Empress Radio I.D. ??

[Ohighway]

Found this little radio on the shelf (and it is quite small).

Marked "Empress" on the front. Label on back says made in Japan. No model number. Anyone know what model this is, when it was produced, or have other information about it?

[dieseljeep]

[QUOTE=Ohighway;3098010]Found this little radio on the shelf (and it is quite small).

Marked "Empress" on the front. Label on back says made in Japan. No model number. Anyone know what model this is, when it was produced, or have other information about it?

Another JA5. Non-AVC, single tuned second IF, hot chassis, little gem. The speaker trademark shows it's made by Ida Densen. It seems like late 50's, early 60's. The tuning gang and possibly, the volume control are isolated from the chassis. Also the screws holding the back, have the plastic caps on them, for some measure of isolation.
BTW, the AC cord insulation is cracked, where it enters the strain relief. If the cord isn't too dried out, you'll have to reconnect it.
Going back to the basics.

[radiotvnut]

That same basic chassis was used under a million different brands, in several case styles and colors. They were offered from the late '50's until the mid-'60's and usually cost under $10 when new. I recently fixed one for a friend that used disc capacitors except for the "across the line" AC capacitor; which, was a paper capacitor and had blown apart. Before using this radio, I'd strongly suggest replacing that capacitor with a modern AC safety (X or Y) capacitor.

[Ohighway]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Another JA5. Non-AVC, single tuned second IF, hot chassis, little gem. The speaker trademark shows it's made by Ida Densen. It seems like late 50's, early 60's. The tuning gang and possibly, the volume control are isolated from the chassis. Also the screws holding the back, have the plastic caps on them, for some measure of isolation.
BTW, the AC cord insulation is cracked, where it enters the strain relief. If the cord isn't too dried out, you'll have to reconnect it.
Going back to the basics.

They definitely went to the trouble of isolating the chassis. The plastic coated screws that you mentioned. And on the bottom the chassis is fastened with metal screws that are sunk down pretty deep into a couple of rubber feet looking pieces.

Good eye about that insulation. I'd noticed that and after carefully running the radio up on a variac to see what it would do (all I got was 60 cycle hum) I then cut the cord off at that point.... just to avoid any 'accident' in the future.

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

That same basic chassis was used under a million different brands, in several case styles and colors. They were offered from the late '50's until the mid-'60's and usually cost under $10 when new. I recently fixed one for a friend that used disc capacitors except for the "across the line" AC capacitor; which, was a paper capacitor and had blown apart. Before using this radio, I'd strongly suggest replacing that capacitor with a modern AC safety (X or Y) capacitor.

Thanks for the input and that generates a question on my part. I've seen mention of a 'safety' capacitor for this and other pieces of equipment. How do I find such a capacitor, or determine if capacitors I have laying around are of the 'safety' type. I'm assuming 'safety' means that in a failure mode they'll fail OPEN instead of shorting out? Is that correct?

[radiotvnut]

Yes, these AC safety capacitors are designed to open, instead of shorting. In the old days, they used standard paper capacitors in this application and those generally blew their guts all over the radio when they exploded. Given the fact that these old capacitors are 50+ years old and given the fact that there is a lot more garbage on the AC line than what there used to be, I'd strongly advise upgrading to the safety capacitors.

www.justradios.com has them, as well as a good write up on them. You can also get them from Mouser, and a number of other online vendors. On the Mouser site, I think they are listed as "AC noise suppression" capacitors. AC safety capacitors will have the "X" or "Y" designation on the capacitor. "X" is generally for "across the AC line" applications. "Y" capacitors are more suitable for connecting between one side of the AC line and the chassis.