Philco radio help

I found this Philco 38-10 radio in my house and my Dad said it worked about 10 years ago but hasn't tried since. I would like to get it working again. I am a total tube newbie and dont know where to start.

I have carefully taken it apart to get the dust and cobwebs out and I have discovered that the power cord will need to be replaced. I checked it over and I dont see anything obviously wrong.

After I replace the power cord, what should I do before I try it out. Any help is appreciated. This is what the radio looks like, I found these pics on the net.

[Sandy G]

Oh, wow ! A "Bullet" And in good shape, too! First thing, DON'T plug it in & turn it on !! Could be deadly for the radio-and you. What level of electronic/soldering skills do you have? If nothing, I would strongly recommend boxing it up & sending it to a person that specialises in this sort of thing-there are a couple of AKers who can do this work. Working on these old guys isn't hard, but if you've never done it, it's a little like trying to read Sanskrit. I'd say yr set was made in 1937-38. Looks like it's std broadcast & shortwave. More than likely, it can be made to "talk" again. -Sandy G.

Thanks Sandy, that's not mine but it is in equal shape. I have been reading some of the radio threads here and it looks like I will need to replace the power cord, the wax caps and then bring it back to life with a variac, is that right?

I am pretty good with a soldering iron and reading schematics because my hobby is speaker building, I was a mechanic, and I will be starting mech or electrical engineering next Sept. That being said, I know nothing about tubes. If I bring it back to life, I would like to learn how to do it. I certainly trust the members here but I like to do things myself. I have my hands full with other projects right now anyway. Maybe I'll dive into this hobby in a couple of months when time and money will allow.

I was kind of hoping that it would be as simple as replacing the power cord but that doesn't appear to be the case. It is obvious that I have a lot to learn about tube gear.

Thanks for the help

[Tom Bavis]

You can pretty much figure every cap in that radio is bad - some may not matter much but some of them will overload the power transformer if they are leaky (and they ARE!) There is no fuse, unlike more modern equipment...

The Philco service bulletin for this set is on my web page, at http://www.audiophool.cjb.net/Misc/philco_38-10.djvu
You'll need the DjVu browser plug-in from lizardtech.com to open or print it. Schematic, parts list, alignment.

Good to know. Thanks for the service bulletin Tom.

[bgadow]

A great radio-they sure packed a lot of style in a small package. I still remember seeing one of these as a kid at a flea market and wishing I had the $30 to buy it.

If it was mine I would put in new electrolytics and then carefully bring it up and see how it does. I've been working on a 38-3 which had can caps that were easy to restuff, at least I thought so. If its easy for me to do it should be easy for anybody! Chances are good this radio uses the same style caps.

[dewickt]

I restored mine about 20 years ago, still works like a charm, I wish my case was a nice as yours, I had to strip it due to water damage and the stripes are painted on, now its all one color.

Yep, it is pretty good looking IMO. My Dad found it in a barn 15 years ago in Kansas or something. He collected old radios but sold most of them off, most didn't work and he doesn't know how to fix them. We also have a big and beautiful Philco 38-C10A that also worked about 10 years ago, the amp section appears very similar to the 38-10 but the cabinet is about 4 feet tall, really nice. These were the ones that didn't sell so who knows what he had.

[wa2ise]

Phil has a good page on recapping radios at
http://www.antiqueradio.org/recap.htm

However I would not try to remove all of the old part's leads
from terminals of tube sockets or band switches or pots or
elsewhere for that matter. These terminal lugs were not
designed to take the stresses that lead removal would cause.
You really don't want to break a lug off a band switch or tube
socket. Just clip off the old lead near the lug and solder the new part's
lead to it.

Great link thanks. Yep, I dont want to move anything too much but if I follow you're advice I think I am okay. Hopefully I can get around to this project in about March.

Can anyone tell me a little about the driver in the 38-10. It doesn't appear to have a permanant magnet in the motor. It has three leads going to the driver. I have never seen this before.

[dewickt]

That is a field coil type speaker, it uses B+ form power supply to generate magnetic field, lots of turns of small wire !!!

I see, thank you. I had never seen one before. I looked up field coils on the net and it appears they were used as a field in motors before permanent magnets like Alnico and ceramics. But one website claims that field coils produce less distortion. I find this hard to believe, a field is a field right? Pardon my ignorance, I was born in 1982.

[dewickt]

Not ignorance, perhaps a lack of knowledge, you are willing to learn so the ignorant part goes away, just young. In theory if you have more audio output the current thru the coil goes up, field increases, less distortion, in practical use the field produced is not equal to a good ceramic or alnico magnet so it all balances out in the end. At one time several companies made stand alone speakers that had fixed power supplies to power field coil of the speaker, not very efficient but they sounded OK, they were quickly replaced when better magnets became available. The field coil was also used as a filter choke for the power supply in conjunction with hum bucking coils that ran the speaker drive in opposite polarity to the field coil to cancel the hum caused by the ripple in the field coil B+, this was a way to cheat on the size of the then expensive and unreliable filter capacitors. Born in 1945 and still learning.

Thank you very much for taking the time. Interesting stuff. I learn so much on these boards and people are so generous with sharing knowledge.

[Sandy G]

1982 ?!? Lord-a-mercy, sonny, that was day-before-yesterday !! DO NOT be afraid of asking questions-how else will you learn. Someday, if you keep learning, you might become a grizzled, olde-pharte Omnicient like I am....-Sandy G., 1957 model, who wishes he knew half of what Terry's forgot about radios.....