Alba TR9874?

[mark pirate]

Details of the Alba band three adaptor can be found in the 1955/56 Radio and Television servicing book. The circuit diagram appears on page 243.

Thanks David, I will have a read of this as I have that volume.
I will remove the radio chassis this afternoon. Although it is an AC/DC design it has a Gram input, but it is not bought out to sockets on the rear of the set.

Mark

[FERNSEH]

Hi Mark,
From the 1955/56 R & T servicing book. Information for the Alba Band 3 adaptor. Note the method of injecting the IF output from the converter into the receiver's IF amplifier. Also the switching of the heater supplies to the tuner valves.

DFWB.

[mark pirate]

Hi David, It is an odd design, but once tuned to band III you can just flick the switch to receive band 1 again.

Today I removed the radio chassis for a once over and to re-string the tuner.
The original cord had disintegrated and was draped over the front of the chassis. It was quite straightforward to re-string, luckily the tension spring was still attached to the old cord.

I oiled the guide wheels and refitted the dial pointer. The once white card dial backing had warped and gone brown and split around the fixing screws.
This was discarded in favour of a white plastic one saved from a scrap radiogram chassis.

Both the dial bulbs were fine and clear, so were retained.
After removing the wooden shelf from the bottom, I could see that my suspicions were correct. It had been recapped
There was still one wax cap (tone corrector), this was replaced as a matter of course.

The chassis was given a good clean up, as were the valves.

I also noted that two new valves had been fitted, probably why the radio was performing so well!
The tone and wavechange switches were given a good squirt if switch cleaner, as was the volume pot. this also needed the shaft filing down a bit as the volume knob was standing proud beforehand.

It was interesting to note that the radio has it's own output transformer, I had thought it was shared with the TV.
I found a date of Nov 1952 on the smoothing cap, so am pretty sure it is a 1953 model.

I suspect this chassis was also used in a table radio, interesting to note that the chassis was designed for either octal or loctal valves.
You can see the aluminium adaptor plates under the valve holders.

The radio chassis was reinstalled and tested, the dial certainly looks a lot better for replacing the backing. The controls are much smoother in operation now, and no more crackling from the wavechange switch!

Mark

[FERNSEH]

That's a nice tidy job you've done to the dial backing. I notice the B8A base valveholders are mounted on my favourite device, adaptor plates. The chassis metalwork was designed for octal or loctal valves. Some Bush radio were made like that.

DFWB.

[mark pirate]

Hi David, I was lucky with the dial backing replacement, it was just long enough to be held in place by the original fixings with larger washers.

I would guess that Alba were using up old chassis, hence the adaptors for the newer B8A holders.

Today's task is to spruce up the cabinet, there are a fair few dings and scratches, mainly on top.

I have already cleaned and T-cutted the doors, they now have a lovely deep shine to them.

It is a large cabinet, so a lot of elbow grease will be needed!
Once it is all cleaned and T-cutted, I will go over the various scratches with a furniture pen followed by some Topps scratch cover.

I will post the results this evening.

Mark

[mark pirate]

Sprucing up the cabinet was more of a challenge than I bargained for!
I finally finished it this afternoon.

I started with the worst part, the top. This was quite dull and covered in scratches and multiple paint spots from careless decorating

I used car rubbing compound, followed by T-cut. This gave a lovely deep shine that made the rest of the cabinet look dull.

So in the end I T-cutted the entire cabinet. Which was quite exhausting due to being such a large area but the results were worth the effort. I went over the cabinet the next day with white spirit to remove the dried compound that had filled the scratches and crevices, then spent a fair bit of time with a furniture pen, this worked well and was a good match.

I then gave the whole cabinet a good going over with Topps scratch cover and left it a couple of hours before wiping it off and giving it a good wax polish.

I am very pleased with the outcome, it really has bought out the beauty of the veneer.

It will now have pride of place in the lounge
The Pye D18T will now be moved in to the dining room to make way for this massive beast.

Mark

[FERNSEH]

Hi Mark,
All your have efforts paid off, that's one classy looking set. I did have the TV radiogram version of the set, a huge thing. I passed it on to another collector. I've no idea if it is still in existence.

DFWB.

[mark pirate]

Hi David, It is certainly an imposing set. It must have been expensive when new.
I can imagine that the Radiogram version was very impressive, this set does have a gram socket.
I will make up a flying lead to make use of it, I don't know why there were no sockets for it fitted to the back?

I think this is a pretty rare set, I have never seen another.

Mark

[FERNSEH]

Perhaps because the set has a "live" chassis the designer was reluctant to fit gram sockets. Both the TV and radio chassis employ that technique.

DFWB.

[MonochromeMarc]

Mark very well done indeed, your patience has paid off wonderfully, it really looks outstanding.
It must look fantastic in your room.
Top job !

Cheers,
Marc.

[mark pirate]

Hi Marc, yes it does look good, but will have to get used to it's size
It is 3ft 5" tall and nearly 2ft deep, so does tend to dominate the room!

I now have to find room to put the Marconiphone radiogram that came free with the set, it is currently in my neighbours garage, as mine is full

Mark

[julie_m]

Originally Posted by mark pirate

I can imagine that the Radiogram version was very impressive, this set does have a gram socket.
I will make up a flying lead to make use of it, I don't know why there were no sockets for it fitted to the back?

Originally Posted by FERNSEH

Perhaps because the set has a "live" chassis the designer was reluctant to fit gram sockets. Both the TV and radio chassis employ that technique.

My thoughts exactly.

You could use an isolating transformer with a low-impedance source, or class Y rated capacitors with a high-impedance source. An old speaker transformer will have a step-up action and give you a bit of a gain boost -- essential if it was expecting to be fed from something like a TC8H, when most phone / MP3 headphone outlets don't put out much voltage. Old PC modem cards or external modems can also supply transformers that might be suitable, but they may have limited HF response (a phone line is hard-limited to 4 kHz anyway, so there's no need for it to let anything higher through).

It's certainly a beautiful set, and it would be a shame not to make use of its loudspeaker.

[MonochromeMarc]

Originally Posted by mark pirate

Will have to get used to it's size.
It is 3ft 5" tall and nearly 2ft deep, so does tend to dominate the room!

Hi Mark,

I didn't realise it was quite that large, it's about as big as my Decca 111.
Still looks great though

Marc.

[mark pirate]

It's certainly a beautiful set, and it would be a shame not to make use of its loudspeaker.

As regards to using the gram inputs, problem solved
I remembered I had this little HMV deck designed to be used via a radio, it needs a good service but is essentially working.
It is also from the same era as the Alba.

The strange flip over cartridge is fine, if a little heavy.
I needed to clean the idler and put a drop of oil on the speed change to get it playing.
It is certainly loud enough when played through the Alba!

I intend to use this to play my 78's, but for testing I used a very warped 45.

I didn't realise it was quite that large, it's about as big as my Decca 111.
Still looks great though

It is even larger with the record player on top!

Mark