Pilot little maestro

[andycapp]

Hi, just purchased this Pilot, 1946 I think, I assume the controls are from left, on off switch, station dial and band dial. Lovely cosmetic condition, cant test yet because of plug type, volume and station dial move freely but the right hand one seems to be seized up. I haven't tried to force it I am just wondering if it is an easy fix and how far I have to go into radio to find it. thanks Andy

[Herald1360]

That looks like a chassis out job. Should be simple enough provided none of the knobs is seized on the shaft. If the switch shaft has seized in its bush some penetrating oil (Plus Gas or similar) and a bit of patience should free it off.

[Hoveradio]

Hi Andy,I have the post war wooden version of this and the left knob is on/off volume,centre one is tuning and right hand one is wavechange.This wavechange one could well be tight,not helped by the fact that the knobs are small diameter.
Is that a line cord feeding the power?On mine I had to fit a capacitor dropper as the mains lead had been cut.
Best Regards John(Strosbongle)

[andycapp]

Thanks Chris I will have to take a look, John according to description its an American-style 'line cord' to drop the voltage for the valves, I haven't had the back off yet, I will have a look tomorrow, Andy

[David G4EBT]

It appears to be the post war AC only version which was released in November 1945. It's covered in Trader Sheet No 809 which you can download for £1.99 from the top RH of the page.

Interestingly, though we see things differently now, back in the 1940s, Bakelite was looked upon as 'mass produced plastic' inferior to 'craftsman built' wooden radios and the additional cost in producing wooden cabinets was reflected in the price. The Bakelite version of this set cost £11.17.6d plus £2.11.1d = £14.8.7d, which at today's prices, equates to £550! The wooden version cost £15.3.9d, which equates to £580 today.

Yes, the knobs are as already mentioned - the one on the right is the 2-band wave-change switch. If the grub screw is seized - as Herald1360 has suggested - your best chance of freeing it is to use Plus Gas or similar penetrating oil - not WD40, (unless it's WD40's own brand of penetrating oil, which is almost a tacit admission of the limitations of standard WD40). You might have to tip the set upside down to squirt penetrating fluid into the grub screw hole as the hole will most likely be at the bottom of the knob. (Worth leaving it to penetrate overnight to do its work).

There are some points worth mentioning, particularly with an eye to safety:

Though the set has a mains transformer, and thus, is AC only, the transformer ('T2') only supplies the heater chain including the rectifier, so as is common with AC/DC receivers, the HT current is fed to the rectifier anode directly from the mains, so depending on the polarity of the mains cable, the chassis can be live.

As the set has neither a frame aerial nor ferrite rod aerial, it needs at least a short wire aerial, and from the pics, a 'throw-out' aerial is fitted to the set. It is therefore important that the aerial isolating capacitor 'C1' - 0.0003uF (300pF) - is a good quality high voltage component, as it may well be, but if there's any doubt about its integrity and it's leaky, or even S/C, the aerial could become live to the mains.

A quick look at the diagram of the underside of the chassis shows the usual sprinkling of what appear to be paper caps which will be well past their best, and in any event, before putting the set into use - even for a quick test - a wise precaution would be to replace the AF coupling cap (commonly known on the forum as 'that cap', from the anode of V3 to the control grid of the AF valve.

Always a wise precaution to operate sets with live chassis via a mains isolating transformer, and to get into the habit of doing as much testing as you can with the set disconnected from the mains. EG, checking the value of resistors, the continuity of switch contacts, the resistance of coils/transformer windings, valve heaters, bulbs, speakers etc.

I suppose that most people - if only out of curiosity - plug in a set and switch it on to 'see if it lights up'. If tempted to do so, always best to use a lamp limiter and I guess you do that anyway.

I think the dials on Little Maestros are very attractive, and clean up nicely with a little soapy water. Quite durable too, as the dial is paint on metal - not print applied onto glass.

Hope that helps a bit.

Best of luck with the set Andy.

[andycapp]

Thanks David, I am in the process of making a lamp limiter and I wont be putting power to the set until then, is it safe to put a modern 3 pin plug onto cable instead of the round 2 pin that's on there now, andy

[PJL]

I have a post war version similar to yours. Take plenty of pics as they didn't make two the same and I tried various service sheets but none matched. Mine has a permanent magnet speaker.

[Herald1360]

There's no earth connection so whether the mains plug is two pin or three pin doesn't matter functionally. A three pin plug is polarised though, so you can ensure that neutral is always connected to chassis which is somewhat safer for live working on the set if you have no isolating transformer. In those circumstances an RCD somewhere in the feed to the set is a good idea too.

[andycapp]

Well I have spoken to the person I purchased the radio from and he says the line cord is original to the set and hasn't been shortened, he says that with a shaver adapter it will be perfectly safe to turn on for a short period of time but not on a regular basis. I only want to make sure the set works and then leave it alone, original. Have to buy a shaver adapter next week, could never use an electric one myself, Andy

[Herald1360]

You may need to be careful about that original line cord, not all places in the UK were 240V until quite late on- Worcester for example was 200V until early '60s (my parents had a woody Maestro very reminiscent of yours back then).

What you need for period charm is one of these:

[David G4EBT]

Is it indeed a 'line cord' as in a resistive lead which drops voltage to the set, or is it just a two-core mains lead which delivers 240V AC to the anode of the rectifier? Have you checked the two wires of the mains lead from end to end to see if it is indeed a resistive line cord, which it certainly seems to have the apperance of. If so, the set will differ from that featured in Trader Sheet 809, mentoned n my earlier post.

I guess it doesn't matter if you only intend to display it rather than restore and use it Andy.

[julie_m]

"Line cord" is really just the American name for what we would call a mains lead; but thanks to the importation of large numbers of inexpensive "midget" sets from the USA just after WWII, using resistive mains leads to deal with the excessive voltage, the phrase became associated specifically with resistive mains leads.