Restoring Firestone 4-A-20

[Reece]

Yeah, I want to play this little Firestone Air Chief (not Castle) for a few days to dry it out before doing a real alignment on it. Only now we're due for several days of cold and rain so I may just train a reflector lamp on the chassis to keep it warm. The weather also puts a damper on any cabinet finish work for a while (and my outdoor yard/pool cleanup activities.) Maybe I'll start capping another chassis.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Reece

Yeah, I want to play this little Firestone Air Chief (not Castle) for a few days to dry it out before doing a real alignment on it. Only now we're due for several days of cold and rain so I may just train a reflector lamp on the chassis to keep it warm. The weather also puts a damper on any cabinet finish work for a while (and my outdoor yard/pool cleanup activities.) Maybe I'll start capping another chassis.

Ooops! My bad. I don't know why I was thinking "Air Castle" when I wrote my reply to your post, when the dial on your radio clearly shows "Air Chief" across the top above the AM tuning scale.

These older radios can be a challenge to restore to past glory but, in most cases, if you're willing to work at it, the project is worth the effort. I have a Zenith C845 that uses a 6BJ6 as an RF amplifier tube on AM and FM, two IF stages, a limiter stage that acts as a third IF...and it is one of the most sensitive sets I have ever owned. I can get stations up and down the East Coast and into the Great Lakes at night (though I have yet to hear any stations from Wisconsin) using the built-in Wavemagnet AM antenna; the FM is just as sensitive, pulling in stations from 70+ miles away when the conditions are favorable. I live near Lake Erie (within a mile of the southern shore) and, in spring, summer and early fall, often hear FM stations on this radio from Detroit, Windsor, Canada, Toledo and Youngstown, Ohio, and Pittsburgh--often with very listenable signals.

I know how it is to have other projects get in the way of hobbies. I live in a small apartment, but I still have things to do here that often take precedence over my vintage radios and amateur radio activities. First things first. The hobbies can wait, but when one has things to do elsewhere, the latter have to be taken care of first before one can even think about spare time stuff, which reminds me--as soon as I finish typing this, I have a couple of things I need to attend to before it gets dark (I hate having to work in darkness--really; I get into trouble, meaning falling and other accidents, if I try to walk around or work in poor lighting or, heaven forbid, pitch darkness).

Good luck with your Air Chief radio; it should work great once you get it in A-1 shape--that RF amplifier stage means it was built for DX, and as I said in my first reply, with a good antenna, it should pull in stations on both AM and shortwave like crazy. I don't know much about these radios except that they were products of the Firestone Company of Akron, Ohio in the late 1940s-'50s. For example, one thing I don't know about Firestone radios, but wish I did, was who actually built these sets, radios and later TVs. Firestone was a rubber company, noted for their automobile tires; I honestly don't know how the name became associated with radio or television.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Firestone was a rubber company, noted for their automobile tires; I honestly don't know how the name became associated with radio or television.

Firestone had a nice little chain of retail stores starting in the 40s. Some of the toys that I got as a kid (tricycle for one) came from the local Firestone store.

"The 1940s saw the emergence of the Firestone Home & Auto Store — a store concept of a one-stop retailer offering everything from automotive services and tires to large household appliances, televisions, toys, bicycles, lawnmowers and even outboard motors with the Firestone name brand affixed. The evolution of the retail stores continued with Firestone Complete Car Service opening in the 1960s offering expanded diagnostic under-car and under-hood service."
From:
http://www.bridgestone-firestone.com...bout/bfrc_cobg

They also sold their own brand of cool looking sparkplugs (pix#1)
(a person can't just collect radios, you know )
jr