At long last, it is aligned! I’ve uploaded a couple of new videos to YouTube to demonstrate. YouTube picked up on Hall and Oates playing on KTSO when I recorded FM, so it has alerted me that this video may not be available to everyone around the world. Apologies if the video doesn’t play in your area. I figured a fifteen-second demonstration would be okay, but I guess there’s limitations to recording music.
It is starting to get nice on LI also. However, this week is a total wipeout. I am in a really good Catholic Church choir (one would figure that after 62 years singing in church, I would get good at it, but it hasn't happened) and work in the parish food pantry, so I have been in church all week. With the "Triduum" (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter) coming up, I will be in church every night including Sunday for 2 Masses. (I am in the handbell choir also.)
Starting next week, I have to clean up, seed and fertilize the lawn, fix various leaks on Ms. Fixr's 2000 Explorer and replace the rear strut / spring assemblies on my 03 Taurus before something important falls off the car. Throw in anything else that my landscaper neighbor breaks (like a front wheel bearing on his truck 2 weeks ago) and I may see an antique radio in about 2 months. Problem is that at 70 (next week), having arthritis and being "fluffy", this all takes time.
"Do Justly, love Mercy and walk humbly with your God"- Micah 6:8
"Let us begin to do good"- St. Francis
I've run the radio for a couple of hours today, and all is well. It's a remarkable sounding radio! I'll go ahead and upload all of my finalized documentation here. Attached are the completed Rev 1 schematic (no further changes since the last I noted), a list of all the new resistor part numbers, and a list of all the new capacitor part numbers. Hopefully these help someone down the road!
I figured that the video demonstration of the assembled radio belonged better in my original article about taking a road trip to buy the radio than it did either in this electrical restoration thread or in my other cabinet restoration thread. Y'all can navigate to that one for a link to the video on YouTube. It's a six-minute video this time, and I show off the cabinet and test it out in real time.
@ Joseph, get off the porch and run with the dogs. You fixed one, grab another. @ Morzh, I think that we are the same ones. The insane ones throw out history and family heirlooms instead of engaging in a hobby that sharpens skills and is relatively inexpensive (unless you want A-K 10s, Westinghouse RA-DAs or RCs, Radiola IIs, crystal sets, RCA 128s, Philco Predictas, etc.), but, hey, it's still cheaper than boats (B.O.A.T = Bust Out Another Thousand) collectible cars, in ground swimming pools, etc.
"Do Justly, love Mercy and walk humbly with your God"- Micah 6:8
"Let us begin to do good"- St. Francis
Haha, thank you sir! I’ve been eyeballing a 47-1230 console for sale over north of Bentonville, Arkansas for a while. Pretty similar to mine but with a record player. But where can I conceal another console in my house? I’ve also seen a 49-909, which was one of three AM/FM sets from the 1949 model year. It also features a power transformer, so I imagine it’s a pretty nice set.
Or, who knows? Maybe I’ll get a prewar set! I do love the look of the so-called “shouldered” tombstones, but they seem to command a high price.
Lastly, I do have that nasty 48-482 in my attic. But it’s really just so gross and coated in a goopy syrup of smoke resin and dust. I’ve also slowly been robbing it of minor parts. Maybe I’ll drum up the courage to tackle it. It’s local to Tulsa (the chassis and interior of the cabinet are stamped to indicate that the set was sold in 1950 from a former shop here in Tulsa). That would be a neat bit of history to restore. I saw it on eBay, and it caught my eye because I saw a preset button marked KOMA. Nowadays KOMA is an FM station (92.5 MHz, broadcast out of Oklahoma City), but it used to be an AM station long ago. I imagine it could have been received here during the night time when AM stations increased their broadcasting power.
hello jrblasde ,
your radio sounds great well done !!
I bought like 20 years ago a Philco 610b that someone had painted with latex paint and even the knobs .
the chassis was the first thing to restore and then with the help of some the forum members I restored the cabinet and finish .
Well MrFixr55,
It sounds like you too have been busy and today I toook the day off to get my glasses ordered and came home to work in the yard it was in the 70s here today .
Don't laugh folks, I have not been above taking a chassis into the bathtub (when Ms. Fixr was out of the house), taping transformers, covering the holes in the IF can, scrubbing it with Fabuloso and hosing it with the Shower Massage. Of course, you must be sure that the set is fully dry before firing it up, but the recapping and possible rewiring will likely take enough time. (Remember, the manufacture of many parts involves water to begin with.) If in a rush, I would then take a blow dryer to it or use the oven at low temp. Grease and nicotine are as disgusting to me as rodent droppings (but rodent droppings are more dangerous). If there are rodent droppings, I break out the alcohol and 10 % bleach. In extreme cases, remove the transformers and coils and really hose the thing. You are likely buying a ground up rivets drilled out restoration then, but hey, look at what you have when done.
Plastic and Bakelite cabinets are easy. Disassemble and completely hose. Wood is a little more difficult. Alcohol, bleach, furniture polish and even heat if you are afraid of bacteria and viruses. If you can get the cabinet up to 250 degrees for several hours, that will kill almost anything (possibly the cabinet too, but you have to get the temp much higher for it to actually catch fire). I have not tried to heat a cabinet, but dry heat sterilization is practiced in the medical field.
I got this idea from one of the NRI Radio Course pamphlets on restoration after a flood, where they said that if the radio was flooded, you wouldn't hurt it more. They had an illustration of an oven built out of a cabinet and light bulbs to dry out flooded radios. I wish I could find the actual document.
"Do Justly, love Mercy and walk humbly with your God"- Micah 6:8
"Let us begin to do good"- St. Francis
I was a field engineer for a biomedical company for many years. Many was the time that I was driving home from NYC in the middle of the night. Not wanting to listen to the overnight Art Bell Area 51 National Examiner type shows that inhabited NY AM radio, I would hit the tune button attempting to "DX". I also did this as a kid while trying to hop up an AA5 with a long wire antenna (I am a trained professional nut job, do not try this at home). Of course, I could pick up the clear channel stations and non-clear channel high power beamed stations like CKLW but, especially at night and in the fall, I could pick up regional stations, even small ones from the deep south. I never got into sending reports and receiving acknowledgments from the stations, but I marveled at the range of a car radio with an antenna that is no way near 1/4 wave in length. However, my real joy in the 80s was WNEW 1130 AM's Big Band sound (Not to be confused with "The Music of Your Life" stations like WHLI 1100, a local station. WNEW ran programs with the original Intro music like Make Believe Ballroom, Jukebox Saturday Night and Milkman's Matinee. I loved my parents' music more than rock. Maybe this is part of my draw to old radios, but I grew up with this hobby.
"Do Justly, love Mercy and walk humbly with your God"- Micah 6:8
"Let us begin to do good"- St. Francis
Quite the interesting stories, sir! Somewhat reminds me of my first job out of school (not that I worked in a similar field). I was an audio video engineer, and we designed and commissioned systems for churches, conference rooms in offices and on military bases, etc. There was a lot of travel involved, and a lot of nights spent in hotels. It was hard on my wife and I. But one thing I felt I was missing out on was a hobby. I took up leather working, and would make things in the hotel room. I’d pack the tools and all in my suitcase. Same with woodworking—I had to stick to hand tools to keep the noise down, but once I made four feet out of oak for a dresser I was restoring. I’d throw down all of the towels on the floor to catch wood shavings, and then go outside after dark to wring them out!
I also enjoyed cooking in the hotel room. And, no, these weren’t rooms with kitchenettes. I bought an electric skillet pot. I cooked beef bourguignon, spaghetti, even biscuits! I traveled with it, and would put a plate, some silverware, and a chopping knife in the pot. Had to clean it all in the tiny bathroom sink!
I’ve also seen a 49-909, which was one of three AM/FM sets from the 1949 model year. It also features a power transformer, so I imagine it’s a pretty nice set.
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