[Jayce]

I have been trying for years to get my hands on a little Zenith 6D311 table radio, but the prices have always been rediculous. Finally a gentleman I know decided to part with one of his since it was simply a white colored duplicate of the one he aready has on his display shelves. He had been wanting over $200 for one since they do seem to really jump on Ebay, but today he decided to make me a choice of package deals. The cheapest was the Zenith and a big GE console for $200. Well, I jumped for it and now finally have my Zenith I have been wanting for ages! Of course, I now have a GE model J-125 in need of some TLC and cabinet work. Hopefully it will turn out better than the RCA model 140 I finally gave up on and resold to a fellow collector and friend. Pictures will come soon.

[Jayce]

A little update. I decided to test both radios out on the bulb board today. The Zenith just gave me an an angry hum, but at least I got audio out of it. The GE came up on the bulbs and I actually got some scratchy sounds from the speaker with no hum, but the bulbs suddenly went all bright and the power chassis started making noises I didn't like. Bright bulbs=short! Cut power! I checked the underside of the power chassis and was surprised. This radio had been restored in recent years! I know the power transformer had been changed years ago, but this thing had been rebuilt under the chassis and the solder still looked like new. This could have very well been a working radio when the previous owner bought it and shoved it into his unheated back room he uses for storage. Hopefully this might bode well to get it going again. Speaker cone seems rather stiff though. I hope to get pictures tonight or tomorrow.

[Ron Ramirez]

Jayce

Congratulations on your acquisitions. Looking forward to the pictures! Good luck with that GE, hopefully the problem isn't too serious.

[Jayce]

And here are the pictures![attachment=2][attachment=1][attachment=0]

[Jayce]

Final two pictures for now:[attachment=1][attachment=0]

[Ron Ramirez]

That GE console looks neat. How many tubes does it have, spread across those two chassis?

Looks like your Zenith will look really nice with just a good, careful cleaning.

[BILL]

I restored a few years ago a 6D311 ,wrote an artical for ARC on it,you can find the artical on line ,type in Hulbert 6D311, I use this radio alot ,last night I lisend to "Drag Net and Fibber McGee and Molly" then "Coast to Coast" got the news in the morning . It's a fairly simple set but if you need any help feel free to drop me a line ,BILL

[Jayce]

That GE console looks neat. How many tubes does it have, spread across those two chassis?

Looks like your Zenith will look really nice with just a good, careful cleaning.

If I did my count right last night, the GE has 12 tubes grand total. Nine on the tuner chassis and three on the power chassis. It uses an 82 rectifier tube with two 46s in push-pull arrangement. A 'Class B' amplifier supposedly capable of 20 watts output. If that is true, that's alot for a circa 1932-33 radio!

[Jayce]

I restored a few years ago a 6D311 ,wrote an artical for ARC on it,you can find the artical on line ,type in Hulbert 6D311, I use this radio alot ,last night I lisend to "Drag Net and Fibber McGee and Molly" then "Coast to Coast" got the news in the morning . It's a fairly simple set but if you need any help feel free to drop me a line ,BILL

Thanks! I am just so happy to finally have one of these little guys after an 11-12 year hunt. I do have one question, what would be the best way to clean the cabinet since it is painted?

[BILL]

I'd start with dish washing soap I've soaked knobs over night in the soap they come clean very easy the next day , also use BRASO on the dial lenz,BILL

[Jayce]

Another update. The little Zenith is up and working now. I'll have to take it back apart for cleaning, but it's nice to hear this little radio speak. It ended up being one of 10 of my radios I brought back from a buddy and radio repairman's place the other night. What a marathon repair run!

[Radioroslyn]

A pair of 46's will make 20w. I have an early Ham transmitter with a pair in parallel and it will put out 20wts of rf. The 46 was the precursor to the 6L6G.

[Arran]

That GE console looks neat. How many tubes does it have, spread across those two chassis?

Looks like your Zenith will look really nice with just a good, careful cleaning.

If I did my count right last night, the GE has 12 tubes grand total. Nine on the tuner chassis and three on the power chassis. It uses an 82 rectifier tube with two 46s in push-pull arrangement. A 'Class B' amplifier supposedly capable of 20 watts output. If that is true, that's alot for a circa 1932-33 radio!

It really depends on how much B+ voltage they are getting at the plates and screen grids, they aren't beam power tubes they are heptodes, like a 47 with a grid missing, I have my doubts that any radio with single pair of push pull audio tubes could deliver 20 watts in 1932. That being said it should sound nice once everything is working right.
Best Regards
Arran

[Doug Houston]

That GE job is an RCA, and I believe, R-78. The tube sheets do indeed, say that you can squeeze 20 watts out of those jugs. In the 1932-1934 era, RCA was sweet on Class B. The set that our young pal has here was sold as RCA R-78, the GE J-125 (the first two digits are the tube count). It also appeared as RCA's RAE-84. I have both of the RCA versions.

In order to have a class B power amplifier, they needed a hard power supply. A class B power amplifier draws little or no current at no signal, but increasing current at high signal levels. Thus, the hard power supply. RCA dod it by using the type 82 rectifier. It looks just like an 80, but with mercury in it. One of the things you learned (well, I did) in senior year communications courses, was that when using a mercury vapor rectifier, the tube MUST be brought up to temperature first, before hitting it with the high voltage. RCA knew better, but put a mercury tube in that set, and had it come on, just the same as a high vacuum tube, like the 80. The 5Z3 hadn't been born that year; I don't believe.

I was working on one of those chassis once, and didn't want to put the 82 (2.5 Volt filament) in it until I was finished. Just for kicks, I put an 83 (5 Volt filament) in the socket. As soon as the 83 got warm, the mercury fired, and the set worked. This is unorthodox as the blazes, but it just shows to go you that, once the mercury ionizes, the rectifier is in business. Ihe voltage drop in a mercury rectifier is about 15 volts, and it won't change, short of destroying the tube. The 82 is shielded in this set because mercury rectifiers generate horrendous interference. In some cases, suppression of that hash isn't easy.

So, in the RAE-84 I have, which I bought from Fred Rice (Philaddelphia), he told me the gruesome story of that set. Someone had put a 1/4" bolt in the fuse holder. A drop of mercury had caused a short in the 82, as it warmed up. A filament-plate arc, and the power transformer tugged at it. That kept up until the transformer was literally ashes, the 82 had a big dimple in the glass, and the house fuse blew. So, whatever you do, fuse that hunker as the service notes say to!!!! They were not kidding. I still have what's left of the transformer. Fred still has the tube.

[Jayce]

Eek! Thanks for the warning, Doug. I'll have to see if it even still has a fuse left in it by the previous restoration. I don't need that happening!