Loft clear out radios

[Techman]

Originally Posted by Paul_RK

Including that Ever Ready Model T, I hope.

The output transformer is fine.

Please see this new thread on the repair of this radio:-
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...22#post1010422

[Techman]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

Ah, but is it still 'Full O' power' ?

I was wondering if there would be even the slightest voltage on the HT battery, but it was absolutely zero. There was 0.04 volts measured on the LT battery.

[Techman]

Originally Posted by AC/HL

If they were pitch sealed cells they probably dried out before the zinc cases corroded through, they were heavier than later ones.

I've not opened it up any further than the inside cardboard case as shown in the picture I posted, but I can see that there was certainly no skimping as regards the pitch that has been poured around and over the cells. The battery has leaked very slightly in a couple of places in the long distant past, but this has long dried up. The LT battery has bulged a bit all round, but doesn't show any leakage, although I would think that if it were taken apart there would be some corrosion to the zinc cases of the cells.

[Techman]

I received another delivery from the same person today, shown piled up on the table for their photo shoot (below). He had originally offered me this Amstrad stuff when he first contacted me and initially I had declined it, but when he brought the first lot round he showed me photos of it on his phone and I decided to accept it after all. The reason was that I was in need of a good working cassette deck, having serviced up my old Akai that had been in the loft for a good few years, I still wasn't completely happy with it as the take up seemed a little too strong and it can't easily be adjusted. The Amstrad seems to have had little use and is working perfectly. Also, the Amstrad FM tuner brought back some memories as it looked exactly the same as one that I bought new many years ago and later sold to a friend, so good to get an example of this back all these years later - not that this Amstrad stuff is particularly good or desirable, which is why I initially declined it.

He had asked me if I wanted an old Avo 8 which he brought round with this latest lot. It's a nice early example from around 1952 with leads and probes in an original leather case - I didn't realise that the model 8 had been produced with the 'non-socket' type terminals as I've never seen them on this model before, only on the earlier model 7 type etc. I was very pleased to get this meter.

There may be some more stuff to come yet. He isn't getting rid of all his collection as he tells me he is keeping all his Bakelite sets (other than that little Ekco shown previously) and some of the Amstrad gear. He's already got rid of/given away some Ham radio gear and told me that he threw several old CB radios in the bin several weeks ago as he didn't think anyone would want such things these days. He did say that some may have survived and if he comes across them during the clear out then he'll pop them round.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by MurphyNut

Am I missing something here, or is it just terminology, to my mind the Murphy A122 has 3 wavebands- Short, Medium and Long as in the picture.
How does Amplitude Modulation differ from Medium Wave, I've always thought they are the same like VHF and FM.
Sorry to digress from the original context of the thread.

Americans have tended to use "AM" in the context of broadcast radio to mean exclusively Medium Wave. I'm not even sure if the American general public are familiar with the term MW.
I suspect the same would have happened in Europe as well, had we not have had the need to differentiate between MW and LW.

That doesn't make it right for us pedents of course.

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by rambo1152

Americans have tended to use "AM" in the context of broadcast radio to mean exclusively Medium Wave. I'm not even sure if the American general public are familiar with the term MW.

It's been a changing field - BC ('broadcast') was the usual designation for MW in America, and presumably was dropped more or less quickly in favour of AM when FM broadcasting began. As far as I know Japanese imports will have been mainly responsible over here for introducing AM as a familiar alternative name for medium wave. Then, anyone very familiar with British radios from before 1935, when short wave as we know it was first at all popular, will have met our MW band identified as SW.

Paul

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by Techman

Also, the Amstrad FM tuner brought back some memories as it looked exactly the same as one that I bought new many years ago and later sold to a friend, so good to get an example of this back all these years later - not that this Amstrad stuff is particularly good or desirable, which is why I initially declined it.

Strange to me to think that the Amstrad kit is around 45 years old now! I didn't have mine for long: I bought that tuner model and an IC2000 amplifier cheaply at auction, must have been around 1979, and had them in service for two or three years until a big Trio tuner-amplifier came my way. The IC2000's switch-on buzz at least was unforgettable.

[mark pirate]

My first cassette deck was that Amstrad more years ago than I care to remember!
It worked reliably enough, but suffered from tape hiss, I seem to remember it was Japanese made.

Amstrad gear from the early years was a damn sight better than the later stuff.

Mark

[Techman]

You did virtually the same as me, Paul, it’s hard to believe it’s that long ago. I’ve been thinking back and I don’t think the Amstrad tuner was actually brand new when I bought it, but was probably not very old and I think I bought it off a chap I played in a band with at the time when he upgraded his system to the then new Trio tuner amp with matching turntable. Then, when he’d had the Trio system for just over a year, he upgraded again and I ended up buying his complete system from him including some AR7 speakers, so I also had that Trio tuner amp after the Amstrad. I can’t for the life of me remember what I ran the Amstrad tuner through, it may have been a valve amp at the time. I still have the Trio tuner amp with turntable plus the AR7s. The Trio deck is languishing in the loft having been joined by a second example that I was given a few years ago by a chap at work.

As Mark says, the Amstrad cassette deck isn’t too bad a deck. I’ve got several means of playing cassette tapes, but no longer have an actual working deck as such as they’ve all gradually gone out of service due to worn heads or broken belts and I’ve just chucked them up in the loft rather than bother to try to fix them. I even gave one with broken belts away to someone who wanted one to fix up just recently. I’ve been playing one or two tapes on the Amstrad 8000 and it perform very well for what it is. All the rest of the Amstrad items seem to work, with the usual noisy pot tracks that’ll need a shot of switch cleaner. Neither the AFC or the stereo light work on the tuner and it’s possible that the stereo decoder isn’t working, but for the use that I’ve got for this tuner, mono operation will be just fine and I may or may not even bother to investigate this any further. The loudness flick switches on both the IC2000MK11 and the 4000MK11 seem to work in a very strange way in that they seem to just act as a treble cut, but this switch does seem to work normally as ‘loudness’ on the other amp, model unknown as the name has rubbed off. Unfortunately, on this unknown model Amstrad amp, the loudness tab is the only one working as the other three have broken internally and now do nothing – some investigation and repair needed.

The Avo 8 has issues in that its readings are all about half of what they should be on all ranges, so I will definitely be opening it up to investigate and hopefully fix this issue.

A final point on the first batch of vintage radios shown in this thread – I’m rather surprised that no one has yet mentioned the radio shown in the first picture on this thread with the cock-eyed tuning glass that’s partially dropped inside. This was the radio that I first had up and running on the day I was given them, and having replaced three capacitors it’s now in working order. I thought that this was a particularly unusual radio and one that as far as I could see had never been mentioned on this forum so far. It’s not even mentioned on the rest of the internet that I could see, other than ‘The Radio Museum’, where the one mention it gets has a mistake in the valve line up. I’m not going to say its make or model just yet as I want to see if anyone recognises it or even has an example in their collection. The unusual thing about this radio is its band coverage for what is basically a domestic radio. The make is stated on the dial glass, but due to the resolution of the photo I don’t think it’s readable. I don’t think the knobs on this radio are the originals. Another clue is that it has a model name as stated on its back cover, but it doesn’t have any model number – unless anyone knows any different?

[Herald1360]

Pilot Navigator?

[Techman]

You are of course correct, Chris.

I have to ask, how did you know the make and model of the radio? Was it that you'd seen one before or that you could make out the make and emblem on the dial glass in the picture, or was it that the clue I gave on the unusual waveband coverage gave you a lead for models to search for? Anyway, well done!

I think it's quite an unusual radio. The previous owner had intended to restore the cabinets on some of these radios and had in the distant past lightly sanded the cases of the Pilot and the Ekco, so I think possibly a treatment with Danish oil will probably be the best approach under the circumstances.

Just a thought; This radio covers from 11 to 100 Metres short wave with probably a bit more at each end of the band and would be ripe for modification with the fitting of a BFO. The controls along the front are, from left to right, volume, tone with mains on/off switch, wave change and finally tuning. You could pre-set the tone control inside and use the control, perhaps with a different value pot as the 'tune/RIT/clarifier'. A new pot for the existing volume control, but fitted with the 'moved' mains on/off switch. There's room on the left for another control, perhaps a three position Yaxley with LSB,AM,USB. Then a set of five matching knobs to make it all look original. It's highly unlikely that I'd do anything like this to a vintage radio today, but it's just the sort of modification that I'd probably have been tempted to try back in the day.

[Herald1360]

You provided enough clues... its being on Radiomuseum was the way I found it. The style was postwar/early fifties- reminiscent of Pye. A bit of poking about and there it was: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/pilot_navigator.html

What's the wrong valve- there seemed to be a question of 6AQ6 (DDT) vs 6AQ5 (BT) and 6V6 (BT) - both more or less identical electrically?

Back in the days I resolved my first SSB signals on a modified (bodged?) radiogram with a length of coax connected to the IF valve anode up the side of the octal valve with about an inch of exposed inner waving near the grid topcap. A variable resistor in the cathode circuit enabled the stage to be made to oscillate gently. 'orrible but it worked! I think the idea was in one of the "comics" of the period (mid '60s).

[Techman]

Ah, I gave the game away then really. I’m still rather surprised that no one had so far mentioned this set though. It certainly does look very much like a certain Pye model, so perhaps folk thought it was just one of those – not that there’s anything wrong with Pye.

The valve error was that it listed a Y61 magic eye in the valve line up. I think there is a similar looking model which has different band coverage that does in fact incorporate the Y61, but not this particular set. The radio has no long wave and medium wave is marked as ‘broadcast’ on the dial and B.C. in the wave change window. The BBC Third is not marked on the dial glass, so could be the earlier of the dates mentioned on RM. The short waves are covered in four separate bands.

I was thinking that it may be possible to do a non-invasive mod to resolve SSB with something fitted via one of the ventilation slots on the back cover, done in the way you mention. Those short wave bands are wasted with what’s left of straight AM stations these days.

[Herald1360]

With the ready availability of cheap synthesised signal sources nowadays, the easiest mod might be just to poke a bit of wire from one's output into the back of the set and set it to the SSB carrier frequency....

Disabling or changing the AGC time constants would help, too.