03-11-2026, 09:35 PM
Welcome!
Now, your first mistake was powering the radio up.
Rule #1 of teh radio restoration: do not power an unknown radio up. You do not know if thera shorted wires, shorted tubes, shorted capacitors. You are in fact lucky it did ot go up in flames.
Restoration takes patience and time.
Otherwise any 5-year-old would be able to fo it.
Rile #2 (well, I am improvising here, but I kinda followed it when I started. And I am pro EE). Having no experience, find he / a forum that has people who do that stuff and ask.
Then some one would at least give you this link
https://www.nostalgiaair.org/pdfs/Philco...40-120.pdf
and you would kill two cats with one dawg: 1) you would not have to spend a couple of days drawing the diagram, and 2) you would become aware of what Riders / Nostalgiaair.org is. They will have most of the schematics you will ever need.
Now. I would strongly advise to not powering this radio up until you
- Check the power transformer. For this, remove all tubes, disconnect bad wiring, and make sure your transformer works.
- Rewire. All bad wiring has to go. Some advice: don't remove wiring and then use the circuit diagram, which could have mistakes. Remove wires one by one, replacing as you go.
- Recap. All capacitors other than mica and trimmers/padders have to go. Whether you decide to replace or restuff - up to you, but do not proceed until done with the full recap.
- Check all resistors, replace thos that are close or outside 20% of the declared value.
- Check all tubes, preferably not just for emissions. Also for shorts. And, if possible - for mutual conductance.
- Replace the cord.
- Check for shorts at the power supply before installing the tubes.
Once done with all this, you could start powering up. Some people use dim bulb, I am a staunch opponent of this and recommend Variacs.
Now, your first mistake was powering the radio up.
Rule #1 of teh radio restoration: do not power an unknown radio up. You do not know if thera shorted wires, shorted tubes, shorted capacitors. You are in fact lucky it did ot go up in flames.
Restoration takes patience and time.
Otherwise any 5-year-old would be able to fo it.
Rile #2 (well, I am improvising here, but I kinda followed it when I started. And I am pro EE). Having no experience, find he / a forum that has people who do that stuff and ask.
Then some one would at least give you this link
https://www.nostalgiaair.org/pdfs/Philco...40-120.pdf
and you would kill two cats with one dawg: 1) you would not have to spend a couple of days drawing the diagram, and 2) you would become aware of what Riders / Nostalgiaair.org is. They will have most of the schematics you will ever need.
Now. I would strongly advise to not powering this radio up until you
- Check the power transformer. For this, remove all tubes, disconnect bad wiring, and make sure your transformer works.
- Rewire. All bad wiring has to go. Some advice: don't remove wiring and then use the circuit diagram, which could have mistakes. Remove wires one by one, replacing as you go.
- Recap. All capacitors other than mica and trimmers/padders have to go. Whether you decide to replace or restuff - up to you, but do not proceed until done with the full recap.
- Check all resistors, replace thos that are close or outside 20% of the declared value.
- Check all tubes, preferably not just for emissions. Also for shorts. And, if possible - for mutual conductance.
- Replace the cord.
- Check for shorts at the power supply before installing the tubes.
Once done with all this, you could start powering up. Some people use dim bulb, I am a staunch opponent of this and recommend Variacs.
People who do not drink, do not smoke, do not eat red meat will one day feel really stupid lying there and dying from nothing.
![[-]](https://philcoradio.com/phorum/images/bootbb/collapse.png "[-]")
