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  #1  
Old 10-01-2014, 09:01 PM
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Boobtubeman Boobtubeman is offline
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Wards Airline AM/SW

Girlfriend brings me home this radio she got from a second hand store.. (sorry no pic)

A Wards Airline #93WG-555B radio.. Looked pretty untouched. DC powered only.

No way am i finding 2 45v batteries (90v total) for this unit... ALL ORIGINAL WARDS TUBES...

Opened it up and discovered someone had tried to run it once, they had cut the batt plug for the filaments (1.5v) so i attached a D battery and didnt see any lights. Removed the tubes and tested them. As i feared ALL 5 tubes are shorted and no filament glow..

Looking around online ad only finding stubby versions of the original tubes

1A7G--1H5G--1N5G(x2)--1C5G.. The originals are tall and slim whereas the newer ones are stubby and the bases dont seem to fit the special shields and socket setup..

Any tubes,schematic and age of this setup would be appreciated...
Tube chart showed additional mod#s---62-555 and 62-2555
Thanks

SR
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  #2  
Old 10-02-2014, 07:35 AM
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sean sean is offline
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Try this schematic on Nostalgia Air for the 62-555:

http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByM...7/M0011597.pdf

The 93WG-555B model indicates it is a 1939 model made by Wells-Gardner for Montgomery Ward.

To power the set you could either make a power supply that will supply the 1.5V and 90V or you could use a couple of D cells in parallel for the filament supply and 10 9V batteries in series to get the 90V.

For the tubes make sure you are looking for the "G" suffix version and not the "GT" suffix version. The "G" version of these battery tubes will be the taller version. You could look through MDB Ventures site and find all the tubes you need. The ones labeled with TT for tall tubular should be what you need:

http://www.fourwater.com/stradio/stradio_sr1.htm#1A7-G

I have no affiliation with them but have purchased tubes from them a few times and have been very pleased with price, quality, and fast delivery.
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  #3  
Old 10-02-2014, 10:35 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boobtubeman View Post
Girlfriend brings me home this radio she got from a second hand store.. (sorry no pic)

A Wards Airline #93WG-555B radio.. Looked pretty untouched. DC powered only.

No way am i finding 2 45v batteries (90v total) for this unit... ALL ORIGINAL WARDS TUBES...

Opened it up and discovered someone had tried to run it once, they had cut the batt plug for the filaments (1.5v) so i attached a D battery and didnt see any lights. Removed the tubes and tested them. As i feared ALL 5 tubes are shorted and no filament glow..

Looking around online ad only finding stubby versions of the original tubes

1A7G--1H5G--1N5G(x2)--1C5G.. The originals are tall and slim whereas the newer ones are stubby and the bases dont seem to fit the special shields and socket setup..

Any tubes,schematic and age of this setup would be appreciated...
Tube chart showed additional mod#s---62-555 and 62-2555
Thanks

SR
I've seen many of those radios, that didn't have any original tubes, because of that error.
That early, those G types were the only 1.5 volt tubes, available. Zenith did the same thing with their early battery operated sets.
The radio in question, was also made as a so-called, "portable". Many referred to them as "luggable". A big clumsy thing with less audio output, than the average, six transistor radio.
I consider them as an important part as radio history.
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  #4  
Old 10-02-2014, 02:37 PM
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On the GT versions of these tubes not being able to see the tubes glow is normal for the 1A7, IN5, and 1H5 tubes. Even in a really dark room seeing them glow is unusual. Also, be careful if you measure the filaments with an ohm meter to be sure your ohm meter does not supply too much Omph for the tubes to handle. One and a half volts with filament currents as low as .05 amps is all that is required for these.

Mike
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  #5  
Old 10-02-2014, 03:20 PM
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Boobtubeman Boobtubeman is offline
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Oh believe me, they are ALL DEAD!!

Found an equivalent tube in my supply and did a comparison and you can see a glow.

ALL tubes are shorted with NO glow no matter the heater setting... Wonder how much voltage they shoved down the 1.5v line? they didnt mess with the 90v side...

And oops, my bad,, just an AM model, the dial scale threw me...

Thanks for the links folks...

SR
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  #6  
Old 10-02-2014, 06:30 PM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boobtubeman View Post
Oh believe me, they are ALL DEAD!!

Found an equivalent tube in my supply and did a comparison and you can see a glow.

ALL tubes are shorted with NO glow no matter the heater setting... Wonder how much voltage they shoved down the 1.5v line? they didnt mess with the 90v side...

And oops, my bad,, just an AM model, the dial scale threw me...

Thanks for the links folks...

SR
I have absolutely no doubts about your findings. I've seen it many times before!
The dial scale is probably calibrated in wavelength, as well.
Many radios, of that era, used the wavelength scale and were mistaken, to be multi-band. Kilocycles, meters.
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  #7  
Old 10-02-2014, 08:42 PM
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MT70B MT70B is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boobtubeman View Post
Oh believe me, they are ALL DEAD!!

Found an equivalent tube in my supply and did a comparison and you can see a glow.

ALL tubes are shorted with NO glow no matter the heater setting... Wonder how much voltage they shoved down the 1.5v line? they didnt mess with the 90v side...

And oops, my bad,, just an AM model, the dial scale threw me...

Thanks for the links folks...

SR
Did not mean to imply the tubes were not bad or question your findings. Just wanted to pass along to others that may read the thread later on that it is not easy to visually tell on GT version of these tubes if they are in fact lite up.

Mike
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  #8  
Old 10-02-2014, 09:01 PM
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Boobtubeman Boobtubeman is offline
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Its cool. no offense taken
So sad these tubes ALL got wiped out... ALL ORIGINAL Wards super airline labeled....

Would love to find AIRLINE tubes 1H5G and 1C5G, the others will be covered by shields...

SR
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  #9  
Old 10-03-2014, 08:10 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boobtubeman View Post
Its cool. no offense taken
So sad these tubes ALL got wiped out... ALL ORIGINAL Wards super airline labeled....

Would love to find AIRLINE tubes 1H5G and 1C5G, the others will be covered by shields...

SR
I looked at the list at MDB and the used tube prices are reasonable.
I see that the radio has two IF tubes, capacitance coupled. I wonder if it really makes that big of a difference in sensitivity, being capacitance coupled, instead of transformer coupled. There's quite a few firms that did it.
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  #10  
Old 10-03-2014, 04:10 PM
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Boobtubeman Boobtubeman is offline
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Yeah, i left am email yesterday inquiring about prices and shipping here.... Still waiting reply..

SR
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  #11  
Old 10-03-2014, 08:29 PM
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okay got a pic Needs a knob and a dialcover

SR
Attached Images
File Type: jpg wards-airline.jpg (60.8 KB, 18 views)
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  #12  
Old 10-04-2014, 10:20 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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okay got a pic Needs a knob and a dialcover

SR
When you first posted, I was under the impression that the radio was a table radio, instead of a portable. The schematic shows both types. The table model has an antenna coil, instead of a loop. They were intended to be used on farms and rural areas, where no electricity was available.
Wards sold a lot of them.
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  #13  
Old 10-05-2014, 05:42 PM
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Yeah, i didnt know a table model existed till i saw the schematic

Wonder how fast its gonna consume batteries when the tubes get here? Do they make post-post jumpers for the 9v batteries or is it a matter of a few modified 9v battery clips?
I know how to stack them to test it, but it will look silly

SR
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  #14  
Old 10-05-2014, 07:53 PM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boobtubeman View Post
Yeah, i didnt know a table model existed till i saw the schematic

Wonder how fast its gonna consume batteries when the tubes get here? Do they make post-post jumpers for the 9v batteries or is it a matter of a few modified 9v battery clips?
I know how to stack them to test it, but it will look silly

SR
I never throw a nine volt battery away until I take it apart and remove the snap connector. I've been doing that for years. You only need ten of them.
I, personally, would build an AC adaptor, for both the A&B sources.
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  #15  
Old 10-06-2014, 09:57 AM
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You can just snap the 9V batteries together in series. Snap the positive of one into the negative of the other, then snap the positive of another into the negative of the 2nd one and repeat with 10 batteries. You will have open terminals at the end of the string. You can take the terminal board from a discarded 9V and cut it in half to make connections to the string. Here's a photo I found on the web to illustrate what I mean.

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