[PAradiogeek]

I restored this radio about 2 years ago.  Over the past 6 months or so, I started noticing that after the radio was played for more than 30 minutes or so, all sound would sometimes cut out.  This didn't happen every time, but seemed to happen more and more as time progressed.  When this would happen, I found that giving the cabinet or the chassis a gentle rap would restore the sound.  It finally got bad enough that I decided to take a look underneath, assuming I had a bad solder connection somewhere.

Well I took it downstairs a few nights ago and played it (in cabinet) for almost 2 hours - played perfectly

The next night, removed the chassis from the cabinet, turned it upside down and turned it on again.  I started probing around with a plastic stick, touching wires and solder joints. - played perfectly .  After a couple of hours, I gave up for the evening.

So last night, I decided to give it another try.  I turned it on and started probing around again, still no luck. 

Then for no particular reason, I decided to take a look at the shadow meter, not because I suspected it was the problem, I just wanted to look at the deflection of the vane.  The shadow meter had been connected, but strewn off to the side while I had been probing in the chassis.  As soon as I started to move the shadow meter the sound cut out, just like it had been doing over the last several months.  I put it back where it had been, sound again

There seems to be an intermittent right were one of the wires from the chassis goes into the coil.  I used some glue that I had to try to hold the wire in place, thinking of adding some JB Weld to that to make a more stable fix.  Does that sound like a workable solution?

Anyway, I just wanted to post this in case anyone else ever had a similar problem.  I knew the shadow meter was required for operation, but I had never suspected it as the source of the intermittent.  Moral of the story: Check EVERYTHING!

Happy Holidays!