1942 Philco Radio

[DavGoodlin]

After reading through this thread, I was reminded of what I scrapped out in the early years for the benefit of keeping in good standing with my folks. Tom is right on about this. I confirmed it only yesterday after picking up three antique radios CL from a 19 year-old with a misunderstanding mom. http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=264894

Matter Of Fact - I see two Philco 42-380 radios on local CL right now that have been there for weeks. I agree that recapping, then buying a repro-bezel, restoring finish etc only to sell it for $150 as a working-but-common set is generally a waste of time for any of us. The speaker and knobs alone are worth $40 if in good shape, since these were used on much rarer, even TOTL Philcos. Most restorers know this and will buy it non-working just for parts.

While most any 30s-40s Philco radio is a decent receiver and sounds great when re-capped, a similar Zenith console (assuming a 6X5 or 7Y4 rectifier tube has not smoked the power trans) would be a better use of much less restoration effort. These often bring more money than Philco radios.

Your Magnavox consoles will generate interest if you get them recapped and spinning again since record players seem to be regaining popularity and Magnavox still commands respect in the vinyl community. The fact it has tubes versus an Astrosonic adds value for sure. The EV26 cartridge just needs a $9 stylus and good cleaning. If you can get a good idler, that will save $$$ like you say. A fairly new site, http://vintagehifi.net/ bears this out.

Lastly, the Grundig may have a partially open selenium rectifier in the full-wave bridge. It seems very odd to have a hum after all caps are changed but a bad rectifier is overlooked, as is excessive current draw, reducing the electrolytic's smoothing action.