PYE Mite Information

[ChasHeater]

I am wondering if anyone can help with further information regards this radio. I have recently purchased a 1939 PYE Mite. The radio is in pretty good condition and I plan to restore it. I am aware of the resistive mains lead and the need to replace this with a capacitive dropper. I was wondering if anyone has done this and can give me a guide on how to approach this.

Whilst on the subject, I did exchange emails with Phil Harris (G4SPZ) a couple of years ago regards another radio I obtained which is remarkably similar. At the time I had only managed to find one other at the Cambridge Museum of Technology which has all its internals. Unfortunately, my radio came to me as an empty box/chassis totally stripped, after thinking long and hard about what to do with it I converted it as a Bluetooth speaker. Interestingly, the guys at Cambridge thought it might be a prototype, or one that was made for export abroad. The valve layout is different from that of the mite, but the dials are nearly the same, the mite not having reference to the start point transmitter which the other has. I've uploaded a photo of both, the radio at the bottom is the odd one.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[marconi_pete]

I've made capacitive droppers for a number of sets over the years and they work quite well. Not sure if the set you have has Directly or Indirectly heated valves but the first thing you'd need to know when making a capacitive dropper is the correct heater voltage for the set. Theres a spreadsheet tool that Paul stenning on this forum made a while back for working out the capacitance required for a given heater voltage. If you drop him a message he should be able to supply you with it.

thanks,
Peter

[ChasHeater]

Thanks Peter, I'll look into it.

Regards

Charlie

[Simon Gittins]

Paul's spreadsheet is at the bottom of this page:
https://www.vintage-radio.com/repair...per-calcs.html

[ChasHeater]

Thanks Simon, hopefully that’s all I need.

[murphymad]

The PYE radio at the bottom of your picture is called a 'Nipper' and dates from 1940. Yes really! It really is called a 'nipper' which must have raised a few eye brows within EMI at the time.
It uses all side contact valves instead of octals. Otherwise the circuits and internals are much the same.
It is not a prototype. They were a production radio. I have seen three of them in the last 40 years. I restored one back in the 1980's and I think it holds the record as the radio that takes the longest time to warm up.

Mike...

[Brigham]

Is the line dropper clearly beyond further use?

[ChasHeater]

Unfortunately the line dropper is beyond use, it would be nice to retain originality but practically, a capacitive dropper will make a safer and more usable radio. Mike i'm fascinated by your comments on the other radio, never heard of the name before. I tried all methods to find out further info on this radio without luck! Maybe should've put it out on the forum before. You are correct about the side valve bases as the one in the Cambridge museum has these. Regards Charlie

[ChasHeater]

Mike, further to my earlier post, would you have any further info on the "Nipper". Try as I might I cannot seem to find any further information on the radio. If, as you suggest, it was a 1940's production radio (early in the war when manufacturers were working for the war effort), there should be reference to it as a model. Any thoughts wold be appreciated.

[ChasHeater]

Hi All, I just getting into restoring this little PYE mite radio and was wondering if anyone would know where I can get a) speaker cloth that is similar to that in attached photo, and b) a handle for the same, see photo. The handle has 6" centres. Thanks in advance.