08-18-2015, 01:34 PM
Chuck Schwark's Philco Repair Bench page has an advert on the resources page for a guy who makes repro leather handles for the 46-350. No link, but it says, "Email: Wayne Thompson at state108us@yahoo.com for price and information."
The handle won't be a snap to replace. You'll have to take out the loop antenna to get access to the fasteners for the handle end caps. I've never done it. Maybe it's easier than it looks.
That is a good performing radio. I keep mine tuned to 620 WDNC to listen to Durham Bulls baseball in the summer. It's such a weak station that some of my radios can't hear it at all, but the 46-350 doesn't seem to care.
I'm pretty sure the voltage divider referred to above is R100A, B, and C in the Philco documentation. I think the Rider's schematic uses designators R-11 and R-13, but my Riders schematic is such a poor scan I can barely read it that part of it. It's a candohm power resistor if I remember right. It looks like a metal terminal strip riveted to the chassis. Inside is a strip of ceramic wrapped with fine resistor wires. The Philco service info calls the resistor values 60, 875, and 875 ohms. I think Riders says 65, 900, and 900, but it's hard to read.
I had to replace the candohm with discrete resistors. I think this is the one on which I cleaned out all the tiny resistive wires thoroughly with a sharp object and then used the remaining candohm as a terminal strip. I calculated the power requirement for each section and put one-watt resistors in series to get the resistance and power dissipation required. It's not very pretty, but since each resistor stands well away from the others, they dissipate the heat pretty well.
Now I operate it mostly on battery power, made from a dead battery that I found on eBay. When switched to battery power, the rectifier is cut out of the circuit, making the warm-up time about 1 second instead of the 20 or 25 with it plugged into the wall.
Chuck Schwark has the Philco service documentation. http://www.philcorepairbench.com/schematics.htm Well worth it IMHO.
These radios are also famous for open output transformers. The 3Q5 output tubes don't last forever either. The good news is the last 3Q5 I bought was only $3.50 or so from AES.
The handle won't be a snap to replace. You'll have to take out the loop antenna to get access to the fasteners for the handle end caps. I've never done it. Maybe it's easier than it looks.
That is a good performing radio. I keep mine tuned to 620 WDNC to listen to Durham Bulls baseball in the summer. It's such a weak station that some of my radios can't hear it at all, but the 46-350 doesn't seem to care.
I'm pretty sure the voltage divider referred to above is R100A, B, and C in the Philco documentation. I think the Rider's schematic uses designators R-11 and R-13, but my Riders schematic is such a poor scan I can barely read it that part of it. It's a candohm power resistor if I remember right. It looks like a metal terminal strip riveted to the chassis. Inside is a strip of ceramic wrapped with fine resistor wires. The Philco service info calls the resistor values 60, 875, and 875 ohms. I think Riders says 65, 900, and 900, but it's hard to read.
I had to replace the candohm with discrete resistors. I think this is the one on which I cleaned out all the tiny resistive wires thoroughly with a sharp object and then used the remaining candohm as a terminal strip. I calculated the power requirement for each section and put one-watt resistors in series to get the resistance and power dissipation required. It's not very pretty, but since each resistor stands well away from the others, they dissipate the heat pretty well.
Now I operate it mostly on battery power, made from a dead battery that I found on eBay. When switched to battery power, the rectifier is cut out of the circuit, making the warm-up time about 1 second instead of the 20 or 25 with it plugged into the wall.
Chuck Schwark has the Philco service documentation. http://www.philcorepairbench.com/schematics.htm Well worth it IMHO.
These radios are also famous for open output transformers. The 3Q5 output tubes don't last forever either. The good news is the last 3Q5 I bought was only $3.50 or so from AES.
John Honeycutt
