54
Item nr.
Largely modiefied but working.
Production | France, 1936. |
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Bands | MW (540-1600kHz), LW; IF is 125kHz. |
Tubes | 2A7 (osc/mix), 58 IF), A257 (pre-amp, date coded: 5-VI), 47 (output), V580 (rectifier). |
Semi- conductors | Diode detector. |
Cabinet | Wood. Size 40x52x29 cm. |
Power | AC (54W). |
Obtained | 1/1997 from via Piet Hoen. |
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Condition | 6; many modifications, plays well on MW. |
Disposed | Sold 4/2016. |
Sound sample | PLAY SOUND In 1936 not only this radio, but also the Oosterkerk in Zeist was built. After 60 years, the radio was just a worn out piece of furniture, but the church was still a weekly meeting place for hundreds of enthousiastic Christions. Church musician Willem Harold Boog plays Marche Triomphale on the church' Flentrop Organ. The organ piece was recorded from the pick-up entry; radio reception is a bit treble-depleted due to the rather narrow MF circuits. |
In April 1999 I sanded and refinished the radio, and applied fresh speaker grille cloth. I did some repairs but the sound remained quite poor until I replaced the speaker (by a fifty years old Philips speaker) in March 2000. Also I modified the detector circuit and replaced the volume control by one that operates in the LF part of the radio, and installed a primitive AGC working on the IF tube 58. Now the sound is quite good, and the radio looks fresh, though not precisely original. That means, the value of the radio is probably not very high... but I don't care! It has been with me for about twenty years, and I like it, which is the most important criterion to a hobbyist.
A new repair was necessary in November 2006, when the radio stopped playing. The cathode resistor of the 58 was interrupted and I replaced it. Measurements showed that the B+ voltage in the radio was quite high, nearly 350 volts. I found out that this was not normal for these tubes; the choke coil, used to replace the speaker field coil, had a very low DC resistance, so I added a 1k resistor there. I introduced an AUX entry, connected directly to the volume control.
I did further maintenance in August 2015. Over the years, the radio had developed crackling noises, that could be silenced by the band switch. Because the set receives nothing on LW (GO), I decided to fix-solder the switch contacts to MW position. I also shortened some leads I had made in 2006, replaced dangerous wiring, and replaced the dial chord. In light of the decreasing number of AM stations, I checked the AUX entry to work well, so the radio can play well from an MP3 player or external DAB+ radio. And I made a back panel (photo right) to prevent dust in the radio, to find out that the cabinet is far from rectangular! The cabinet is not symmetric; the little "roof" is steeper on the left side! I do not know if the latter was intended.