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Old 1st Dec 2008, 4:50 pm   #1
howard
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Default 1953 Ekco U199A AC/DC 5 valve MW/LW table radio

Hello again,

This set was the cheapest radio at the special Wootton Bassett auction on the 28th September and I won it for £8. Sold as 'believed working', it didn't but cosmetically it's outstanding with no cracks or chips or nasty scratches. It was filthy dirty, especially its ivory coloured basket-weave patterned urea-formaldehyde grille, its case was covered in specks of paint and some of the ivory paint had worn away from the coachlines either side of the front knobs. The only repair which had been done to the set sometime in the past was the fitting of a replacement off/on/volume potentiometer, a cheap one with a nylon spindle ..... which I found to be the wrong value. The U199A is a MW/LW set with 2 MW and 1 LW presets and this example still had all its original labels including the preset labels for Home, Light and Third perched in the front of the case above the dial. Also, along the top of the dial there is a mechanism operated by the waveband switch which opens little windows for light to pass through to indicate which waveband or preset has been selected. The U199A model is a cheaper version of the U199 as it has no built-in aerial but is otherwise identical and there are Trader and Ekco service sheets for both on Paul Stennings website and DVD.

I first changed the audio coupling capacitor switched on and nothing happened, no valves lit up so I swapped the UY41 rectifier valve with a NOS one and away she went not playing very loud and in bad need of RF re-alignment as MW stopped short at 300 metres and Radio 4 appeared at 1200 metres on LW. I then replaced all the wax capacitors, the off/on/volume pot with a NOS add-a-shaft pot and a new 2 core mains lead and it worked a lot better then. Lastly I successfully re-aligned both MW and LW as per the U199 Trader service sheet and the set now works really well.

I dismantled the case, removing the loudspeaker grille, scraped off the remains of the ivory coachline paint and gave it all a good clean in upholstery cleaner and polished the bakelite cabinet with Brasso followed by beeswax in turpentine polish and it came up remarkably well. I repainted the coachlines with PolyVine ivory acrylic paint, £1 from HomeBase. I then reassembled the set.

This is a nice old set, it sounds quite good and with a decent length of aerial wire attached picks up more or less everything on MW and LW and for a 55 year old it has survived very well. And I do like the waveband indicator feature and the labels, even if they do buzz a bit when the set is played loud !

Howard

Pics below.. two of it after completion and the third as it was when acquired.
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Old 1st Dec 2008, 7:28 pm   #2
howard
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Default Re: 1953 Ekco U199A AC/DC 5 valve MW/LW table radio

Correction,

I've just tuned in the presets and all 3 are in fact on MW in ranges 188-343m, 245-435m and 310-550m.

Bits I missed out above were the usual cleaning of the chassis, and all valve pins/bases, waveband switch, tone control (on the back) and tuning capacitor earth springs were all cleaned in Servisol 10. The loudspeaker had a small tear in the paper cone which I stitched up with EvoStik and I replaced the wires to the earth and aerial sockets on the rear cover.

Howard

Last edited by howard; 1st Dec 2008 at 7:36 pm.
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Old 1st Dec 2008, 7:56 pm   #3
mark pirate
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Default Re: 1953 Ekco U199A AC/DC 5 valve MW/LW table radio

Another fine job Howard i have one of these sets in the todo pile,
reading this has prompted me to do mine soon istr it is the version with the frame aerial.

Mark
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Old 1st Dec 2008, 7:59 pm   #4
thermionic
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Default Re: 1953 Ekco U199A AC/DC 5 valve MW/LW table radio

Hi Howard.


A top quality restoration from you - as usual!

I can't help noticing the 2 wirewound resistors bridging the open circuit section on the mains dropper. Please be careful that the existing section does not 're-make' when the new ones heat up. This can occur, so a good tip is to put a junior hacksaw blade accross the old section just to ensure this can't happen!


Cheers. SimonT.
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Old 1st Dec 2008, 9:28 pm   #5
Tazman1966
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Default Re: 1953 Ekco U199A AC/DC 5 valve MW/LW table radio

Quote:
Originally Posted by howard
...This is a nice old set...
Too true Howard and a fine job done again.

Quote:
Originally Posted by thermionic
...2 wirewound resistors bridging the open circuit section on the mains dropper. Please be careful that the existing section does not 're-make' when the new ones heat up. This can occur, so a good tip is to put a junior hacksaw blade accross the old section...
In my television restorations when I've had to bridge duff sections, I've actually unwound the wire. Gets a bit messy though!
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Old 1st Dec 2008, 9:41 pm   #6
Steve_P
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Default Re: 1953 Ekco U199A AC/DC 5 valve MW/LW table radio

Nice sets these, Howard. Make sure the mains cable is wired so that the chassis is on Neutral of course.

I have one of these and, in a moment of ignoring my own teachings, I got a shock from it, and a good one too! Dilys then gave it pride of place....

Cheers,

Steve P.
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