UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Help to identify old Philips valve radio. BIF 571A.

Mr 1936 · 17th Jun 2019, 8:57 am

Hi. I can't identify the set, but from the appearance it would seem to date from about 1955. There may be a date stamp on the main smoother. Later sets went in for concentric knobs and "piano key" switches. Remember that the tolerance on capacitors may only have been +/- 20% when new, with electrolytics sometimes even wider, so capacitance variation may not indicate anything amiss. More important is leakage, which an ordinary tester may not be good at measuring.
Does it have VHF / FM ?. If Medium/Long wave and FM stations are equally quiet it would point to an issue with the common audio sections rather than the RF or IF ones.

17th Jun 2019, 8:57 am	#2
Mr 1936 Heptode Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Romsey, Hampshire, UK. Posts: 521	Re: Help to identify old Philips valve radio Hi. I can't identify the set, but from the appearance it would seem to date from about 1955. There may be a date stamp on the main smoother. Later sets went in for concentric knobs and "piano key" switches. Remember that the tolerance on capacitors may only have been +/- 20% when new, with electrolytics sometimes even wider, so capacitance variation may not indicate anything amiss. More important is leakage, which an ordinary tester may not be good at measuring. Does it have VHF / FM ?. If Medium/Long wave and FM stations are equally quiet it would point to an issue with the common audio sections rather than the RF or IF ones.