[regel_1999]

Hey Ron,

The loop antenna is disconnected. The wires were cut when I bought the radio, but all I'd need to do is reconnect it. I think all I touched was the inside of the chasis, but then, honestly, the oaf in me may have touched something else. I thought it was the chasis but I can't find any bad solders or bare wires in direct contact with the chasis. I also can't find any voltage on the chasis with the multimeter. No AC or DC. I don't really know what happened.

I also meant to say that rewire-ing the whole radio was something I'm NOT terribly confident I can do well. I'll try to dig out my camera and put some pictures up of what I have and I'll reconnect the antenna and see what happens. I haven't been shocked from the chasis since my last jolt (thumbs up) so maybe I just touched something else and thought it was the chasis. Yet another lesson learned. At least I've been smart enough to only touch the energized radio with one hand at a time, with the other hand behind my back. I guess I did learn something from that electricity lab in college.

Also, the 170vdc was directly from the wires that would go into the speakers. The schematic says it's the BC (broadcast coil, I think), directly from the speaker transformer. The speakers picked up the loud buzz too.

I just thought of something... if the speaker transformer was shorted could a high voltage be sent to the speaker and produce a steady voltage? Maybe a loud buzzing? It wouldn't produce 170vdc, but it could at least produce something pretty steady. How often do transformers go bad in these old sets?
... I just measured the resistance on the secondary winding. The secondary winding has infinite resistance (it should be about 0 ohms, right?) and between the black wire on the secondary side and the primary winding I had 0 ohms (indicating a short in the transformer, right). Does this mean I'm looking for a new transformer? Also, the primary winding read a resistance of ~280 ohms, per the schematic.

I'm in columbus, OH. I'm teaching Naval engineering and Weapons design to the Naval ROTC midshipmen at OSU and I'm hopefully going to get accepted into the electrical engineering program. I can work my way through transistors, but I don't know much about these old tubes... the technology of these tube radios is absolutely amazing. Much cooler than transistors. I'd definitely love to find someone who can help me bring this old radio back to life.

Ron, how'd you get so good at these radios? I'm thankful you and the rest of the radio hobbyists are good with these sets. Hopefully one day I'll be answering questions instead of leeching off you Thanks for your help.

-Brandon