02-04-2018, 03:08 PM
Another update! Radio is almost finished and is working well. Turns out that a lot of the buzzing was being caused by my using a battery charger instead of a battery (whoops!). I hooked up a 6 volt car battery and that took care of most of the noise. I was still having problems with my B+ voltages being too low until I found out that I either have a defective solid state vibrator or this set just doesn't like using one. I ended up opening up the old vibrator and cleaning the contacts and rewiring the leads and with the old unit installed in the radio the B+ voltages went to normal. Well, I say normal as in it depends on what schematic you use! I was referencing the voltage table from the SAMS Schematic I sent for and according to them my voltages were still low. I then too a close look at the Philco C4608 schematic I downloaded from Nostalgiaair and that schematic listed the voltages I was reading on my meter !!!!! Anyway, I did an alignment and put it back together. I installed a repro dial glass from Radio Daze and I just wanted to say that is a BEAUTIFUL reproduction!! They did an excellent job on it. Another neat feature about this radio is that there is tone control that changes the color of the dial light depending on what tone setting you use. There is a little color cylinder like what they used in old jukeboxes that slips over the dial light, so when you rotate the tone control it rotates the cylinder and changes the colors. It's really pretty in the dark! The original color sheet was in bad shape but I was able to make a replacement using some left over color gels I had from an old jukebox project. I only have one last question that I hope someone can tell me about. I would like to set the button presets but there are no instructions on how to do it. I know you remove the metal button cover and there is an adjusting wheel that you turn to set the station. But, my question is- do the buttons correspond to the dial scale i.e. lowest button being for the 550Khz and then preceding up to the top which would be the 1600Khz end. If anyone has the answer, please let me know! Thanks!!
Kevin
Kevin