'50 mercury radio stops working after a few mins

[bob91343]

Listen to, or feel, the vibrator. It should be humming nicely. When the radio quits, the humming may or may not stop. If it stops, the vibrator is bad. If it keeps humming, measure the B+ on the tubes; it should be a couple of hundred volts or so.

Look for bad solder joints or corroded tube sockets. It's a normal troubleshooting exercise; I could do it easily here. But I am in Los Angeles.

When the radio stops, does it go completely dead, or can you still hear some speaker noise when you rotate the volume control? Put a finger on the hot side of the volume control to see if you get audio from the speaker.