erla and what is it?

[Buzzsaaw]

Hi Folks,

A friend gave me this old radio. The dial says ERLA and the chassis says 46A 4800E. Label says 46ACE-140-E.

I see the unit is licensed by Hazeltine Corp. (on the label)

Help me out so I can find a Schematic for this nice little radio.















Thanks for the help,
Buzz

[Sandy G]

Looks to be a mid Thirties console...

[Reece]

Erla was an old radio company from the twenties that blended into Sentinel in the thirties. I believe your set's schematic is the following indicated as model 46A in the Sentinel listing from "pre-1938." Your sticker on the radio back says made in plant "S" which tastes like Sentinel. It's an 8-tube set with tuning eye, and from what I can see on your pictures, the tube lineup looks right compared to the tube layout on the schematic. Have a look and compare to your radio.

http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByM...7/M0018207.pdf

[Buzzsaaw]

Thanks guys,

It does look real close. I wonder why there "ERLA" name isn't listed in the Schematic database web sites?

This should get me started soon as I get done with two other little projects.

The case sure is well built and sturdy. The speaker looks like brand new. Do you suppose it's been replaced?

Buzz

[bob91343]

The diagram shows a three band radio when there are only two bands on the dial. As for the speaker there seem to be too many wires going to it. Four wires to the field coil? If so, that would mean two field coils, like a hum bucking coil. Unlikely an exact replacement would be available any time in the recent past.

An interesting puzzle. What does it say on the green tag?

[teevee]

4 wires going to the speaker (and output transformer peeking out from the bottom). That would jive with what the schematic shows. One from the rect to the speaker field, one coming from the speaker field back to the set (and the center tap of the OPT) and the 2 plate leads. The wire between the speaker cable and green tag appears is just hanging there, not connected to the speaker. I'd suspect that was the antenna lead, with the black wire (green tag) being ground.

[Electronic M]

Nice looking cabinet. once you get it working and refinish it you will have a real show room piece.

Tom C.

[Buzzsaaw]

Hi guys and thanks for all the help,

I count the 4 wires on the schematic too. And to satisfy Bob's statement about a Guitar Humbucker, the drawing shows the "bucking Coil" right in the speaker area.

I haven't opened it up yet to look but I see, on the schematic, the 12 and 16 mfd caps in the rectifier Ckt. Those might be the type housed in a Bakelite tube. (?) As Banderson shows in his famous videos on U-Doob. That's Cool.. I'll have to find some wax to re-do those correctly as he shows.

Buzz

[teevee]

Look at pics 4 and 5. The aluminum cylinders between the power transformer and tuning cap are the filter caps. the 16uF minus goes directly to ground, the 12uF does not. (look for insulating rings around the bottom)

[bgadow]

That may be the newest set I've seen with the ERLA name. I believe this was "brand-engineered" and likely available under a few aliases. The shape of that dial shows up on a few other minor brands from the late 30s.

I like it!

[Sandy G]

I think you'll be well-pleased w/it when you get it percolatin' again...(grin)

[Buzzsaaw]

It's the Weekend!...

I was looking at the drawing and the dial ... 3 band? If you look just around the area of the ERLA name and in the same yellow ink..you'll see the 5.8 to 18.1 mhz band.

Buzz

[Reece]

One of the posts above said that the wiring diagram that I pointed out shows a three-band radio, but your dial shows two bands. The diagram is the closest one I found to your radio. Yours is probably a variant where they eliminated the less interesting first short wave band.

[Buzzsaaw]

Reece.. if you look close to the dial picture, the radio does have 3 bands.. as mentioned in my last post.

Buzz

[dimbulb]

Hi! ERLA stands for Electrical Research Labs. They were a radio mfg. located in Chicago. Schematics can be found on Nostalgia Air under that name. The reason I know this is that I just acquired a 1930's ERLA cathedral yesterday. Interestingly, it has a Hammond clock mounted within the area of the speaker cone making it one of the first clock-radios!!