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Old 20th Jul 2005, 1:57 pm   #1
jdrysdale
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Default Philips 371

Philips 371A.

Description:
Bakelite case with a round dial and wing type indicator. Five valves including a half wave rectifier, three bands.

History of this set. This set was given to me free at a garage sale about six years ago. Not knowing anything about radios I plugged it in and switched it on, the smell of smoke is still in my nostrils. The transformer was burning each time it was turned on.

So I sent the unit to a friend who is well known for his experience in repairing receivers and transmitters of this vintage. He replaced the TX with an off the self unit, replaced the dual mains cap with another dual mains cap and also one other coupling cap. Also he put a diode rectifier in place of the az31 valve due to lack of a four volt independent drop off on the TX.
The unit operated well for a number of years until last year when the reception deteriorated and a loud humm was to be heard.

Following the purchase and repair of a very nice Loewe Opta set earlier this year I decided to have a look at the Philips with a view to restoring it to original spec.
The shopping list was:
Transformer with 280ht 6.3v lt and 4v lt.
New rectifier valve
New capacitors
New power lead
New logo badge
Complete clean of cabinet
Redo paint lines on cabinet

The chassis was disassembled as far as I’d dare and cleaned. I think I made a bit of an error here as I cleaned it with a small brush dipped in Mr Muscle. However I have to say the results were excellent with minimum effort. I also cleaned the inside of the cabinet but I would not recommend this as the case got slightly discoloured from it.
I sourced a new brass badge from the forums here and fitted it with a spot of epoxy, the white lines were cleaned out and replaced with a nice cream white matt. The glass was cleaned and I was happy enough with the grill cloth as I had it cleaned a couple of years previously.

With some good advise from the forums and in particular Tony at Vcomp I got a transformer of suitable dimensions (almost any way) and a new rectifier valve. This valve was different (Z54) from the original but had a 5v heater which matched the TX. It took a little while to replace as there was so many wires and I needed to keep the head focused. The main smoothing caps where also replaced, this was a bit difficult due to the fact the the originals where long gone and a dual cap put in its place. I used two 47mf 500v electrolyte caps fitted inside two aluminum tubes (taken from disused underwater locator beacons). The remaining circuits were checked against the diagrams and we were ready for power up. The first thing on power up was a very loud hum from the mains. I suspected my capacitor installation and also changed the caps again to no avail. I replaced all the remaining electrolyte caps and little change. After exhaustive checking I eventually found the heater to the audio output valve should have being grounded and hey presto we have reception.

The MW and LW reception was disjointed and only appeared when the cap of the valve was touched. I ordered a new one as it was relatively cheap and replaced it.

This gave good MW reception but only at the shorter wave lengths, this was fixed very quickly by using a proper wire antenna and now all is sorted.

Again, many thanks to the forum moderators and member and also all the others who helped with this one.
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Old 22nd Jul 2005, 8:02 am   #2
jdrysdale
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Default Re: Philips 371

And a nice piccy
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