiados para reemplazar el viejo roto!
Pregunté por Radio Daze y Old Radio Parts sin resultados positivos. En España nada en absoluto !!!!
Agradecería que alguien me dijera dónde encontrar estos cables.
Gracias ................!!!!!!

[ducretet]

Good Morning,
One of the difficulties in restoring the Philco radios of the first half of the 1930s is tricolor speaker cables.
There is no way to find the appropriate wires to replace the old broken one!
I asked about Radio Daze and Old Radio Parts without positive results. In Spain nothing at all !!!!
I would appreciate someone telling me where to find these cables.
Thank you ................!!!!!!

[Nathan Slingerland]

Hi Ferran!

Here is a thread where I describe my experience using wire created for reproduction automobile electrical systems:

https://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthrea...9#pid94099

I have used that wire on multiple sets now without issue.

-Nathan

[ducretet]

Thank you Nathan
I'll look......

[rfeenstra]

I have been using the same wire as Nathan.  In Nathan's thread, there was a lot of discussion about the wire only being rated at 50 volts.  For grins and giggles, I hooked up a piece to one side of the 600 volt AC output of my Scott 16, then took an un-insulated probe from the other side of the  secondary and ran it along the wire to see if I could get the insulation to break down.  I couldn't.  Not very scientific, I know, but it made me feel better about using the wire.

[ducretet]

Yes, I have seen the discussion. But, the problem is not in the volts. We all know that a high voltage passes through the three speaker wires (anode, screen grid). The problem of the thickness in a cable depends on the amperage that circulates through it. The amperage is not too high, so the cable does not have to be too thick.
The problem is finding cables that look aesthetically like the originals. And that is difficult .... !!!

[Steve D]

The gauge of the copper wire, which is proportional to the wire diameter, determines the current carrying rating which has nothing to do with voltage rating.. The wire insulation determines the voltage withstand rating. For a given gauge copper wire overall diameter of the insulated wire is determined by the insulation thickness. Different insulation materials have different voltage breakdown ratings so the voltage withstand rating of the insulation is not directly proportional to overall wire diameter. For example, for a given voltage rating, PVC insulated wire is thicker and thus larger in overall diameter than Teflon insulated wire of the same gauge.

Steve D

[rfeenstra]

So, I've been looking for a maypole braider so I can make my own wire.  Way too expensive, so back to using what's available.  Sometimes originality just has to go out the window.  Does anyone really know what the wire colors looked like originally?  They've all aged and faded.  You are correct, Ferran, amperage is low so 20 and 22 AWG will handle most situations (except I am working on a Scott Philly that feeds the filaments of 27 tubes through a 2' cable - that needs to be more like  16 AWG).  Almost all cloth covered wire today has too large an outside diameter.  Hence my desire to make my own.  Not possible unless a lot of people want to buy it!

[Radioroslyn]

Hi Ferran,
If you are looking for something that is matching the original I don't think there is anything that with match it. Best recollection is that you are looking for cloth covered wire in green, white/green, and white/blue. Short of getting some single color wire and painting a second on to it. I bought some white and painted with a green tracer and blue tracer. Wouldn't do it again as the white is too bright. Might use a light brown, yellow, or orange for the base color.
In the States there is a standard color code for these wires. Philco doesn't use this code. But it would be blue for the plate lead, red for the hv lead going to the bottom of the output transformer/field coil and yellow for the field coil connection. Some use just modern plastic covered wire.

GL

[morzh]

The time-appropriate is the next best after "looking authentic".