1957 Philips B3X72U midget AM/FM 6 valve radio

[howard]

Hello again,

I bought this dinky Dutch built Philips set at the NVCF for £11. I wasn't sure what model it was as both labels were worn but I managed to work it out from what print was remaining and it turned out to be a B3X72U/03 built in 1957 with French and German lettering. It's a spitting image of my German built 1954 Philips Philetta BD244U with an identical Bakelite cabinet, but a different rear cover, perspex front/dial and badges but as it has a UL84 audio valve rather than the UL41 in my Philetta so it is probably a clone of the later German Philetta BD273U. Condition wise it wasn't bad, the back was hanging off, it had a couple of scratches here and there, much of the front had been splattered with drops of varnish but it had no chips or cracks and it was complete. It had been overhauled before with all but its UCH81 replaced with continental branded valves and with several replacement Japanese Argonne brand capacitors fitted but judging by the amount of dust and cobwebs inside that was done many years ago.

I dismantled the set, brushed off all the dust, cleaned the valve pins, replaced the output valve coupling capacitor, 1 remaining black pitch cap and a capacitor on the output transformer, cleaned the volume/tone pot and waveband switches with Servisol 10, switched on and it just hummed, no signal. Touching the tags on the volume pot caused a change in the pitch of the hum indicating that the audio stage was OK so it was obviously losing IF gain somewhere. Swapping over the valves made no difference so I checked the voltages on the anode and screen grid pins of the UCH81 and UF89, the UCH81 was fine but the voltage to the screen grid of the UF89 was just 0.25 volts. I checked the UF89's 22k ohm screen grid resistor and it was open circuit so Ron Bryan (who had been advising me on how to analyse the fault) kindly lent me one, that was fitted and away she went, working well on all wavebands. I didn't need to change any valves, all the originals were good. I then replaced all but two of the remaining capacitors with new North American 630v metallized polyester film tubular axials, and one orange dip capacitor. The AM tuning cord had been incorrectly fitted and the tuning capacitor was flopping about as its rubber mounting grommets had disintegrated so I cut off the old cord (the ends had been knotted and glued together so I couldn't take it off intact), released the 3 mounting brackets (3 screws) and unsoldered three wires under the tuning capacitor which enabled access to the grommets, replaced those, refitted the tuning capacitor, and made up and fitted a new tuning cord (NB the Philips docs indicate that the cord is 650mm long, it's actually much longer). The original fuse had been replaced by a piece of wire and one of the two dial bulbs was dead so I pinched a fuse from a scrap set and also one unusual 12 volt 0.1 amp bulb. The original bulbs on many old Philips sets only have part numbers, but I found this Portuguese website which lists them all with their characteristics ...

http://www.aminharadio.com/radio/dial_philips

I restored the case as follows, briefly -

- The inside and the external trim was cleaned with upholstery cleaner and the bakelite case with white spirit
- All the drops of varnish I had to scrape off with my finger nail - some of it had settled in the cream paint in the borders around the front so I eventually had to repaint both borders with cream coloured acrylic. The perspex dial was polished with Brasso to remove the remaining varnish from it.
- Brass trims on the knobs were stripped/ polished /revarnished
- I made up a new label for the chassis by scanning the remains of the two existing badges and cutting and pasting the bits together
- The Bakelite cabinet was polished with Brasso, then with black wax trim polish to fill the scraches and then finally with Mr Sheen.
- I straightened, polished and repainted the brass Philips badge on the front

I am very fond of these German/Dutch midget Philips AM/FM bakelite cased radios, they're pretty little sets especially when their perspex dials are lit up, and are smaller than many transistor sets so take up little space. This one, like my German Philettas, works remarkably well picking up just about everything on MW/LW/SW and VHF 88-100 MHz loud and clear.

Howard


https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...1&d=1211924313

[Tazman1966]

Hey Howard

That is a cute little set and worthy of a restoration. How about a picture in the dark so we can see the dial lit up?

Cheers,

[howard]

Hello Tas,

There ya go ....

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...1&d=1211925930

[Steve_P]

This may sound silly, but I felt the warmth the first time I saw that picture! Lovely set.

Cheers,

Steve P.

[Tazman1966]

Agreed Steve

Thanks Howard

Cheers,

[mark pirate]

Yet another brilliant restoration, well done Howard

[howard]

Originally Posted by Steve_P

This may sound silly, but I felt the warmth the first time I saw that picture! Lovely set. Cheers, Steve P.

Yes, these little AC/DC sets do get very hot !

It took me around 30 hours to restore this one as it is a fiddly set to work on. The two remaining high voltage caps on the output sockets are a little leaky but they're screened and have a third wire coming out of their cases....... are those still available anywhere ? Would it make a lot of difference if replaced with non-screened high voltage ceramic disc caps ?

Howard

[batterymaker1]

Isn't that a great set? I always liked how the entire grille illuminated along with the dial.

[Steve_P]

Which sockets and where are they in circuit?

Cheers,

Steve P

[howard]

Originally Posted by Steve_P

Which sockets and where are they in circuit? Cheers, Steve P

Hello Steve,

One is attached dirctly to the FM aerial socket and the other to the PU socket. Presumably Philips used these screened capacitors to eliminate hum, so I was wondering that when this type of capacitor was replaced in any part of the circuit with a non-screened capacitor there is a likelihood of noticable hum being introduced.

Howard

[Steve_P]

Well, if you're not using PU or an External Aerial, leave them!

Try ordinary caps.

Cheers,

Steve P.

[PJL]

Very nice - a really practical & pretty little valve set. They should really be replaced with Y2 types as they serve as isolation capacitors...Peter