[Arran]

My Philco A-801 was built for the 1942 Desoto, which was of course not built because of the war, so the set was put into an end table. It's a transformer set, which of course originally it was a battery set. Anyway, I can get good reception and plenty of volume with the preset buttons (tuned into appropriate local signals, of course) but the "dial" button does not work! I tried shooting the sliding contacts with contact cleaner, but to no avail. It gets extremely faint volume. Any ideas?

I recapped it but, I'm using the original electrolytic can, also. It doesn't get hot, so I think the little tin can filled with boric acid will work just fine. There is no hum when the set is on. The guy who rebuilt my 1946 television swears by original electrolytic cans, if they still work.

Damon
St. Louis, MO

That original electrolytic condenser should be replaced, by the 1940s the industry had changed over to dry electrolytics but I would not trust one that old. Low volume can be caused by a multitude of defects the first to check would be a wiring error from replacing the paper condensers, the next would be a bad plate resistor on the first audio tube. A misalignment of the IF, RF, antenna and oscillator adjustments can also cause low volume, or a open coil as someone mentioned. I would check the continuity off all of the coils, and check several of the plate resistors in the other stages of the set, a leaky condenser can overload a resistor causing it to drift upward in value or even go open. Oh, and test the tubes as well, someone may have run the set into the ground before putting it in storage.
Best Regards
Arran