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Old 17th Oct 2018, 9:36 pm   #1
sexton_mallard
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Default Philips 151U

This little radio arguably was the very first valve radio I came across back in the early 1990's when it appeared at my nan's house, donated I think, by a well meaning neighbour. I remember the pffft! as the across-the-mains cap blew up

Many many years later to a few weeks ago, it sat on the top of a large bookcase as an ornament at my parent's house. Time to reactivate! Following a strip down, the case and chassis cleaned up well. Following the usual gentle power-up on bulb limiters, the radio ran well on its original bitumen coated caps, the speaker buzzed and rattled a little. A full recap was done of all black caps, the mains smoother 50-50 mfd electrolytic was fine and ran cool after a period of being slightly warm as it (I assume) reformed.

Removing the speaker dust cap, vacuuming out the voicecoil and magnetic gap as best I could, the rattle was fixed after re gluing the voicecoil leads back down on the face of the cone. I thought I was using another glue but I used PVC pipe jointing cement by mistake which as it turned out worked fine! The speaker now works well .

A bit of lubrication, cleaning and reseating of valves was done, voltages were good and all resistors were OK. I disconnected the external aerial sockets as I had no Y rated caps to hand and the radio performs well enough as an AC/DC set with a ferrite rod aerial.


The set is now back together and blasting out Radio Wales as I type, waiting for it's return to my parents on my next visit. It performs really well!
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Last edited by sexton_mallard; 17th Oct 2018 at 9:44 pm.
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Old 18th Oct 2018, 5:12 pm   #2
vinrads
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Default Re: Philips 151U

Hi Dom Well done with the repair, you do right changing all the black capacitors ,these are nice set's and work well on there built in aerial , so you now have a radio that will give good service for years to come .Mick.
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Old 18th Oct 2018, 7:18 pm   #3
sexton_mallard
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Default Re: Philips 151U

Thanks Mick. I love this hobby but sometimes doing a 'quick win' job makes up for the slower progress on other 3 projects I have on the go, all stopped at different stages, waiting for parts or cabinet refinishing. Back to this set...The usual slightly wacky Philips engineering is not so evident here apart from the tone switch power and volume pot assembly which always begs the question 'why did they do it that way?' The era of PCBs and semiconductors were not far away when this set was made. I'm hoping the troublesome reputation of the dropper resistor does not show up as the set mysteriously cut out and came back on earlier as if the heater chain disconnected for a few seconds. For now the radio is on while I do the washing up and enjoyed.
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Last edited by sexton_mallard; 18th Oct 2018 at 7:19 pm. Reason: typos
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Old 23rd Oct 2018, 9:14 pm   #4
Phil G4SPZ
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Default Re: Philips 151U

Another set saved and now in preservation. Well done!
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