[MrFixr55]

Hi Dan,

For now, regarding the volume control, you can use a 10K pot across the antenna terminals, either externally, or in place of the existing volume control. I'm a little surprised that it is a carbon type potentiometer, most of the volume controls of this type and vintage were wire wound.

Regarding the speaker, there were several iterations of the original dynamic loudspeakers, developed by GE engineers Rice and Kellogg. The first iteration had very little movement. The voice coil was centered in the field electromagnet by a dish-like metal device, cemented to the voice coil and screwed to the electromagnet pole. This certainly did not allow for much movement. The second iteration was known as the "spider", a device that looked like the insert used to play 45RPM records on a turntable. This device allowed much more movement of the cone but held it centered so it would not rub against the magnet pole, causing distortion. However, this device was rather flimsy. The third iteration was an external version of the spider, kind of a "leaf spring-like iteration. Finally, a corrugated external ring was used to center the voice coil and continues to this day.

I have repaired 2 Philco 20s and have two of my own. The ones I repaired had the first iteration with the hard centering device. One of mine had the 45RPM type spider; the other has a modern replacement speaker. My two sound quite similar. The two that I repaired having the "hard" device are loud but quite tinny sounding.

There are several companies / individuals who re-cone speakers. Ig you want to keep the radio original but improv ed, have the speaker repaired or re-coned using the more modern spiders.

Hope this helps.