Another Volksempfänger VE301W People's set.

[1100 man]

Originally Posted by Station X

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.

Hi Graham,
That was an ingenious way of restuffing the capacitor block- very neat! I only need to do the small value caps on my one- I shall re-stuff the original ones. It's hard to find suitable caps to restuff small value (60 & 100pf) originals. Polystyrene ones are the only ones that will fit in the original cases. I will have to use 2 in series to get the required voltage rating.

The mains lead on mine was braided 2 core rubber although only the conductors were rubber insulated. They were then covered in a thick layer of string which was then covered with the braided cotton outer. I'm sure it was the original lead- nothing else in the radio had been touched.

There are several sellers on Ebay that supply braided flex which looks almost identical in colour & texture. I bought 0.5mm 3 core but the overall diameter is slightly thinner than the original. 1mm would have been better.
It's just normal PVC insulated flex covered in a braided outer but it really looks the part. Compare the two in the picture- the original is on the left.

I plan to incorporate a resistor in the primary of the transformer to reduce the voltage to 220V. It only works out at 2W, so a 5W part should fit in nicely. I will also connect the chassis to mains earth as there are accessible chassis connected parts when it's all together.
I also plan to fit a small rectangular thermal fuse in close contact with the mains transformer winding. I've got some 85 degree ones which should add a further element of protection should the transformer overheat.

All the best
Nick

[G6Tanuki]

When I last needed a short length of 'cotton-covered'-effect flex to make up a headset lead, I used ordinary screened lead and threaded over it the outer tubular braiding from some walking-boot laces.

The laces have the braided 'tube' fitted over a bundle of inner woven polyester cords; if you cut the ferrules off the ends of a lace to reveal the inner cords you can then tape the cords to the end of your wire and - by 'bunching up' the braid you can then use the cords to pull the lead through in place of the cords.

Walking-boot laces are ideal for this because they're long - the pair I got were about 5 feet each!