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Old 3rd Jun 2019, 4:07 pm   #1
Beardyman
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Default Possibly a Barton and/or Premier?

Afternoon all.
I picked up this little Bakelite set as it looked like one of the Pilot Little Maestro variants, it was in a filthy state externally & internally come to think of it!
A quick look inside showed the usual assortment of cracked/mouldering/leaking capacitors. The metal rectifiers were long gone & someone had then replaced them with a half wave valve which would have fitted a B7G socket except that was gone as well. The ubiquitous 1N4007 had been simply solder across the appropriate pins. One of the valves was loose in its metal shroud but luckily I had a spare, the loose one will be fettled later. Although the scale shows a SW band this little blighter is MW/LW only which leads me to think perhaps what we have here is a "bitsa" from one or more other sets of the same ilk. It has a filament transformer which I now know was quite common, it was either that or some really BIG droppers! Most of the resistors were still in spec & the speaker had a date stamp of 1957. Whether its the original one I really don't know. The mains switch was welded but I was able to take it apart & make good the damage. After addressing the HT supply by putting a 680R 5W resistor after the 1N4007 this brought the HT up to about 200V by my reckoning. Application of mains brought forth lights & glowing filaments, HT was spot on. As the set warmed up there were some peculiar sounds emanating from it, it was oscillating all over the place, almost like a Theremin!
Lo & behold, the Phantom Twiddler had been in there! The IF can cores were all right up the top & padding capacitors all screwed hard down. After about an hour or so of twiddling there came forth recognisable music. At this point it was "tune for maximum smoke". Although it could probably be improved with a proper set up I'm quite happy with it. Not a world beater by any means but it does have a certain charm, it now lives in the guest bedroom & looks thoroughly at home.
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Old 3rd Jun 2019, 5:15 pm   #2
Hartley118
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Default Re: Possibly a Barton and/or Premier?

Very nice too - and well restored Beardyman. The dial is in particularly good shape - they're too easily damaged.

My guess is that it's built from a Barton kit because the Premier models usually had 'Premier Radio' printed in the middle of the dial.

This was the first 'proper' radio that I built: it was from a Barton kit back around 1954 I think. Once I'd sorted out my wiring errors, it worked very well. The 6.3V heater transformer and mains derived HT was pretty standard with these.

Out of sheer nostalgia, I've collected one or two samples of these kit radios, both superhet and TRF. Some of the valve line-ups were distinctly odd, depending on what ex-WD valves were cheapest in those post-war years. I'm guessing that yours has the standard 6K8, 6K7, 6Q7, 6V6 lineup?

Martin
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Old 3rd Jun 2019, 7:28 pm   #3
Beardyman
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Default Re: Possibly a Barton and/or Premier?

The valve line up included an ARP34 which was apparently was the CV equivalent of the EF89. The rest you have included sound about right. I'm still thinking it is an aglomeration of sets. The wiring doesn't look to be a kit to be honest, all joints wrapped then soldered unless the person who built it was familiar with the technique? Yes, I've seen the Premier on the Radiomuseum website & they all have Premier on the dial. The puzzler was the dial shows a SW band but there are only two positions on the waveband switch. Perhaps that's another clue that it's possibly more than one set?
I just liked the "look" of it but then I'm a sucker for bakelite radios in general!
Many thanks for your comments & for taking the time to post.
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Old 3rd Jun 2019, 9:28 pm   #4
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Default Re: Possibly a Barton and/or Premier?

Interesting as I have the 'Barton' kit set which DOES have SW. It also works very well and fortunately hadn't been 'twiddled'. It did need proper alignment though....I suspect it had been originally adjusted on signals only. The circuit is very close to the Repanco SH1 which was originally published by Repanco to promote their coils and IF transformers.

Mine needed a recap and I replaced the original metal rec which was well past it's useful life with a BY127 and a 300 ohm resistor. Standard Octals in mine....6K8, 6K7, 6Q7 and 6V6GT

It's available 'up top' via the forum download service.
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