[Ron Ramirez]

Ed

Great topic idea!

You may (or may not) know that the 38-116 Code 121 and 38-690 Code 121 use the same RF unit as the 37-116, 37-675 and 37-690. I suspect Philco had several of these RF units left over, and used them up in early production of the 38-116 and 38-690.

In fact, it seems that I read somewhere that they did do this on purpose, to use up excess stock, but now I do not remember where I read it...if I did, that is.

Anyway, what I will call the 1937 RF unit only has, as you said, a three gang tuning condenser but has a multitude of trimmer/padder adjustments, to allow for more precise alignment on all five bands. The 1938 RF unit (Code 125) has significantly fewer trimmer adjustments. Easier to align...but may not be as precise as the 1937 RF unit.

And, yes, the 1938 RF unit does have the dual gang tuning condensers in which only the smaller sections of the gangs are used on the higher SW bands.

I no longer own any of these models, so I can't do the side-by-side analysis. So...we're relying on you, Ed.