Tube Radio Restoration

[craig61a]

Over 20 years ago when my career became mostly software development as opposed to designing electronic devices, I started collecting and repairing old vacuum tube radios.

My father brought home an old Philco 40-120 that the school was getting rid of back in the early 1970’s. I enjoyed listening to it, and the glow of the tubes, the dimming and brightening of the dial lamp as the set warmed up and began playing was intriguing.

Hence the desire to acquire a few sets and work on them in later years. After transitioning to software as opposed to electronic work, I missed the hands on nature of electronic work.

I bought sets and restored them, used them and sold a few. After a few years work and life got in the way, and a bunch of sets were relegated to the attic…

So, this spring i started going through my attic and junking, or taking stuff to Goodwill. I rediscovered the old radios that never got worked on. So I started working on them and getting them back into shape.

I still have all the manuals, components parts, test equipment etc. that I had back in the day. And some of the test equipment is vintage stuff too. It all still works great.

Its fun to tinker and relearn some of the knowledge I had years ago.

 

[MacMarty89]

It looks interesting. I’m into HiFi, but that mainly composes of Naim Audio equipment. I‘m more into this sort of stuff, not so much the internal technicalities.

 

[CoffeeAndBourbon]

Look at that old school point to point wiring and huge components. I love it!

 

[CoffeeAndBourbon]

If I had the money....
I would drive up to Cary, NC and get a Cary Audio amp setup

SLI-80HS Integrated Amplifier | Cary Audio

www.caryaudio.com

 

[craig61a]

Where should we set the dials on the WABAC machine today, Sherman?

 

[craig61a]

Parts unknown…?

 

[kcghost]

You can still get tubes for these products?? Who'd have thunk it.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

You can still get tubes for these products?? Who'd have thunk it.

I believe tubes are harder to buy these days due to the aggressions towards Ukraine as Russia is the leading producer of tubes. High end guitar amps etc. still use tubes.

 

[lraisch]

I remember testing for tubes that were "microphonic". Tap, Tap, smash/tinkle, "That one was weak"!

 

[tbradsim1]

Dad bought a Silvertone console short wave, phonograph, regular radio and when we moved to Brownsville Texas he would tell us about how long his shrimping trip would be, we would start listening to the short wave around that time, hearing when he would be coming in, meeting him at the dock, later I would accidentally shoot a hole in it with my .45, went high no damage, got it in my second bedroom in my 100 yr old house, would be a hoot to see it play again. Silvertone was bought at Sears.

 

[craig61a]

You can still get tubes for these products?? Who'd have thunk it.

Here still a lot of old stock vacuum tubes around. Some particular types are higher priced and limited in a availability due to the popularity/use of the type in certain products.

I bought a quantity of old stock tubes 20 years ago, and prices nowadays are up considerably fo some.

Old design tubes popular for audio applications ate still manufactured, mostly in Russia. There has been trouble importing those in the last few months. I read an article the other day about a boutique tube mfr in the US looking to expand their products to cover that.

 

[craig61a]

Dad bought a Silvertone console short wave, phonograph, regular radio and when we moved to Brownsville Texas he would tell us about how long his shrimping trip would be, we would start listening to the short wave around that time, hearing when he would be coming in, meeting him at the dock, later I would accidentally shoot a hole in it with my .45, went high no damage, got it in my second bedroom in my 100 yr old house, would be a hoot to see it play again. Silvertone was bought at Sears.

 

[edger]

hey @tbradsim1 it was either that alligator leatherette on the radio or NPR came on.

 

[romaso]

I remember the tube testers they'd have at the hardware or Radio Shack stores, so many different bases. And waiting for Grandma's TV to warm up so the picture would work.

 

[edger]

Remember waking up in the morning with those Bakelite headphones from your chrystal radio set still on? You had to painfully pry your ears off your skull and go to school half asleep.

 

[mso489]

The old radios often looked like art deco works or the even older ones looked like cathedrals. Then when you looked in the back, it looked like a city at night with all the tubes lit up like tall buildings. And they had a special smell when they were warm. The only Sears Silverstone I remember owning was not a radio but a ukulele which hung on my old bedroom wall at home for about twenty years. When I asked the family's permission to remove it, I swear to God it was still in tune, and I still have it today.

What a cool hobby and expertise, to be able to bring those radios back to life. As with vinyl disks, I've always thought the tube amps have a warmer and more deeply resonant sound. The old Hammond organs with vacuum tubes definitely have a unique sound quality and are still coveted for various music genres today -- jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, polka, and more.

 

[craig61a]

The proper way to play a Hammond is to plug it into a Marshall head…

As for this, I am at a loss for words…

 

[craig61a]

Maybe they should have played Deep Purple for the hippie party music on “Adam-12” instead of the lame music they played… ?

 

[renfield]

Cool old radios. Nice job on the restoration!

Two weeks ago I got my great-uncle’s old tube radio. A family member muled it to me. Unbeknownst to me he said he wanted me to have it not long before he died a several years ago. He had been in the South Pacific during WW2 but rarely said much about it other than mentioning his ship being attacked and hit by kamikazes. I always thought he was a lot deeper than he let on.

I don’t need another radio but I’m going to restore his old set for sentimental reasons. It’s an All American 5 design. World’s worst “grounding” design. Always a very real chance of electrocution even when everything is working as designed. A lot of the work will be correcting that.

 

[craig61a]

It’s an All American 5 design. World’s worst “grounding” design. Always a very real chance of electrocution even when everything is working as designed. A lot of the work will be correcting that.

Not necessarily… The AC side will run through the filaments. DC is built up on the filter caps, and since the AA5’s mostly used a half wave rectifier you won’t have the same potential as one that uses a ct transformer.

Run it through an isolation transformer and keep one hand in your pocket while it’s live…