A pair of Truetones - Videokarma.org TV - Video

Adam · #1 07-01-2016, 03:04 PM

The first Truetone I got way back in 2002. I repaired the radio, but never bothered with fixing the cabinet. The cabinet was in bad condition with the veneer peeling off. And the top had been cut in two, and then nailed back together. I liked the radio enough to keep it for a long time, but the cabinet was far gone enough that I never really wanted to mess with it. The second one I got recently. My plan is to just combine the two, putting the chassis I already repaired into the better cabinet.

The knobs and the back on each radio are different. I don't know which knobs are original. The first one has cardboard covered antenna which mounts to the chassis, which sticks out beyond the back of the cabinet, and no holes in the cabinet for mounting a more traditional back. The second one has an antenna mounted to the chassis which doesn't stick out, and holes in the cabinet for mounting the back. Both the back of the antenna on the first radio, and the back of the 2nd radio, say "Truetone Stratosope eliminates aerial and ground." Both versions look original to me.

I found two sets of pictures of these radios online:
http://www.radioatticarchives.com/radio.htm?radio=7444
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1940...4AAOSwSclXLkoA

The first set of pictures has front knobs different from both of mine, and a side knob like my 1st radio. It has neither the larger antenna nor the back, but there are no holes for mounting the back like my on 1st radio.

The second set of pictures has front knobs that are neither like either of mine, nor like the one in the other picture. The side knob is like my second radio. It also has neither the large antenna nor the back, but it has holes for mounting a back like my 2nd radio does.

When I combine the radios, I think I'm going to go with the large antenna that sticks out from my 1st one, just because that back on my 2nd one is falling apart. But I'm not sure about the knobs. I kind of like the combination of the front knobs from the 2nd radio, with the side knob from the 1st. Anyone have another one of these to compare?

Adam · #2 07-01-2016, 11:22 PM

This was more complicated than I expected. The first radio I had uses a different tuner than the second. The first one is a more deluxe unit that gears down the tuning knob. But it puts the tuning knob in a slightly different place. So the hole on the side of the good cabinet is not in the right place to fit the tuning knob of the good chassis. I pulled the tuner off the other chassis and was going to swap them, but the holes in the chassis where the tuner mounts to it are in different places.

I really don't want to put an extra hole in that nice cabinet. I could just fix up the other chassis, but it's a little rusty and corroded in places, the one I had first isn't, and really does work good, I did a complete recap and alignment and everything. So I think I'm going to drill holes in that chassis to fit the other tuner. But I'm going to wait until tomorrow, when I'm not a little tired, and I'll be less likely to get the holes in the wrong places.

The pic has the tuner from the 2nd chassis sitting atop the 1st chassis which I already fixed, with its original tuner sitting next to it.

Adam · #3 07-04-2016, 01:26 PM

I had reconsidered just fixing the other chassis, but when I saw it was full of wire with that bad rubber insulation, I went ahead with my plan to swap the tuners. I got the holes in the right place and mounter the tuner so everything fit, but I hit the oscillator coil with the drill.

So I took the one off of the other chassis (the coil and the circuit seemed more or less the same). After I got everything back together the oscillator would just stop running after it got over about 1350KC (the oscillator frequency, not what the tuner was set to). I tried hooking it up in both directions (I've seen this make a difference before), but the other way it wouldn't oscillate at all. After trying lots of different stuff, I noticed that if I touched one contact on the coil it started working. Hooking it up to a test lead that went to nothing would also work. And so did a small capacitor going to ground, I wound up leaving a 10pf cap in there, and it works like it should now.

After I got it working I went looking for a schematic. The schematic didn't show the exact circuit that was in either radio. I drew on it to show the circuit that is in the radio now. Those capacitors I X'ed out were not originally in either set I have, and in both sets that one end of the coil was tied directly to ground. That adjustable capacitor I drew in was originally in the chassis I used, but not the other. It lets you adjust the frequency of the oscillator. I also drew in the 10pf capacitor I needed to add to get the oscillator running.

Adam · #4 07-04-2016, 10:14 PM

It's back together. Next up is to figure out what happened to the horizontal in that yellow Zenith. I'm keeping everything else for spare parts, but if anyone wants that cabinet with the broken top and veneer peeled off, let me know, otherwise I'm going to dump it.

dieseljeep · #5 07-05-2016, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam

It's back together. Next up is to figure out what happened to the horizontal in that yellow Zenith. I'm keeping everything else for spare parts, but if anyone wants that cabinet with the broken top and veneer peeled off, let me know, otherwise I'm going to dump it.

I located the schematic, wondering what firm built it. It looks like Radio Products Co or Continental Radio and Television, which later became Admiral Corp.
It seems strange, that it required two rectifier tubes for the B+ demands. They must've did it to inflate the tube count and to eliminate the ballast tube.

Adam · #6 07-05-2016, 08:30 PM

This says it was made by Western Auto: http://www.nostalgiaair.org/pagesbym...0/M0023930.pdf
I don't know what's with the two 25Z6's. They're sort of wired in parallel. Weird. What few Truetones I've had seemed to come with these unusual Wizard brand tubes, which I think were also made by Western Auto. Between the two chassis, I was able to get 5/7 of the tubes in my radio to be Wizards.

dieseljeep · #7 07-06-2016, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam

This says it was made by Western Auto: http://www.nostalgiaair.org/pagesbym...0/M0023930.pdf
I don't know what's with the two 25Z6's. They're sort of wired in parallel. Weird. What few Truetones I've had seemed to come with these unusual Wizard brand tubes, which I think were also made by Western Auto. Between the two chassis, I was able to get 5/7 of the tubes in my radio to be Wizards.

None of the major retailers made their own products! The only one that came close was Sears-Roebuck, as they had a financial interest in Colonial Radio, until the late 40's when Sylvania bought into it. They still supplied products to Sears, for a while.
Your radios were made by one of the Chicago independants, Radio Products, which was acquired by Continental R&TV Co, who made Admiral products.
The Wizard brand was a Western Auto brand name. They sold radio tubes as well. When they contracted with the supplier, they specified the tubes to be branded as "Wizard". The tubes were probably made by Hytron, Ken-rad or Sylvania.

Adam · #8 07-06-2016, 10:30 AM

Interesting, sort of like when I had a 1948 Pacific-Mercury TV with the same chassis as a Silvertone. Or I have an old Airline TV (with the 7JP4) now with a similar chassis to the Senitinel. I think Airline is to Wards what Silvertone is to Sears what Wizard is to Western Auto. I wonder if there's any Admiral radios out there with the same chassis as this one...

dieseljeep · #9 07-06-2016, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam

Interesting, sort of like when I had a 1948 Pacific-Mercury TV with the same chassis as a Silvertone. Or I have an old Airline TV (with the 7JP4) now with a similar chassis to the Senitinel. I think Airline is to Wards what Silvertone is to Sears what Wizard is to Western Auto. I wonder if there's any Admiral radios out there with the same chassis as this one...

A strong possibly!
I have an Admiral from the same era. The cabinet looks similar, with the push buttons and side tuner. IIRC, it has five tubes of the older type, with a power transformer and 80 rectifier.