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Old 27th Oct 2010, 9:17 pm   #1
howard
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Godalming, Surrey, UK.
Posts: 2,593
Default 1955 Philips 341A AC mains 5 valve MW/LW/SW table radio

Hello again,

I restored this Philips 341A for another collector which suited me as I got all the satisfaction of getting this old radio working and looking nice again and it didn't then clutter up my house afterwards. It arrived complete but in very poor condition (see last pic below) with a dirty faded case and loads of chips in its gold paint around the front and it didn't work. However, it had no chips, cracks or nasty scratches in its bakelite case, its grille cloth was in unusually good condition and it wasn't rusty inside so I went ahead and completely restored it. The 341A chassis is identical to the one in the Stella ST106A (apart from having just one dial bulb) and is also similar to several other Philips models including the 310A but this later model has 4 rimlock valves, EAF42, EBC41, EL41 and EZ40 but then an ECH81 B9A valve rather than an ECH42 rimlock.

I first checked its mains transformer for leakage with my megger and it was fine so I then replaced its audio coupling capacitor, fitted a used EBC41 to replace a non equivalent Mazda 6LD20 fitted, cleaned all its valve pins/sockets, waveband switch, volume and tone potentiometers with Servisol 10, fitted a new 6.5v 0.3a dial bulb, powered up and away she went working reasonably well on all bands. I ensured that the smoothing capacitor wasn't getting hot, and that the LT/HT voltages were OK and they were good. So I replaced all its original black pitch capacitors and there are some unusual values in this set so I had to make up three original values using two capacitors apiece. I checked the valves by swapping in new ones and all were working OK but there was quite high leakage on the grid of the EL41 so that was replaced with a NOS CV3889 equivalent. I replaced the original 2 core cable with a new 3 core cable connecting the earth wire to a tag next to the switch. I checked that its IF frequency was OK and it was and then performed RF alignment. I had a problem with the LW aerial trimmer, the thread on its adjuster rod appeared to have expired as once the locking paint was picked off it dropped into the can, but it still peaked up OK simply by lifting the rod which was then secured in place with wax.

I washed down the case with white spirit, removed the loudspeaker baffle, stripped the paint off the front of the case with Nitromors, masked up the front using Tamiya flexible masking tape and repainted the front with Plasti-kote antique gold enamel paint which is a good match. I then polished the case first with Brasso and then with beeswax polish.

It took me 4 days to restore this old Philips 341A radio and it looks very nice now with a good shiny case and it now works, its internal plate aerial isn't brilliant but it works very well with a long wire aerial picking up more or less everything on all bands (SW is remarkably good) and it sounds very good.too.

Howard
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