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Forum 141

Ever Ready - Sky Emperor

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davegsm82
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Couldn't believe my luck today when I happened across this radio in a shop in Penrith.

Forum 142

It's more-or-less complete but damaged, the dial glass is broken but all present, so I think I can stick it back together for the purposes of making a dial scan and re-make in perspex. Fortunately it's a perfectly clean break, vertically right at the end of the dial. There's also a crack in front of the piano keys, but being perfectly central I was thinking of simply wrapping a piece of nice brass strip around this as a brace and 'Decoration'.

Forum 143

Only other physical fault really is that one of the 2 FM antenna's on the back is snapped and the bakelite surrounding it is also damaged, I may be able to make something from Epoxy putty/resin and paint it to match.

The 'Sky Emperor' badge on the front is missing as is the traditional Ever Ready emblem on the rear. I very much doubt I'll ever find any spare parts for this set as they are like Hen's poo and rocking horse teeth as it is.

Inside is remarkably clean, unfortunately no battery inside which would have been nice to re-make a new modern pack internally.

I've been after one of these for a while, to sit on a shelf next to my Telefunken Bajazzo. Can't wait to get into the nitty-gritty and see what needs doing inside! I have spotted a couple of moldseals already so there will be some minor work to be done, should sound excellent once running on account of the generously sized speaker and P-P output stage.

Dave.

https://sites.google.com/site/davegsm82/projects/radioputer - A BC5441 Turned into a Media Centre PC.

 
Posted : 10/01/2016 11:27 pm
Cobaltblue
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What a fantastic find Dave well done that man.

Don't forget to let Michael W know the serial number as I guess he's still collecting them together.

Cheers

Mike T

I don't care if it was a bargain whats it doing on my kitchen table. www.cossor.co.uk

 
Posted : 10/01/2016 11:33 pm
sideband
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Some people have all the luck.....! Well done picking up a bargain.

 
Posted : 10/01/2016 11:35 pm
Cathovisor
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An absolute bargain! I look forward to reading about the resto on here :aad

I only have one valve FM portable in my collection; an Akkord Pinguin U59.

 
Posted : 10/01/2016 11:42 pm
davegsm82
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Don't forget to let Michael W know the serial number as I guess he's still collecting them together.

Will do Mike, once I find out what number it is of course, at the minute the little 'slip' with the number on it has found its way twixt speaker and grille! (along with the all important radio licence plate).

Dave.

https://sites.google.com/site/davegsm82/projects/radioputer - A BC5441 Turned into a Media Centre PC.

 
Posted : 11/01/2016 12:11 am
Anonymous
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Good Luck!

It cost me €15 for a new blank glass. €5 is minimum charge for glass and €5 per hole drilled. I used white thermal transfer film laminated and peeled off a laser transparency print. I tried transfer water slide film, which is fine for B&W or Colour laser, but the white thermal film sticks to the clear parts 🙁

The case was bad on mine and I had to replicate the labels.

I have a scale scan if you need it.

Also scan and instructions to replicate front badge (may be thread here).

The audio phase splitter to drive the push pull out is also the VHF stage! Reflex. (The Philips Colette uses a DM70 purely as power indicator and phase splitter).

I think it's not as good as the Vidor Vanguard and nowhere near as good as much older more compact German models such as Philips Anette did (also sold in other countries and sometimes as other brands).

It was obviously a rebadged Berec for export markets as well as somewhat UK as it has SW instead of LW. Really unlike Germany, there was no sensible reason for a VHF-FM portable in UK till 1970s and Ireland till 1980s!
Mine here somewhere:
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/ever_sky_emperor.html
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/vidor_cn436cn_43.html
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philips_co ... 62_ab.html
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philips_an ... 80_ab.html
(I have an early DC90 Annette too, needing restored).

The DF97 VHF circuit simply saves filament current as it's triodised. The DF97 / DC90 are interchangeable. I cut one earth wire and the DC90 works identically in Vidor Vanguard (making one pin no connection had no effect on DF97 operation).
The Vanguard is unusual having no DK96, uses VHF mixer - osc as AM LO and FM first IF DF97 as pentode Mixer on AM!

The other unusual VHF-FM/AM portable is some Schaub Lorenz portables, (ITT). They use DF97 as VHF Osc-mixer with 10.7 IF, but on FM, the AM DK96 is a fixed Mixer Osc for 6.5MHz IF out, (to give more gain?) and then IF is dual AM (460k?) & FM 6.5 MHz using DF96s.

 
Posted : 11/01/2016 11:45 am
Paul_RK
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An excellent find! The first Sky Emperor to come my way was in generally nice condition just missing the badge, and then a much rougher one turned up with the badge in place so that was soon transferred. The rough one (broken dial glass, aerial and knob damage were among its ills) has since donated a few bits to another enthusiast's needy Emperor, so it probably hasn't anything left to give that would help with this one's restoration, but try me should any unlikely part specific to the model be required.

Paul

 
Posted : 11/01/2016 1:35 pm
Anonymous
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I also have scans and instructions for cheap to run replica battery pack (60 of Pennys or other "not big brand" Alkaline AA cells work out about 1/4 running cost of the PP3s)

Uses B103 due to extra filaments, not B136.

I parallel matched Alkaline D cells or same number of F cells out of 996 pack (which is what B103 used). Always use new cells, same date and check voltage before parallel. Alkaline do actually charge somewhat if not discharged more than 30%, so paralleling is fine. Besides almost ALL 1.5V LT packs had two to eight cells paralleled by the makers.

 
Posted : 11/01/2016 2:19 pm
davegsm82
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Thank you for the advice chaps, I'll grab some decent D-cells and see what I can come up with soon.

For the HT I actually have quite a few 12v packs of 600mA NI-MH's which I'm going to series into a pack, but I'll start with the caps first then the limited bench supply before unleashing batteries on it.

Paul, thanks for the offer, I'd be very much grateful if you could check to see if there is one of these in your spares?..

Forum 144

Other than that, it's going to need 1x new white plastic foot and an antenna but I can probably find a modern replacement for that.

Here's a shot of the inside too.

Forum 145

Dave.

https://sites.google.com/site/davegsm82/projects/radioputer - A BC5441 Turned into a Media Centre PC.

 
Posted : 12/01/2016 12:57 am
Paul_RK
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Hello Dave,

The hulk of my spares set is still intact, but I'm afraid it's already donated both aerial escutcheons - I don't think either was perfect to start with - and the only good aerial it had, and it hasn't a plastic foot to its name. One thing it does have is the frontal cream escutcheon in probably about the same general state as yours, quite yellowed with the odd little scrape, but without the break, so let me know if you'd like that for whatever it would cost to send. Actually there is a hairline crack in just that position in the escutcheon of my other Sky Emperor, but that's been spared sunlight so is still a close colour match for the knobs, hence I've not been tempted to swap them.

Paul

 
Posted : 12/01/2016 2:39 am
Anonymous
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For the HT I actually have quite a few 12v packs of 600mA NI-MH's which I'm going to series into a pack, but I'll start with the caps first then the limited bench supply before unleashing batteries on it.

Bad idea as large number series NiMH, one can reverse on discharge. With 60 x Alkaline AA, you'll get about 240 hours for £10. About 4p an hour. It's the LT that has high drain and a 10 AH NiMH D Cell will work well for that (very many mains/battery German sets only used D cell as emergency auxiliary power using a DEAC, an early square NiCd for LT. They mostly put about 1mA charge current to the HT layer pack as that would halt self discharge and slight rejuvenation on mains.

HT may be only 12mA average, decent Alkaline AA will be over 3000mAH at such low current. Do put a 50mA fuse on HT pack! My Colette push Pull has low HT at low volume as it unusually filters the DK96 oscillator grid to give a -7V (or less) approx, so the DK96 runs at about 6MHz even on Gram and VHF modes. It's possible to listen every day for an hour for a year on the same HT pack. The Alkaline AA also happens to be similar capacity (perhaps 20% more) to the larger B cells used in AD3, Portable 61 and various pre-war 90V to 180V packs. The B103, B136, B141 etc save space by using Layer type cells later used in PP9, PP7 etc, they are higher capacity than regular Zinc Carbon, but also higher resistance, hence only used for LT on transistor sets, the LT packs (or combo) for valves always were D Cells, G Cells or F Cells (insides 996). The B cells (same as still in flat 4.5V 3R12 pack still sold) only used for LT in 7.5V series pack as current is 1/4 as much and in GB packs (really no current).

The other advantage of Alkaline is up to 10 years shelf life, 5 years anyway. The Zinc Carbon are less than two years and NiMH self discharge in less than two weeks for some and even the "eneloop" long life type may self discharge in 4 months after first use.

The Ever Ready / Berec Emperor/Commander also has Gram mode. There were spring driven record players that had crystal pickup instead of acoustic horn for battery radio sets. I'm still looking for a 1950s model windup for my McMichael Battery Table model, Philips Colette and Sky Emperor.

 
Posted : 12/01/2016 10:50 am
davegsm82
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...let me know if you'd like that for whatever it would cost to send.

Hi Paul, that's a generous offer, I would only feel comfortable taking you up on it if you are sure you aren't going to use it in the future.

Michael, I looked at some packs of 32x own brand AA's in B&M the other day, they certainly felt 'heavy' enough to give me the confidence that they would be decent quality. They were £5.99 a pack, so would be £12 with 4 to spare. I do have a load of 10 or 12 cell packs somewhere, which would make the pack a little easier to build.

I will use the pack of AAA Ni-Mh's too though, they are just too convenient for this application to ignore and I did collect them for this reason. I plan to make a charger which charges each pack independently then a bank of relays will then switch them into series when not on charge. I have some 50/63mA fuses somewhere, and in fact I think I have some of those very fast acting TO-92 cased ones as were used in Panasonic VCR's. Will have to see if they are suitable.

Dave.

https://sites.google.com/site/davegsm82/projects/radioputer - A BC5441 Turned into a Media Centre PC.

 
Posted : 12/01/2016 10:09 pm
Anonymous
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Research cell reverse charge failure on NiMH and NiCd stacks.
Even with 24V it's a serious problem. At 84V it's a huge problem, as is self discharge. Only use small rechargeable cells up to 12V.
Safety is an issue too due to low internal resistance.

You need to have microprocessor monitoring of each 12V pack and load disconnection. To avoid reverse charge, you need to pick 1.1V end point per cell, so actually about 50 NiMH = same end point as 60 cell 90V layer pack or 60 off Alkaline cells (0.9V end point is assumed for HT packs, about 55V on a 90V pack).
LT design / battery packs assumed slightly over 1V end point on a 1.5V pack (or 0.9V per cell on a 5 cell 7.5V pack as that is nearly 1.1V on the DK96!)

Larger ones are good for LT. The Military 24V NiCd and NiMH packs are poor life. The 48V UPS and telecom mostly still use Lead Acid as cell reverse charging is less likely (1.8V to 2.2V per cell) and actually unlike NiMH, recoverable! Lithium of course explode if reverse charged, so all multicell packs have a cpu measuring every cell. If a single cell in Li pack doesn't re-charge properly the pack will never subsequently connect for discharge.

 
Posted : 13/01/2016 11:30 am
Terrykc
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I looked at some packs of 32x own brand AA's in B&M the other day, they certainly felt 'heavy' enough to give me the confidence that they would be decent quality. They were £5.99 a pack, so would be £12 with 4 to spare.

Dave, if you are near a Poundland, they do Kodak branded alkaline AA cells in packs of 6 for a pound, so 60 would only set you back £10 (and you could get 6 spares for only another pound if you want them!)

I've used them for ages with very good results and, in one comparative test, they outperformed Duracell!

A word of warning: I bought a large box of AA alkaline cells a couple of years ago from a once highly respected electronic component supplier - I won't mention them by name, but you can probably guess! - and they were a disaster! On more than one occasion they had a very short life in a small radio until I checked one lot and found my four cell battery was producing a mere 3 volts! One cell had gone completely flat very quickly and then reverse charged so I had a 4½V battery in series with a -1.5V cell!

Needless to say, the box went back for a refund!

When our used battery box got full to bursting a couple of months later, when I emptied it out to take them for recycling, I noticed that several were leaking badly - of the variety of makes in the box, I think you can guess which ones ...

When all else fails, read the instructions

 
Posted : 13/01/2016 11:48 am
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