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Success Stories If you have successfully repaired or restored a piece of equipment, why not write up what you did and post details here. Particularly if it was interesting, unusual or challenging. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE! |
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14th Mar 2018, 9:41 pm | #1 |
Octode
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Posts: 1,898
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Bargain GEC BC 5645
I bought this GEC Radio from the Harpenden Bring and buy for the bargain price of £4. Iit was very dirty had trims missing from two of the knobs and the back was hanging off.
I had evil intentions as I wanted a fairly beefy mains transformer for a future project. The plan was to rob it of it's transformer and any other useful bits. However once it was home and on the bench I realised it was much too good to break. I started off giving it a good clean and polish, this transformed it's appearance and having a good look at it it's a really well made set. I gave it some juice. The amplifier worked producing a healthy buzz from the gram socket. The valves looked a bit bright I found the mains adjuster had been set to 220v so I put it to 240v which returned the heaters to normal. Thre was no reception at all neither on AM or VHF, I checked the Hunts capacitors to find they were all very leaky and some falling apart as they do... I replaced them one at a time and tested the set after each had been changed, this made no difference at all still no reception. I next had a quick check around the valve holders and found the voltages to be around what I would expect. I checked the wave change switch and gave it a clean then switching to VHF I found I had stations! After more checking around I found the inner winding of the AM aerial was shorting to the metal fixing bracket, I suspect the chassis had been inverted and resting on it as the bracket had cut into the winding. After that had been sorted out I then had stations on AM. I don't have a valve tester but I suspected that the mains adjuster had been dropped down to improve emission. I tried swapping valves one at a time to see if any improvement could be gained. Changing the X719 made a big difference to the gain on AM so I replaced that one and cleaned the pins on the others. I gave the chassis a dust off and removed some greasy deposits from the I.F cans wiped out the inside of the cabinet and put the chassis back in. I hunt through the spare knobs box produced a couple of knobs that donated a bright and a outer trim ring to replace the missing ones. The set works really well it sounds good for what it is and is surprisingly good on VHF. I struggle with some sets to pick up a good signal on Radio 2 most sets need an additional aerial (or the telescopic aerial positioned carefully for best reception) but this set is quite happy on it's internal foil aerial. A bargain for four quid I reckon.. All I need now is a space for it! Rich.
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16th Mar 2018, 11:38 am | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, UK.
Posts: 7,444
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Re: Bargain GEC BC 5645
Interesting radio set. FM tuner uses two Z719/EF80 pentodes instead of the more usual ECC85. Mixer-oscillator X719/ECH81. IF amplifier W719/EF85.
For the AM detector and audio amplifier GEC stayed loyal to the DH77/6AT6. Two GEC GEX34 germanium diodes in the FM demodulator. An N709/EL84 output. U78/6X4 HT rectifier. A set that is well worth restoration. DFWB. |
16th Mar 2018, 11:57 am | #3 |
Octode
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Belper Derbyshire
Posts: 1,936
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Re: Bargain GEC BC 5645
Good morning,
That was my set I put in the bring and buy. I am glad it has had some TLC and is in working condition. I had it in my (rather full!!) loft and decided that I was not going to get around to restore it for it for years as I have too many pending restoration projects. I don't know where the rear cover screws vanished, they were with it. Must blame the spiders!! Christopher Capener
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Interests in the collection and restoration of Tefifon players and 405 line television |