Radio Alignment Troubles

[vortalexfan]

Hello everyone, I just recently finished electrically restoring a 1934 Stewart-Warner R-110 Tombstone Radio (replaced all of the original paper capacitors and replaced 1 original electrolytic can cap and 2 1960s vintage replacement electrolytic caps), and I need to do a realignment of the tuner but the problem is that the radio's IF Section uses an IF Frequency of 177.5 kC but none of my signal generators I own go below 300 kC (I have a 1970s vintage Hewlett-Packard Signal Generator with a built-in frequency counter, and vernier style tuning knobs for frequency selection, that only goes down to about 442 kHz and a 1952 vintage signal generator made by Precise Development Corp. of Oceanside, NY a model 610, that only goes down to 300 kHz (.3 MHz), and I was wondering if there's any way to make either of these signal Generators go down to 177.5 kHz or a harmonic of that frequency that the radio would be able to detect that I could align the radio's IF with and have the radio still function as if it had been aligned using a 177.5 kHz signal? If there is, what's the process?

Thanks for the help in this matter.

[old_coot88]

That's simple. Just find a moderately-weak (not a superpower local) station somewhere near mid-band (say 910 kc.) Tune the genny to 177.5 kc above it (1087.5 kc) and peak the IFs on that. Cuz 177.5 is the 'intermediate' or common working frequency.

This is assuming the radio uses high-end oscillator injection (osc. tracks above rec'd frequency). In the rare instance it tracks below (low-end injection), you would set the genny to 177.5 below 910, or 732.5 kc.

[vortalexfan]

UPDATE: I figured out what my problem was, one of the 58 tubes was bad, this radio uses 3 58 tubes, one for the IF, one for the 1st Detector, and one for the RF, and the one that was in the 1st Detector socket was bad (it barely registered on my tube tester outside of the "?" spot on the tube checker.

The reason why I suspected a bad tube was because when I put my hand on the grid cap of the 1st Detector tube the radio came in loud and clear but as soon as I moved my hand away the radio was as deaf as can be.

So now to hunt down a NOS 58 Tube to install in the radio, and the radio should be fine.

[Dude111]

Good luck getting everything happy buddy


We have faith in you!!

[radio nut]

Did you find a 58?

[vortalexfan]

Yes I did, and unfortunately I figured out that it has some bad coils in it, the Antenna coil and the RF coil are both open and so the radio can't even pick up any signals from an antenna. The Antenna Coil I was able to find the break as it was in a spot near the termination point, but the RF Coil is going to be harder to find because I will have to take the whole coil pack apart to find the break, because its in an encasement on top of the chassis, rather than just being attached to the side of the underside of the chassis like the antenna coil is.