gofar99 Messages: 1903 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi Everyone, After dissembling the radio I have come to a few conclusions. First this thing is dangerous to use. Back in the era of knob and tube AC mains it might have made sense. Now it is a serious no go. The tubes are powered by a dual winding 2.5 volt secondary. The high voltage is taken from the AC mains directly (ouch). Much worse when you discover that the phones are only isolated from the AC mains by a resistor. If it fails and the polarity is wrong you hear music of the angels and not the local AM station. BTW no fuse either and only one side of the AC is switched. Now to other details. The filter capacitors inside the Bakelite mass are toast. The B+ is created from the AC mains with one of the type 227 tubes used as a rectifier. Crude to the max. The wiring is toast and the coil is damaged. So I am not going to refurbish this thing. I'll keep it as it is interesting, but there is no real way to make it safe and useful without a complete rebuild.
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