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Old 2nd Sep 2018, 9:25 pm   #1
Station X
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Default Another Volksempfänger VE301W People's set.

Inspired by 1100 man's thread:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=147880

I decided to get a Volksempfanger of my own. This one was manufactured by Neuseldt & Kuhnke of Kiel.

When it arrived my heart sank. The package rattled! Fortunately the Bakelite cabinet was intact, but two valves had come out of their holders and were floating around inside it. A visual check showed that there were no cracks in the glass envelopes. Testing with a DMM showed intact heaters and no inter-electrode shorts.

Overall condition is very good, far better than I've seen with British sets of the same period.

Three of the back securing screws are missing, but the threads in the case and chassis are intact.

There are single small white paint flecks on the speaker cloth and back panel.

Slight mark on one knob.

Stiff tuning drive.

I'll report progress with the restoration as soon as I make some.
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Old 2nd Sep 2018, 10:13 pm   #2
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Looks like a very good candidate, I've never come across one of them but in the 1960's I had the cheaper version (DKE38) which came from a German pill box during WW2.

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Old 2nd Sep 2018, 11:14 pm   #3
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Those valves did well to survive rattling around inside it!! Looks nice and clean inside.

I also have one of these, got it from the NVCF when there was a stall with loads of these and other various Volksempfangers, it was quite a novelty being able to pick the best one from a large pile! Shame those same sellers didn’t come back again, as I’d quite liked to have a couple of the other models to go with the one I got. Maybe I’ll have to start the thread entitled ‘and yet another Volksempfanger!’

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Old 4th Sep 2018, 2:07 pm   #4
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Hi Graham,
Nice to know you've been inspired to get one as well! It's amazing that those valves survived intact:- mine was still in its socket but still managed to get itself smashed!
I was very surprised how well built the whole thing was as it was supposed to be a budget radio. It will be interesting to see how well your capacitor block has survived- I couldn't believe that mine tested perfectly on every section after 80 years!
I see yours doesn't have any station markings on the dial whereas mine does. In every other respect, it looks identical though. I've still not really been able to pin mine down to a definite age yet.
I will be interested to see some under chassis pictures when you get to make a start on it.
All the best
Nick
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Old 20th Sep 2018, 9:53 pm   #5
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

I made a start on the cabinet towards the end of last week.

The larger paint flecks on the speaker cloth were removed using a pair of tweezers and a Stanley knife with a NEW blade.

The cabinet was absolutely free of cracks and was given my standard cleaning treatment for Bakelite cabinets. Other cleaning techniques can be used.

1. Wash in warm soapy water using a J Cloth plus an old toothbrush to get into the nooks and crannies.

The textured area around the tuning scale required vigorous scrubbing.

2. Rinse off with cold water.

3. Dry off with an old towel.

4. Use Duraglit Magic Wadding to cut down the surface as necessary. In most places light rubbing will suffice, but more vigorous rubbing is required where there are scratches and blemishes.

5. Put a shine on with a yellow duster.

6. Spray with silicone furniture polish.

7. Put a shine on with a yellow duster.

The knobs received similar treatment.

All the threads in the cabinet were good. It might assist restorers of these sets to know that the screws holding the speaker and chassis to the cabinet are M4 Brass Cheese Head and the screws holding the rear panel to the cabinet and chassis are M3.5 Brass Cheese Head.
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Old 26th Sep 2018, 12:04 am   #6
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Found this interesting ad browsing the Finnish site suggested here:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...27&postcount=1
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Old 26th Sep 2018, 10:06 am   #7
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

That cabinet Graham looks superb.
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Old 26th Sep 2018, 10:26 pm   #8
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Station X View Post
I made a start on the cabinet towards the end of last week.
Good Heavens, I'd always thought the cabinet was only there as a convenient way of transporting the chassis & speaker! Once on the bench, this unnecessary piece of packaging is relegated to a corner while the fun part, the electronics, is played with!!

Seriously, though, I do have admiration for anyone who has the patience to clean & polish cabinets!! That's the part I'm woefully bad at!!

I'll be interested to see how the electronics progresses though.

Cheers
Nick
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Old 6th Nov 2018, 2:12 pm   #9
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

The high impedance (2000 ohms) loudspeaker coil proved to be open circuit. I removed it from the speaker which is quite easy to do apart from the fact that the "connecting rod" which connects the reed or armature to the loudspeaker's cone has to be unsoldered at the armature end. A 90 degree link made from brass shim is riveted to the armature and soldered into a slot in the end of the rod.

The coil was sent to forum member Ed Dinning who did a splendid job of rewinding it with extremely fine wire.

I decided to fit it the other way round to what it was originally so that the lead out wires weren't trapped between the coil former and the aluminium bracket. I adjusted the position of the armature, the fixing screws pass through elongated holes, to give minimum clearance to the extended poles of the horse shoe magnet, whilst allowing free movement. The end view shows the extended poles and the end of the armature. The aluminium bracket was attached to the speaker frame leaving the three screws loose in their slotted holes. The brass shim was then soldered back into the connecting rod.

I used an AF signal generator to test the assembled speaker. After applying a 1kHz signal the aluminium bracket was moved around to obtain max audio output and the screws fully tightened. A sweep showed that there was good response up to about 6kHz. Audio output was low, but only about 10mW was being applied to the coil.

To test the speaker at higher power levels I used a mains transformer with two 6 volt secondary windings wired in series. These were connected to the speaker socket of an audio amplifier driven from a CD player. The primary winding was connected to the repaired speaker. This gave an impedance ratio of about 1:400. Not ideal, but it would do for testing.

With an input of about 0.5W the sound was good with no distortion or resonances. Treble performance was not good though. I hope this is down to the make shift transformer. I'll do another test once the set's output stage is working.
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Old 9th Nov 2018, 10:12 pm   #10
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Station X View Post
The high impedance (2000 ohms) loudspeaker coil proved to be open circuit.
That was very unfortunate! I hope the mains and intervalve transformers have survived better.

I was lucky with all the wound components in my one:I fully expected them all to be open circuit!

Good luck with the rest of yours

All the best
Nick
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Old 10th Nov 2018, 4:21 am   #11
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

I expect the anode direct current through the loudspeaker will affect the setting, and be sensitive to polarity.
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Old 27th Nov 2018, 9:50 pm   #12
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Having fixed the speaker I turned my attention to the capacitor block which was made by Bosch. It was obvious that this would need restuffing, the case had swelled to the extent that one of the solder seams had split and it was leaking pitch.

As mentioned in 1100 man's thread:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=147880

the capacitor block is fixed to the chassis by twisted lugs, but direct access to these is blocked by the RF coils at one end and the mains transformer at the other. I didn't fancy unsoldering the RF coils, so I cut an axial slot in the end of a length of 3/16" diameter steel rod, inserted it into the former supporting the RF coils, located it on each lug in turn and twisted it to straighten the lug and free that end of the capacitor block. This worked extremely well.

To free the lugs at the mains transformer end I used several home made open ended spanners with a narrow gap between the jaws and differing jaw angles. The differing jaw angles were necessary because there's very little room to rotate the spanner and several "bites" were needed.

Once the capacitor block was free from the chassis I had a bit of "wriggle room". I bent back three of the lugs holding the insulated top to the capacitor block and pulled it well free of the metal case. I was then able to cut the wires INSIDE the case, leaving them as long as possible. The case was then removed completely from the radio and placed on the bench for further work. This was accomplished without unsoldering a single wire joint.
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Old 28th Nov 2018, 6:31 pm   #13
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

The contents of the capacitor block came out fairly easily when compared to blocks I've restuffed in the past where I've had to resort to heat or solvents to get the pitch out.

I straightened the can, squeezed up the split seam and soldered it up again using a 100W iron purchased from Maplin just before they closed down.

The can was then lined with 6mm MDF stuck together with PVA adhesive. This gave it rigidity and provided support for the lid.

Before restuffing I tested the remaining components in the set using a Peak Atlas LCR Tester. The fact the old leaking caps in the can were no longer present reduced the number of possible shunt paths. All the resistors were high in value, but not to the extent that they'd need replacing. The caps were all OK with the exception of the 5000pF tone correction cap which had doubled in value. I disconnected one lead of this and sleeved it so that any future restorer can restuff it if they wish. I opted to fit a 4700pF cap directly across the speaker winding. While I was at it I replaced the wires leading to the speaker, as the insulation on these had hardened and cracked exposing the conductors.

New capacitors were then soldered to the lid of the can taking care with the polarity of the electrolytic smoothers, one of which is not grounded in this set. I won't refit the can to the lid until the set has been tested.
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Old 28th Nov 2018, 6:41 pm   #14
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Nice re-stuff, with minimum disturbance to the outside world.

Lawrence.
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Old 3rd Dec 2018, 7:10 pm   #15
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

When I received this radio it was fitted with a fabric covered mains lead which was obviously not original. I'm not a fan of fabric covered leads, so I replaced it with a black three core plastic covered mains lead with a 3 Amp fuse in the plug. The original lead would have been two core, so I connected the earth wire of the lead to a convenient point on the chassis. Given the way the radio is wired the safety earth will also act as a signal earth. The set will of course be powered via a Variac as it's designed for use on 220 VAC supplies.

Next step was to insert just the rectifier valve and check for HT at the smoothers, it was all present and correct. I inserted the other two valves and took voltage readings which were close to the figures in the service sheet.

The workshop long wire aerial was then connected to one of the four "kurz" (Medium Wave) aerial sockets. These sockets are connected to various taps on the aerial coils.

On switching on I was able to receive half a dozen Medium Wave stations including Radio Caroline with ease. Controlling the volume isn't easy as it depends on the combined setting of the tuning and reaction controls along with the aerial socket used. The technique for tuning in weak stations is to fully advance the reaction control, then tune slowly across the band until feedback is heard. The reaction control is then backed off to just below the point of oscillation, the tuning being readjusted as need be.

I was able to receive BBC Radio 4 on Long Wave, but the volume was weak. It might be better with a longer aerial.

Having proved that the set worked I refitted the smoothing block can, bending over the tabs to hold it in place. Finally the chassis was refitted to the cabinet, the knobs fitted to their shafts and the back cover fitted.

All in all I'm impressed with this set's construction and performance. The loudspeaker cone for example appears to be made from some kind of fabric rather than paper, so is much less susceptible to tearing.
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Old 3rd Dec 2018, 7:16 pm   #16
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Good stuff Graham, a very nice job indeed.
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Old 4th Dec 2018, 9:58 am   #17
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Sorry to be pedantic, but 'Volksempfanger' means 'People's Receiver'!
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Old 4th Dec 2018, 8:43 pm   #18
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Hmm, well, if you want to be really pedantic it's a Volksempfänger. Empfanger doesn't exist
That's a nice restoration job. Now it's working you could try to obtain some of the many add-ons that were produced to go with it to improve performance. See towards the bottom of this:
http://welt-der-alten-radios.de/gesc...aenger-22.html
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Old 4th Dec 2018, 11:33 pm   #19
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

Although I only have limited knowledge of the German language, I was aware that there should be an umlaut over the a in' Empfanger', but don't have that character on my keyboard
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Old 5th Dec 2018, 12:19 am   #20
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Default Re: Another Volksempfanger VE301W People's set.

You can write it as Empfaenger though......
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