Philco 39-116 Find
 

Just got this Philco radio off of craigslist for $50. Right now it is running at 90V on a variac and it seems to bring in AM with no problem. I don't suppose this radio can play FM? Not much music on AM in Vegas. The guy I bought it from said he got it from a friend of his who collected old radios. Hopefully it has already been recapped. The tubes I can see seem to be original branded philco. For a radio from 1939 I am surprised it plays at all.

Service info on my website: http://www.audiophool.cjb.net/Misc/p...39-55&116.djvu

Didja get the remote with it? (I'm NOT kidding - this had the FIRST EVER wireless remote)

Hard to fit in a pocket, a 1 tube remote !!

Cool radio! I used to own one of them. Mine was missing the remote. It's a thing that looks like a telephone dial in a burlwood box. There is someone over on the Philco Phorum that makes a reproduction battery for the remote! Look around over here.

www.philcoradio.com/phpBB2/index.php

Regarding FM, they didnt have it. Being from 1939 It would be useless today even if it had it. Prewar FM stations were on a different band than is used today. I think it was down around 44mc.

Does It have a phono input on the back? If it does, you could fix that problem the way they did right after the FM band changed. Find an old tuner like a Pilot t-601 or a Meissner 8c and plug it in!

Here's an interesting site about early FM radios.

http://www.somerset.net/arm/fm_only.html


John

He didn't mention it and I didn't know about it when I picked it up. I sent him an email to see if he has it. Looks doubtful to me.

Thanks for the links and help everyone. Loren

Picture shamelessly lifted from ebay.....

... which was originally lifted from http://www.philcorepairbench.com/mystery/index.htm :)

And this particular radio was discussed in this thread: http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=66090

Great buy! :thmbsp:

Quick update. I pulled the chassis last night. The original paper caps are still in there. Some of the wires going to the dial and pilot lamps are cracking. No big deal really as I can fix these myself. The biggest problem is that the volume control/on/off switch doesn't work. The volume knob doesn't connect to a pot but some sort of switch which pushes two of four peices of metal together (which makes a small spark). See picture. Also two tubes don't work. The 2AG4 which is used to calibrate the mystery control (which I don't have) and the 6ZY5G which is a rectifier in the mystery control section on the chassis. Any ideas on how to fix the volume control?

Edit: the switch is supposed to activate a motor which turns the volume pot. I think you just rotate the dial slightly, making contact and the motor turns volume pot. I was rotating the dial way too much. Right now the motor doesn't turn. I am hoping it has something to do with the dead recitifer tube.