[mhamby]

I recently acquired a Philco model 40-100 farm (battery) radio. The radio was in very good condition except the red on flag that shows up through a hole in the middle of the dial scale when the radio is turned on does not work.  There is a wire spring loaded linkage that goes down beside the volume control that should activate(raise) the flag by turning the on/off/volume control to the on position. I believe that there must be a missing part of some type that makes contact with the volume control shaft. I have not been able to find any information or picture as to how this feature works. If anyone could give me some information or photo as to how this works or if there is a work around to make this operate it would be greatly appreciated. I am assuming that if there is a missing part that it would probably be next to impossible to find a replacement. So maybe a work around may be possible?

Thanks,
Marion

[Arran]

Greetings;
I think I may have found a clue as to what is missing, from a search I made, there is a rear view of the chassis in the second photo on this page showing a stiff piece of wire connected to the flag/semaphore behind the dial, presumably that is what connects the volume control to the flag: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philco_40_100.html

According to the instruction book, scanned and posted in our own Philcoradio library, the wire piece is called a "Flag Arm Transfer Lever Assembly" though it does not show the part.

https://philcoradio.com/library/index.ph...tructions/

Anyhow have you removed the chassis from the cabinet yet, there is a chance that this piece may have fallen off in the back somewhere? If not it does not look like it would be too hard to replicate if someone could furnish a picture. I should also mention that Philcos in this era used a lot of rubber/gutta percha covered wire, and they may have used the same in the battery cables, if they look deteriorated in any way, especially where they enter the chassis, DO NOT attempt to power the set up. All that it takes is a short from the 90 volt B+ to the 1.4 volt filaments, and you will instantly need a new set of tubes.
Regards
Arran

[Arran]

Greetings;
Here is an update, I found a listing on fleabay for a similar chassis to yours, and it has a photo of what were were talking about:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/233614815322
I would not patronize this seller, I doubt whether the complete radio is worth his BIN price.
Regards
Arran

[mhamby]

Arran,
Thank you so much for your assistance and the link to the fleabay listing! They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case it is true. My radio has all the necessary flag parts except for the collar that is shown on the on/off, volume control. The missing part(collar) must be what is called on the parts list the flag cam assembly. I have a suspicion that the volume control may have been replaced so who knows what may have happened to the cam assembly. Probably the only chance of getting a replacement is finding someone who is parting out or selling for parts a similar Philco radio. If you have any ideas were I might obtain this part please let me know. I am certainly not interested in the fleabay listing at the asking price plus shipping.

Once again thanks so much for your help.
All the best
Marion

[Arran]

Marion;
Replacing volume controls was something some service shops did in years gone by to make a little extra profit, and it's been a thorn in my side for years. Often the original control likely had nothing wrong with it other then being dirty, but replacing them made more money then simply cleaning them with some spray. It's a thorn in my side because they often did a crude job of replacing the control, or used one of those horrid controls with a "one size fits all" splined shaft. Most of the controls I have to replace are because some shop did a bodge job, of the original controls I have encountered only maybe two or three were defective, aside from the power switch.
Does it look like someone changed the control, such as the wiring looks like it was disturbed? It's odd that someone would have gone to the trouble of replacing one on a battery radio, after post war electrification many of these old sets were simply retired and replaced with a five tube AC/DC set, only the odd one had a battery eliminator fitted. It's no unusual to find one that still has all of the original tubes, capacitors, and resistors still in place, and they often still work if you power them up, barring things like a defective battery cable, or grid cap leads. If you plan on using one of these sets on a regular basis they will probably need the capacitors replaced, at least in the audio amplifier section.
Regards
Arran

[MrFixr55]

You may be able to make the part out of wood. The particular vendor has a habit of disassembling radios and selling the cabinet, speaker and chassis separately at rather high "buy it now" prices. His stuff, his right, but I have never bought off him. I do not believe that the tubes on the vendors 'chassis are original. The originals should be Philco branded, manufactured by Sylvania and be the tall versions with Bakelite bases, not the shorter metal and wafer bases. (Sylvania released these tubes in 1938, spawning the portable radio.

Yu can run this radio on a 1.5V alkaline D cell for the filaments and ten 9V batteries in series. If you want to pay for long hours, build a 90 V battery eliminator. Personally, I would keep running the filaments off a dry cell, as it is rather difficult to build a stable 1.5V supply.

[mhamby]

Arran,
I just can't tell if the volume control has been replaced. The control has a brass shaft with one half flat for the knob to fit. I can not imagine why the cam assembly is missing unless the vol. control has been replaced. Underneath the chassis was very clean. Insulation on some of the wiring is bad so it will need to be replaced as well as the battery power cord. I believe that one of the capacitors has been replaced and two of the resistors are the newer style carbon, not sure when the newer style came into general use. Even if these parts were changed it may have been around 70 to 75 years ago. Two of the tubes were Philco and two were RCA. The topside of the chassis was very dirty but cleaned up okay. The cabinet was in very good condition, no loose veneer, cracks, original finish and grille cloth, clear dial cover although it had two cracks(I have a new reproduction ordered), knobs and pushbuttons were in good condition. Overall I though it was in very good to excellent condition considering it was 85 years old. Because of the station pushbutton labels I believe it probably came from somewhere around the Missouri/Iowa border. I did some temporary repairs to the battery power cord and used my spare power supply and the radio worked fine although it really liked a good ground.
All the best,
Marion

[Arran]

Marion;
By "newer style" carbon resistors do you mean the molded type with coloured bands rather then the BED or Body-End-Dot code? The molded types with the bands came out in the late 1930s so they are likely original to the radio, or vintage replacements, but give that these sets ran on low voltage, and low currents, they likely would not go bad in service, though they may or may not have drifted by now. One thing that can happen is that there is sometimes a resistor between the B- and the chassis, and if the polarity is reversed that resistor can burn up.
I have a soft spot for tube battery sets, when I was in junior high, and high school back in Alberta they were among the most affordable radios to a teenager without load of money to spend. Unlike the U.S there wasn't really a grand electrification plan by the federal government, it took place piecemeal, and some remote communities were not electrified until the 1960s, so the Eaton's catalogue was still offering table model tube battery sets until 1957-58. Where I am now there are still islands that are not connected to the power grid, and some places on the mainland too, we are just South of Alaska so there is a lot of wilderness the further North you go.
Regards
Arran

[MrFixr55]

Arran, I restored 2 Canadian battery-crank telephones for a friend a while ago, a Northern Electric (Canadian version of Western Electric) and a CITCO phone.  The Northern Electric was completely hacked, but for the CIT unit, I left all original wiring in place, repaired the original carbon mic, added a modern network coil and DPDT microswitches to the switchhook, leaving all original stuff in place, and a switch to either put the ringer on the phone line or connect it to the crank.  All of this was easily removable to return to original condition.

You are so right, there was a large movement for rural electrification, starting with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and other Roosevelt Admin Depression Era projects.  Same with the phone system.  However, in my research on the CITCO, I found much information, including the fact that crank phones and party lines existed in rural Canada into the 60s and 70s.

Tube portables were built well into the late 1950s / early 60s in the US, but not 1.5V / 90V farm sets, essentially the same thing, just with a cabinet and a bigger (but not by much) speaker, as the power output of these 1.4V tubes (and the 3Q4) varied between 50 and 200 mW.

It is very interesting to note the variety of technologies used in farm sets.  Their use may have depended on the region.  Mechanized farms had a source of 6 Volt power, so 6 Volt farm sets which were very closely related to Auto sets in design and performance were popular.  Windmills such as the "WinCharger" were available.  Other farms that had 30 Volt or 32 Volt DC power plants for lighting used radios designed for 32V DC.  I would have to think that the battery sets were used on farms with little or no mechanization.  My 2 RCA 2V / 135 V radios could be used with disposable "Air Cell "or rechargeable lead acid "A batteries and 3 45V disposable B batteries, or could be used with a vibrator power supply and 6 V battery (2V for the filaments, 4V for the Vibrator B supply).  In this case, the vibrator supply could be bought and added if the farmer bought cars and tractors these radios had an 8" speaker and put out 2W of audio power.  Zenith sold sets that had 6VDC / 115VAC supplies for farms where electrification was anticipated.

Funny, I never found a farm Set that originated on Long Island.  I grew up with long Island, which was heavy with potato and duck farms until the 1940s where the "golden nematode", a potato parasite, and suburban sprawl (google "Levittown" killed potato and tomato farming.  I was born in 1955 as was my childhood home in East Northport, NY, the entire neighborhood of 10s of thousands of homes and several schools being built in the 1950s through the 1970s of the Rotcamp, Silberstein, Marmon and several other farms.  The lack of farm sets here was likely due to the fact that, in addition to the farming industries, Long Island was the "playground" of the Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Morgans, Theordore Roosevelt, etc. and was also home to Sperry, Grumman, Fairchild Republic, Curtis, Hazeltine and other aviation and defense contractors.  The Long Island Lighting Company was founded in 1911 to consolidate several already existing town-based electrical companies.  the Long island Railroad was founded in 1834.  It is likely that thi dual-use of Long Island that allowed for electrification before the radio age.

[Arran]

That was part pf what began my interest in tube battery radios, the variety of circuit designs, especially by Grimes-Phonola/Electrohome who manufactured private label radios for most of the catalog retailers like Eatons, Simpsons, and the Hudson's Bay Company, as well as MacLeod's Hardware. Even with the sets with 1.4 volt tubes there was more consideration in the front end designs, many had untuned RF amplifier stages, as well as extra IF amplifiers, so they were decent DX machines, audio was comparable to a transistor portable of the 1950s or 60s, and better then a transistor pocket radio.
Most of the other sets I had before were post war AC/DC sets, and other then the odd one having an RF amplifier stage, or a shortwave band, they were all similar, with similar problems. The majority also had boring Bakelite or plastic cabinets, but most of the battery sets had fancier wood ones, and were of a similar size. Every AC/DC set had power supply problems, filter caps were bad 90% of the time, dead pilot lamps, dead rectifiers, charred resistors, but I quickly discovered that I didn't have to deal with that with battery sets, all I needed was one or two working supplies of my own to get them going.
Also because I was mostly interested in pre war sets it was one way to acquire some on a budget, as most people did not want to bother with a set they could not just plug in. I guess the best part was that many were just put in a closet, and nobody tampered with them, if anyone wants to know what the underside of a typical radio looked like from then, these area good way to tell since they ran cool, and at lower voltages, so nothing get cooked in them.
Regards
Arran