Just acquired a late 1940s Magnavox AM/SW/Phono Console Today!

[DavGoodlin]

You have the 1947 model called the Berkeley. That AM and SW receiver has a sharp tune function that varies the bandpass by a significantly usable amount. This is a rare feature and makes this a superior SW receiver, while delivering better sound on AM stations allowing the filter (treble) to be varied.

Output tubes 6L6G in push pull will drive those two 12" speakers with 15 watts, according to the sales info I had. It is built like a proverbial brick Scheiss-haus, putting it in league with Fisher and other high-end players.

CR-198B is your chassis - The presets are solid mechanical adjustable like a car radio. An optional CR-206 FM tuner (with its own tuning eye tube) can be installed in a delete plate above the AM-SW escutcheon, though I don't recommend looking for one. The DXing on the AM-SW far outshines the early FM tuner

I know - I have one where I recapped the entire chassis and FM chassis as well, that has its own power supply. It is one awesome radio when connected to just a 15 foot antenna, the filter really makes a difference I had to rebuild the bottom of the cabinet, it was in a flooded basement, then put concealed casters on so I can roll it out on my porch.

Your stock record player may be only 78 rpm, the original in my Berkeley was replaced by a newer Magnavox Custom that played all four speeds. I use a stereo ceramic cartridge that is available from V-M as Pfanstiehl P228-DS73. If you play only 78, this can also replace your Webcor's original crystal cartridge if its shot.

First get the schematic from Riders, or have a good look at all of those cap values, order a replacement of EVERY wax capacitor and EVERY electrolytic. Don't save anything and check the resistors, Magnavox used crappy ones just like RCA that drift high blueprint this worthy set by changing out-of-tolerance and wax-bomb caps and you will be very impressed.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

You have the 1947 model called the Berkeley. That AM and SW receiver has a sharp tune function that varies the bandpass by a significantly usable amount. This is a rare feature and makes this a superior SW receiver, while delivering better sound on AM stations allowing the filter (treble) to be varied.

Output tubes 6L6G in push pull will drive those two 12" speakers with 15 watts, according to the sales info I had. It is built like a proverbial brick Scheiss-haus, putting it in league with Fisher and other high-end players.

CR-198B is your chassis - The presets are solid mechanical adjustable like a car radio. An optional CR-206 FM tuner (with its own tuning eye tube) can be installed in a delete plate above the AM-SW escutcheon, though I don't recommend looking for one. The DXing on the AM-SW far outshines the early FM tuner

I know - I have one where I recapped the entire chassis and FM chassis as well, that has its own power supply. It is one awesome radio when connected to just a 15 foot antenna, the filter really makes a difference I had to rebuild the bottom of the cabinet, it was in a flooded basement, then put concealed casters on so I can roll it out on my porch.

Your stock record player may be only 78 rpm, the original in my Berkeley was replaced by a newer Magnavox Custom that played all four speeds. I use a stereo ceramic cartridge that is available from V-M as Pfanstiehl P228-DS73. If you play only 78, this can also replace your Webcor's original crystal cartridge if its shot.

First get the schematic from Riders, or have a good look at all of those cap values, order a replacement of EVERY wax capacitor and EVERY electrolytic. Don't save anything and check the resistors, Magnavox used crappy ones just like RCA that drift high blueprint this worthy set by changing out-of-tolerance and wax-bomb caps and you will be very impressed.

Interesting, mine though has a stamp on the back of the chassis that says CR-198 E on it, which I'm not sure what that indicates but I think mine is a slightly later version than yours, also the changer on mine is definitely original to it, and its a 33 1/3 (LP) and 78 RPM only model, its definitely not a later replacement model, from what I can see.

Also This radio has from what I can tell all of its original tubes in it (RCA and Ken-Rad rebadged GE tubes) that all have date codes from 1947 and 1948, which seems to place my unit's manufacture date to 1948 or so.

Anyways I do plan on recapping the radio I was just trying to get a baseline functionality of the unit, because the original cord was bad so I had to replace that, and so far the radio seems to be functioning well with its original capacitors in it right now, but I will definitely replace them.

[DavGoodlin]

I think mine is CR-198 E. Both original 6L6 are Ken-Rad (GE). I'm not surprised its playing on original caps either. No RCA or Philco of that vintage would work as found.

That record player is awesome, fine candidate for stereo ceramic cartridge, so you can play stereo records. I think my 48 Windsor has that same RP.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

I think mine is CR-198 E. Both original 6L6 are Ken-Rad (GE). I'm not surprised its playing on original caps either. No RCA or Philco of that vintage would work as found.

That record player is awesome, fine candidate for stereo ceramic cartridge, so you can play stereo records. I think my 48 Windsor has that same RP.

I got the proper audio plug in the mail yesterday and I installed it, but unfortunately there was no audio coming from the cartridge, which I figured out it was because someone screwed with the original tone-arm wire and so I have to install some new wire in the tone-arm.

The original cartridge by the way is still good, I tested it for output with my newly acquired EICO VTVM (that I finally found a set of test probes for) and I got a good strong deflection on the VTVM with it set in Ohms.

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

I got the proper audio plug in the mail yesterday and I installed it, but unfortunately there was no audio coming from the cartridge, which I figured out it was because someone screwed with the original tone-arm wire and so I have to install some new wire in the tone-arm.

The original cartridge by the way is still good, I tested it for output with my newly acquired EICO VTVM (that I finally found a set of test probes for) and I got a good strong deflection on the VTVM with it set in Ohms.

Something to consider here, if sorting the wiring in the arm doesn't bring back the sound;

The typical failure of old carts is not that they fail electrically, but physically. Meaning, the soft parts that allow the needle's vibrations to shake the electrical pieces dry out and become solid. If it's a crystal cart the crystals themselves solidify with age, and old magnetic carts don't fare much better. In other words, electrically good is not proof of a working cart, making vibrations into amplifyable electrical representations of sounds is

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by init4fun

Something to consider here, if sorting the wiring in the arm doesn't bring back the sound;

The typical failure of old carts is not that they fail electrically, but physically. Meaning, the soft parts that allow the needle's vibrations to shake the electrical pieces dry out and become solid. If it's a crystal cart the crystals themselves solidify with age, and old magnetic carts don't fare much better. In other words, electrically good is not proof of a working cart, making vibrations into amplifyable electrical representations of sounds is

I agree continuity isn't a definitive check of a cartridge....However if you read between the lines it sounds like he did an AC voltage test on the cart. If it produces AC voltage in proportion to stylus movement in a groove (or rubbing a finger tip on it...I know it's not the best thing to do) then its at least not dead...
Granted carts do dry out and get into a state where, while not dead, audio distortion is intolerably bad.
The best test is actually listening to it's output.

[jr_tech]

Does the phono input work? perhaps there was a good reason the plug was changed so that the phono could be plugged into the tuner input.

jr

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Does the phono input work? perhaps there was a good reason the plug was changed so that the phono could be plugged into the tuner input.

jr

It seems to, when I hook the phono cable into the phono input and touch the ground lead it does hum.

Apparently when I went to remove the record changer from the cabinet the unit does indeed have its original record changer, but its been modified, the record changer used in this unit is a Webster-Chicago (Webcor) record changer model 256-19 which used its own unique cartridge assembly that had a flip over needle that selection of the proper side of the cartridge/needle was done via a lever on the back of the tone-arm (which that is what's missing/modified on my unit) they replaced the original cartidge (which I'm guessing was probably a high output crystal cartridge of the 3v variety,) which would explain the modification for inputting the phono output into the tuner input rather than the phono input, because the more modern 1V ceramic cartridge like the Sonotone 2T that they used to replace the original cartridge wasn't loud enough to play through the original phono input.

See picture below.