[morzh]

I am on the fence about restoring this 38-14 I got during the last Kutztown.

http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByModel...013238.pdf

I paid maybe $15 for it. A fairly durty backelite case, but the chassis is clean enough.
This will require lots of cleaning, especially the case.
No original caps, the tubulars all were replaced by the black beauties; the electrolytics are paper-cartridge axials.

Now the question: I decided to check the speaker first. The transformer is good, the cone is good, the FC is 23 kOhm. According to the sch it is 3 kOhm.
It is not open, it is 23K. I cannot imagine the failure of a wirewound coil where it does not get open, but develops 23K resistance.
The speaker seems to be original Philco; same cone assembly as in 38-12, and the FC looks the same, except the resistance value.
The coil in 38-14 is in parallel to the first rectifier cap and is not used as the filter; they have a separate choke for it. So, naturally, it is expected to be a higher resistance than in the 38-12 (3K vs 1.5K). But 23K?

So, my question is: has someone encounter this before and can 23 kOhm FC resistance be legit? If not, at this point starting this radio makes little sense for me.

PS> I thought, why not check my old idea of mounting a strong RE magnet to the centerpole and replace the FC as the magnet (it is not being utilized as the filter). Well, tomorrow is another day.

[morzh]

Well, I climbed down off of that fence and decided to proceed with restoration.
I did experiment with the speaker.
I never did that before.
I fed 10V AC (from the Isol. xfmer and Variac) to the outnput xfmer, and heard the hum.
Then I connected a 9V battery across that coil and the hum increased a bit.
Putting a Neodimium magnet inside the VC did not change the percepted loudness.

Anywho, I also found a 38-12 speaker with half cone in my stash. I might get it re-coned.
Or I might hunt down a 38-14 speaker. I have seen one listed as 38-12 one, but somehow sith the FC resistance of 2.5K, which tells me it might be 38-14 one. It is on that Play THings of the Past site, so this is why I was asking about it.


So. The radio was repaired before, and it was in 50s, because the parts (Black beauty and some other non-Philco tubulars) are mostly not original. The elctrolytics are also tubuilars: the originals were removed and discarded.
Because of that, after making sure all RF coils (other than the IF; I did not check it, never do), I decided to proceed with the restoration, but with a lighter version of it: I will be replaacing the parts directly, without trying to restuff and such. The reason is, I would have to find all original things, and I am not sure I want to do this. So, the radio will be flaunting bright yellow caps inside, should someone ever be interested enough to look there. As well as the aluminum radial Panasonic electrolytic caps.

Most resistors seem good as they are. All tubes are good and strong.
Maybe in Kutztown I might be able to get another junker with a good speaker.
Plus there is auction in Oct in my town; who knows what that might offer....

To be continued.