Emerson 415 radio low volume.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by fumplet

Just picked up some caps and some are the ceiling fan caps. Hope they wont short out. Did ponder a fuse but not sure what amperage to select

I got my ceiling fan caps from scrap fans. I kept the caps and the pull switches.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by fumplet

looking for ceiling fan run caps but wow stores dont seem to sell them locally. Thought for sure Id drum one up quickly.
Fixed miswire of the 2Meg ohm and the 1 Meg ohm resistors off the 77 and 38 tube. Im hoping these arent 2000 and 1000 ohm and Im reading it wrong again as some of these sets meg meant K. Coming off the 77 tube screen is a 2 MEG and that goes to the screen of the 38 tube. I had the 2 MEG resistor going from plate to screen of the 77 tube. The 1 MEG resistor was also miswired. Now 1 MEG goes from screen of 77 to screen of 38 . The C bias for the 38 tube is 10.8 volts, not sure if .8 is close enough to the required 10 volts specified bias for 38 tube. Still very low output although slightly better after resistor miswire. j Also going to guess the .05 cap across the line isnt responsible for the extreme loss in volume.

The cap values are proper designation. Low volume on these sets are usually a lack of signal strength. Have the volume control set to max when tuning. antenna length should a minimum of 30 feet, 50 is better! Try adjusting the trimmer caps on the tuning condenser.
Is there any real strong stations in your area? 20 to 50 KW?
With the 38 output tube, it's only rated at .55 watts. Those sets really were never too loud!

[fumplet]

bought ceiling fan caps that have 4.5 5 and 6uf with a common gray wire. I figured I could parallel the cap itself with the values it has to get various values but if I use more than one colored wire, the radio tubes light at a much lower line voltage. Seems to only work if I parallel 2 separate physical caps together. CBB 61 is the ceiling fan cap number. NOt sure why they have 2 gray wires on these caps if they are tied to the same common end internally.
I series strung the 2 cbb 61 caps at 16uf to make 8 uf and tube voltage is 7.02 volts. Going to guess a 7 or 7.5 cap will do it.

[fumplet]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

The cap values are proper designation. Low volume on these sets are usually a lack of signal strength. Have the volume control set to max when tuning. antenna length should a minimum of 30 feet, 50 is better! Try adjusting the trimmer caps on the tuning condenser.
Is there any real strong stations in your area? 20 to 50 KW?
With the 38 output tube, it's only rated at .55 watts. Those sets really were never too loud!

one strong station and thats it. WHBC 1480 and its only 15kw. Im less than 5 miles from that. I usually only get 1480 and if Im lucky 1310 out of alliance ohio and thats 10 miles away WDPN. I usually lose that signal when it drops its power at night. Daytime I can maybe get it and night is good luck. Am 1060 is also dawn to dusk 15kw. I have always wanted to figure out how to get am 1310 after dusk but not sure if thats possable as IM 10 miles away from alliance ohio in east canton.
As far as loudness I only get volume the last 1/16 or slightly more of the volume knobs rotation basically 98 percent of the volume control from max. Seems somewhat odd unless I really do need the much longer wire for the antenna. Getting tired of trying to find the exact capacitor to make the tubes get 6.3 volts each. contemplating the 1n4007 diode approach. but if I were to use a diode IM not sure how much affect a capacitor would then have to drop voltage

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by fumplet

one strong station and thats it. WHBC 1480 and its only 15kw. Im less than 5 miles from that. I usually only get 1480 and if Im lucky 1310 out of alliance ohio and thats 10 miles away WDPN. I usually lose that signal when it drops its power at night. Daytime I can maybe get it and night is good luck. Am 1060 is also dawn to dusk 15kw. I have always wanted to figure out how to get am 1310 after dusk but not sure if thats possable as IM 10 miles away from alliance ohio in east canton.
As far as loudness I only get volume the last 1/16 or slightly more of the volume knobs rotation basically 98 percent of the volume control from max. Seems somewhat odd unless I really do need the much longer wire for the antenna. Getting tired of trying to find the exact capacitor to make the tubes get 6.3 volts each. contemplating the 1n4007 diode approach. but if I were to use a diode IM not sure how much affect a capacitor would then have to drop voltage

Check the volume control curcuit and make sure of the resistance. Check to see if the control is the original! If a replacement was used, it might be not quite right! The schematic doesn't have a parts list and description.

[fumplet]

Ok added some more antenna wire and it didnt do much UNTIL I retweaked the trimmer caps on the tuner and that woke it up. So now it still sounds like it needs more cap filters and the dreaded speaker rattle.
Ripped off what was left of the outter speaker gasket and cut out a new one from poster board. Not quite thick enough so I will double up another gasket. speaker rattle seems gone. This set must have been really wet or dropped in a bathtub yet still works.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by fumplet

Ok added some more antenna wire and it didnt do much UNTIL I retweaked the trimmer caps on the tuner and that woke it up. So now it still sounds like it needs more cap filters and the dreaded speaker rattle.
Ripped off what was left of the outter speaker gasket and cut out a new one from poster board. Not quite thick enough so I will double up another gasket. speaker rattle seems gone. This set must have been really wet or dropped in a bathtub yet still works.

I love taking baths with powered radios!....So stimulating.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by fumplet

Ok added some more antenna wire and it didnt do much UNTIL I retweaked the trimmer caps on the tuner and that woke it up. So now it still sounds like it needs more cap filters and the dreaded speaker rattle.
Ripped off what was left of the outter speaker gasket and cut out a new one from poster board. Not quite thick enough so I will double up another gasket. speaker rattle seems gone. This set must have been really wet or dropped in a bathtub yet still works.

I'm big on replacing the magnetic speaker with a PM dynamic speaker. An output transformer can be obtained from a tube, battery radio that uses a 3V4 or similar output tube with a 11K or so primary impedance.
BTW, is there a 300 ohm resistor in series with the high end of the volume control? It might be part of the control!

[fumplet]

still working on correct capacitor for line and tube voltages. Right now 7.3uf gets me 6.2 volts on tube filaments. Should I be worried about .1 of a volt Im not sure. Cannot use the fancy formula in another thread as it is supposed to use microsoft excel which requires me to go purchase microsoft 365. Swapping and combining caps is more fun anyway.
Just looked at meter and its now showing 6.24 volts. It seems to vary just like the line voltage so Im betting thats close enough.
Next is to hunt for the 300 ohm volume resistor unless its in the volume pot itself.
I have yet to figure out why bumping the tuner gets radio to play like tuner fins are losing connection to the fixed part of the tuner. Experience is telling me connection or coil bad somewhere.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by fumplet

still working on correct capacitor for line and tube voltages. Right now 7.3uf gets me 6.2 volts on tube filaments. Should I be worried about .1 of a volt Im not sure. Cannot use the fancy formula in another thread as it is supposed to use microsoft excel which requires me to go purchase microsoft 365. Swapping and combining caps is more fun anyway.
Just looked at meter and its now showing 6.24 volts. It seems to vary just like the line voltage so Im betting thats close enough.
Next is to hunt for the 300 ohm volume resistor unless its in the volume pot itself.
I have yet to figure out why bumping the tuner gets radio to play like tuner fins are losing connection to the fixed part of the tuner. Experience is telling me connection or coil bad somewhere.

With the V/C fully CW, check the cathode voltage on RF amp, pin 5, should be 2-3 volts. That will prove that the 300 resistor is part of the volume control. If not, wire in a 330 ohm resistor in series with the high end of the V/C and the cathode. Has the .1 MFD capacitor from the cathode been replaced.

[Alex KL-1]

Originally Posted by fumplet

still working on correct capacitor for line and tube voltages. Right now 7.3uf gets me 6.2 volts on tube filaments. Should I be worried about .1 of a volt Im not sure. Cannot use the fancy formula in another thread as it is supposed to use microsoft excel which requires me to go purchase microsoft 365. Swapping and combining caps is more fun anyway.
Just looked at meter and its now showing 6.24 volts. It seems to vary just like the line voltage so Im betting thats close enough.
Next is to hunt for the 300 ohm volume resistor unless its in the volume pot itself.
I have yet to figure out why bumping the tuner gets radio to play like tuner fins are losing connection to the fixed part of the tuner. Experience is telling me connection or coil bad somewhere.

No worries with 6.2V on 6.3V filaments. I use 5.9V for 10 years in one circuit I've made for audio, with ECC88, using almost every day, and tubes measures almost like new.
Even for power tubes, a little deviance is allowed, and will work perfectly.

[Electronic M]

There's always a good amount of tolerance in heater voltage. Remember series sets directly powered heaters from the wall and transformer powered sets powered them through an unregulated stepdown transformer so tubes were always exposed to the same xx% line voltage tolerance/variance as the rest of the set, and the design engineers had to plan for it.
Generally the lower the heater voltage the lower the output and the longer the life. Unless a tube or it's circuit is marginal it should run fine at the bottom end of input voltage tolerance.