Just thought some of you might be interested to see this little set, and it is very little! It was one of the purchases from Newark antiques fair a few weeks back along with the GEC telly, only cost me £12, and to be honest I wasn’t expecting much from it, it was grubby and the back of the case cracked, and the Philips badge has gone missing.
When I got it to the workshop I opened it up and was greeted by an almost untouched chassis, just the mains cable had been changed in the past.
Love that the capacitors are ‘Perfect’!
What surprised me most was the fairly large elliptical speaker, and the full set of valves! It’s a series string set, that runs on 110V, 4 positions on the waveband switch, valves are UY41, UL41, UBC41, UF41, and UCH42. The cabinet, or should I call it ‘shell’ just lifts off the chassis after removing 4 fixings from the bottom of the set, leaving the whole front in place.
I set about getting some power into it using my bench PSU’s, I can link them all to give 100V, and I can also monitor and limit current easily. First problem, heater chain was open circuit, after pulling all the valves and checking them I found the UY42 with a dead heater, I had a UY41 to hand so swapped it with that, which got the heaters going, the dial lamp is currently missing. I’m guessing someone tried it on 240V at some point! After a waiting for it to warm up I checked for HT, which was just about present, but very low, there was no sound at all, not even a crackle. Checking the grid of the output bottle showed positive volts, so the coupling cap got the snip, which woke it up a bit! Tacking in a replacement (of completely random value no less) got some life at last, and I was then able to tune in Absolute radio on MW, very loud and clear! For such a small set it certainly sounds as good as some bigger sets, probably helped by that elliptical speaker. Everything seemed ok so I let the set run most nights in the workshop, sometimes using the MiniMod when actual stations get boring.
The cabinet has been given a wash, and a polish with No.5, the scale/grille got a clean with foam cleaner and Silvo polish (Brasso for silver and plated things). I think it’s come up nicely, just need to sort out the crack on the back, and probably polish it a bit more as there is some yellow patches on one side, oh and find a badge!
Regards
Lloyd
What a nice looking set! French sets seem to be nice designs. With a few exceptions I think the British market sets were designed to match the drab old brown furniture that seemed so popular after the war.
I may have a Philips badge I will let you know if I find it.
Rich.
Hi Rich,
it is a rather cute little radio! I have a few French sets, including a Sonora Excellence 301, which I have never even tried to power up! I did a bit of Googling of the Philips, and discovered they came in a few colours, this one, a dark brown one, a light green and a bright red one. It’d be nice to find some of the other colours! If you do have a Philips badge to spare that would be fantastic! The space for it is 15mm wide by 20 tall.
The same chassis was used in another French set, the Radiolinette RA152U, which is the service data I’m using (from Radiomuseum), the only thing it doesn’t seem to mention is the rating for the dial lamp! I’ve got some bulbs to try, I’ll just be careful winding the voltage up!
Regards
Lloyd
@lloyd Hi Lloyd I have found the badge. It's a bit smaller than you describe, I thought that all of the enamel badges were the same size regardless of tape recorder , radio TV etc but maybe yours being French it isn't the same? This badge measures 13mm wide and 17mm High. If it is any use let me know and I will put it in the post. Or you can collect it from my mate's stall at R.T on Sunday if you like?
Cheers, Rich
Hi Rich,
that sounds perfect, thanks! Pick up from RetroTech would be great, I should be there after 10:30, all being well. Many thanks again!
Regards
Lloyd
Hi Rich,
great to see you at RetroTech yesterday, and thank you very much for the Philips badge, it fits!
It certainly improves the appearance of the radio, I just carefully placed it on the set for the photo, so the next job is to stick it on properly.
many thanks again!
Lloyd
