[Neutrino]

The Cossor 501 Melody Maker was purchased at a British Vintage Wireless & Television Museum garden party. It is the youngest and probably the easiest to get going wireless in my collection.

The reservoir and smoothing capacitor was replaced with a new one from BVWS because the original had a bulge. The original negative connection was through the can and clamp. The new capacitor has an insulated can and a negative terminal which I connected to a wire soldered to the head of one of the fixing screws because I did not have a solder tag washer. The drive chord and that capacitor (coupling the anode of the triode to the audio output valve) were replaced. The resistors were more or less within tolerance. The cabinet was wiped and the dial glass cleaned to some extent, while trying to avoid the lettering.

The snap fastener for voltage adjustment on the mains transformer was loose and no matter how many times I took it off and tightened it with pliers it was loose again after pushing it back on. Eventually I soldered a wire link across it. The chassis is earthed through the mains lead and the live is switched.

The set was tried first on the series lamp limiter. It only needed a little Servisol Super 10 on the waveband switch. The voltages were close to those in the “Trader” Service Sheet. The set works very well with a good quality sound on long, medium and short wavelengths, even with an indoor aerial. The stations are in about the right place on the dial. No alignment was done.

The case is in good condition but the back is missing and the speaker grill could do with replacing but the biggest problem is that the gold plastic escutcheon has shrunk. I do not have a solution to this so I think I will leave it as it is for now and start on a Ferguson 207U.

David