[Ron Ramirez]

You may have read my posting in the 42-761EZ Chassis Restoration thread about how I tried a 120 volt LED as a dial lamp, with less than stellar results.

I not only bought a couple 120 volt LEDs from superbrightleds.com , I also bought two 6 volt, 4 LED miniature bayonet lamps to test in a couple Philco sets of mine.

The results with these were much better.

First, let's look at a 650 chassis with a conventional incandescent 55 lamp behind the dial:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...fe856c.jpg]

Looks fine, like a 650 dial should look, right?

Now, look at it with a 4-LED lamp replacement:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...49a92e.jpg]

Much brighter. With the LED lamp, you can tell this dial scale is a reproduction (made by me).

I had wondered aloud if an LED lamp would cause any noticeable RF interference. So, my next test was to put one of the LED lamps in my 610T that has a restored and working 630 chassis inside.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...b4e499.jpg]

Nice and bright. Since this set has its original dial scale, you really can't tell that the lamp is an LED - you don't see the very bright, cool white light, just a brighter dial.

I connected antenna and ground, and tuned it around on all three bands. It was no noisier than usual - the LED did not add any RF interference to the 630's reception.

So I can give the 4-LED replacement for the 55 lamp two thumbs up!