Just picked up a 1930s Battery operated Coronado

[mr_rye89]

My step mom has a Coronado set that has three way power. it had a compartment and a plug for a 90V/1.5v A/B battery (i think). I think it was late 40s or early 50s. I'll find more info next time I visit.

I also have an Emerson 508 (battery only) and a Motorola 5A7A (three way) that use a 67 volt B and a D size A.

EDIT: nabbed photos off epay. empty box lol.

two 45 volt "B"s and two 4.5 volt "A"s. hmmmm.......

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by mr_rye89

My step mom has a Coronado set that has three way power. it had a compartment and a plug for a 90V/1.5v A/B battery (i think). I think it was late 40s or early 50s. I'll find more info next time I visit.

I also have an Emerson 508 (battery only) and a Motorola 5A7A (three way) that use a 67 volt B and a D size A.

EDIT: nabbed photos off epay. empty box lol.

two 45 volt "B"s and two 4.5 volt "A"s. hmmmm.......

The radio was made by Warwick. I wonder what battery life was like? Using a 9 volts "A" source makes the switching circuitry simpler between line and battery.
My luggable Emerson 523 uses the same battery compliment.

[fixmeplease]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

On a side note and slightly OOT, it always amazed me that anyone would buy a battery only tube radio. "B" batteries were never cheap!
I'm referring to the time when most homes had electricity. Portable, battery only radios were made until about 1956.
Three way portables were only about $5 to $8 dollars more and you can use them all year.

The 1st one I fixed was my Dad's farm set before they had electric. Its a 1949 I think. Airline model. My Dad told me even back then the batteries were expensive. They used it until quite a while after they got electric then gave it to an Uncle who had electric but no radio and he used it until around 1960 I think.

It needed and needs a decent antenna run to pick up much, maybe 10 foot minimum so isnt much of a portable. It only has a screw to attach an antenna wire to it. A built in antenna would have been better. My Dad ran an antenna around the outside of the house and stapled it on so they could listen to the Grand Ole Opry on the weekends, plus local stations during the week.

All that said, I agree, anyone with electric was better off with a plug in electric option.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by fixmeplease

The 1st one I fixed was my Dad's farm set before they had electric. Its a 1949 I think. Airline model. My Dad told me even back then the batteries were expensive. They used it until quite a while after they got electric then gave it to an Uncle who had electric but no radio and he used it until around 1960 I think.

It needed and needs a decent antenna run to pick up much, maybe 10 foot minimum so isnt much of a portable. It only has a screw to attach an antenna wire to it. A built in antenna would have been better. My Dad ran an antenna around the outside of the house and stapled it on so they could listen to the Grand Ole Opry on the weekends, plus local stations during the week.

All that said, I agree, anyone with electric was better off with a plug in electric option.

I have a post-war Zenith four tube farm set.
I got lucky and picked up two battery eliminators intended for farm sets at a swap meet a while back. I have one in the Zenith.

[vortalexfan]

OK so I had ordered some capacitors for this radio over at AES (Antique Electronic Supply) and I had put the order in on Friday (November 27) and I had gotten the order confirmation email from them on Sunday (November 29) and I checked the tracking on my package and it says that a shipping label was made for my order on November 29 (Sunday) and that the postal service was waiting to receive the package, and that's the last update on my parts order from AES.

Here it is December 2, and its still not left AES's headquarters, (according to the tracking number as of today) and I paid the extra money for priority mail.

Does anyone know what's going on?

[mr_rye89]

Dunno. AES is usually pretty quick, but they're in Arizona and I'm in New Mexico. It's probably holiday related delays.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by mr_rye89

Dunno. AES is usually pretty quick, but they're in Arizona and I'm in New Mexico. It's probably holiday related delays.

I messaged them and they said it was because of all of the online black friday sales that more or less overwhelmed the postal service there, which is understandable because I did hear about that on the news on the radio.

[vortalexfan]

A little update, I got my 2 D-Cell Battery Clip today that I ordered from Radio Shack last Week, and I wired it up just like you guys suggested with a couple of 1N4007 Diodes wired in series with the Positive wire for the Battery clip and that then in turn was wired to the radio's "A" Battery hookups.

I was able to get the radio to work for a little bit (with my signal generator hooked up for a signal source) and I was able to get the test tone to go through the Antenna hookups properly (it was actually coming in where it was supposed to on the dial and not all across the dial like it did before).

Then going through the grid cap of the 1C6 tube I was also able to get the signal through there as well (but it was coming in all across the dial and not at just one spot like it was supposed to).

But then when I went to try and adjust the IF Cans to make sure they were peaked correctly the signal would cut in and out and then it finally completely cut out to the point that I can't get anything out of the radio audio wise anymore, and I did check the batteries to make sure there was enough juice and there was plenty of juice in the batteries, and they were putting out 2.3 Volts.

I'm still waiting on my capacitors (checked the tracking and they are supposedly arriving on Friday (which is kind of rediculous because I shouldn't of had to wait almost 3 weeks for my parts to come like this).

Anyone have any ideas as to what may have happened to my radio?

Thanks.

[vortalexfan]

Would any of the batteries listed in the link below work for the "A" battery on this radio?

https://www.batteriesplus.com/batter...ed-lead-acid/2

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Would any of the batteries listed in the link below work for the "A" battery on this radio?

https://www.batteriesplus.com/batter...ed-lead-acid/2

I didn't know 2 volt lead-acid rechargable batteries were still available.
Now, you'll have to build a charger!

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Anyone have any ideas as to what may have happened to my radio?

Thanks.

Looks like nobody's chiming in. If you were turning the IF adjustments with the oscillator dead, there will be no IF signal for the adjustments to 'peak' to. So they're probably 'waay outa whack. To get them back on peak, inject a 456 khz signal. Keep attenuating the level as needed as they approach the peak. Once on peak, attenuate a little more and get it as sharp as possible.

Then start looking for why the osc. isn't running. For a start, check for continuity of the osc coil's primary and secondary windings.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by old_coot88

Looks like nobody's chiming in. If you were turning the IF adjustments with the oscillator dead, there will be no IF signal for the adjustments to 'peak' to. So they're probably 'waay outa whack. To get them back on peak, inject a 456 khz signal. Keep attenuating the level as needed as they approach the peak. Once on peak, attenuate a little more and get it as sharp as possible.

Then start looking for why the osc. isn't running. For a start, check for continuity of the osc coil's primary and secondary windings.

Well that's the thing it was "working" (I was able to inject a 456 kHz signal into the radio and it was picking it up but it was intermittent) and now when I try to inject a 456 kHz signal into the radio it won't pick it up at all period.

Although I think I figured out part of my problem, my temporary "A" battery rig is only putting out about 150 mA of current and the radio's filaments require over 500 mA of current. So I think I need either brand new D-Cell batteries or some high output current rechargeable D-Cell batteries (like some 10,000 mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries.)

As for the oscillator coil measurements goes, I tried measuring it with my multimeter and all I get is an O. L. Reading on my multimeter when trying to measure it, it's the same way with the antenna coil and the IF coils as well and I'm pretty sure there's no way that both IF coils and the Antenna Coil and the Oscillator coil could of died all at once especially seeing as when I first got it and took it apart and measured everything they all tested fine then...

[fixmeplease]

i'd wait for the caps and replace them before worrying about anything else.

[vortalexfan]

OK so a little update on this radio, I got the radio recapped yesterday and I also got a set of 2500 mAH NiMH rechargeable D batteries from Harbor Freight and then a Charger for them at Menard's (they were the only place near me that had a universal battery charger in stock without having to travel to Mishawaka or South Bend which is over a half hour away from me.)

And I charged the batteries over night and installed them into my battery clip and turned on my radio with my signal generator hooked up to the antenna wire and sure enough I was signal through (albeit at the wrong frequency, it was coming in at 453 kHz rather than 456 kHz) and so I realigned the IF cans so that they were coming in at 456 kHz instead.

But then shortly after that the radio faded out and I checked my D batteries for my "A" supply and they were still putting out a charge so then I turned the radio back on again and the radio started working again but then it faded out again.

Also something I've noticed with my radio is that one of the IF cans on this radio is a replacement and when I would power on this radio and once it warms up, the radio makes a short burst of white noise and then it goes away like the radio is trying to pick some stations or trying to function but it can't quite function properly.

Also another weird thing I've noticed about this radio is that this radio will only operate at between 2.2 volts and 2.4 V on the filaments, if I try to use the recommended 2.1 Volts, the radio won't operate.

Any ideas as to what might be going on with the radio?

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

OK so a little update on this radio, I got the radio recapped yesterday and I also got a set of 2500 mAH NiMH rechargeable D batteries from Harbor Freight and then a Charger for them at Menard's (they were the only place near me that had a universal battery charger in stock without having to travel to Mishawaka or South Bend which is over a half hour away from me.)

And I charged the batteries over night and installed them into my battery clip and turned on my radio with my signal generator hooked up to the antenna wire and sure enough I was signal through (albeit at the wrong frequency, it was coming in at 453 kHz rather than 456 kHz) and so I realigned the IF cans so that they were coming in at 456 kHz instead.

But then shortly after that the radio faded out and I checked my D batteries for my "A" supply and they were still putting out a charge so then I turned the radio back on again and the radio started working again but then it faded out again.

Also something I've noticed with my radio is that one of the IF cans on this radio is a replacement and when I would power on this radio and once it warms up, the radio makes a short burst of white noise and then it goes away like the radio is trying to pick some stations or trying to function but it can't quite function properly.

Also another weird thing I've noticed about this radio is that this radio will only operate at between 2.2 volts and 2.4 V on the filaments, if I try to use the recommended 2.1 Volts, the radio won't operate.

Any ideas as to what might be going on with the radio?

First of all, a fully charged 2 volt lead-acid puts out 2.2volts. This voltage is what the radio was designed to use.
Did you check the tubes on a good tube checker. You probably have a weak osc-mixer tube. Increasing the filament voltage, will increase the emission.