'60's Silvertone & Audition AM/FM table radios

[radiotvnut]

Picked these two up from a lady who had an ad in the paper. She told me that her late husband used to repair old radios and that her son hauled most everything off. She found these two stashed somewhere after the fact.

The first one is an Arvin built Silvertone AM/FM. It plays weak on AM and is dead on FM. Needs new caps and sounds like it has silver mica disease with the IF cans. It's missing a knob and it looks like something was spilled on top, ruining the finish. This looks like it could be a decent radio; so, I'll try to bring it back to life one day. The model is 6021 and the chassis number is 132.602101. Probably one of the last high end AM/FM tube table radios from Sears.

The next one is an Audition brand AM/FM/SW in a woodgrain plastic case. This one had me fooled into thinking it was a tube radio because it uses an AC interlock and there is no "no user serviceable parts inside" warning. Instead, it has the old tube style "this cover is provided with an interlock" warning. When I got it home and looked at it closer, it does say "Solid State 11 transistor high fidelity" on the dial. This one is dead as a hammer. I was under the impression that Audition brand stuff was junk; but, this one LOOKS like it could be a decent unit. Of course, I won't know until I get it working. It's a model 1344A and was made in Japan. I have an idea that there might have been a tube version of this radio using this same cabinet. I think there were some imported tube radios for a few more years after most US companies went to solid state.

[Reece]

They look as if they'll be quite decent radios when you get them going. For the missing knob on the Silvertone, PM Mike Koste of Gobs of Knobs, Ambler PA. His member name on this forum is his name backwards, ekimetsok. He may be able to match it from his gigantic collection if you send him a closeup photo of the knobs and their measurements. Good luck.

Reece

[Tom Bavis]

Sams folder 696-10 covers the Silvertone. "Audition" isn't listed at all - wasn't that a store brand?

[Jeffhs]

Yes, I believe "Audition" was a house brand for radios sold by F. W. Woolworth, Kresge, and other discount stores of the sixties. I remember seeing a few of these sets in a Woolworth's store near where I grew up.


The Silvertone AM/FM radio with weak AM and dead FM may have a weak tube; I'd test them and replace any weak ones. (I'm not a fan of "shotgun" tube replacement, but in this case it could help matters as far as curing the problems with both AM and FM goes.)

The FM RF amplifier tube could be defective, even if its filament lights up as it should; this can happen if the tube has an open cathode, for example. I'm not sure if the FM RF amp in radios like the one being discussed here is used on AM as well (as a converter stage), but if it is, a new tube would improve the AM reception and likely would restore the FM. I'd try replacing the tube first before doing anything drastic under the chassis, as around 80 percent of all problems in tube-type radios are caused by weak or dead tubes.

[Hemingray]

That Arvin looks to have two 50C5s in a P-P arrangement, with those speakers it has it's gonna sound beautiful. I myself have a 60s Arvin "Hi-Fi" radio with PP 6AQ5s, and man does it produce rich, beautiful sound, she actually gives both my Pioneer SX-650 and Sony CMT-BX50BTi mini-system a run for their money.

First time I ever seen a transformerless AC radio with a PP arrangement, let alone using two 50C5s. What's the rest of the tube lineup?

[Hemingray]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Yes, I believe "Audition" was a house brand for radios sold by F. W. Woolworth, Kresge, and other discount stores of the sixties. I remember seeing a few of these sets in a Woolworth's store near where I grew up.


The Silvertone AM/FM radio with weak AM and dead FM may have a weak tube; I'd test them and replace any weak ones. (I'm not a fan of "shotgun" tube replacement, but in this case it could help matters as far as curing the problems with both AM and FM goes.)

The FM RF amplifier tube could be defective, even if its filament lights up as it should; this can happen if the tube has an open cathode, for example. I'm not sure if the FM RF amp in radios like the one being discussed here is used on AM as well (as a converter stage), but if it is, a new tube would improve the AM reception and likely would restore the FM. I'd try replacing the tube first before doing anything drastic under the chassis, as around 80 percent of all problems in tube-type radios are caused by weak or dead tubes.

Before rolling tubes, try spraying a bit of contact cleaner into the RF amp's tube socket. work it around a bit with the tube to clean up any buildup.

Oddly, I can't say that I ever had a signal tube go south on me (aside from one 12BA6 that had severe grid leakage) Usually it's the output tubes that I find wasted from the PO running it with a bad filter.

[radiotvnut]

Yes, it uses two 50C5's and a silicon diode for a rectifier. I have not looked at the other tubes yet.

[Reece]

Agree with Hemingray, tubes are usually good and problems are with bad tube-to-socket contact, dirty volume control and tuning capacitor, etc. I routinely restore radios that still have all their original tubes and go OK. Not to say that one could be weak. I am working on a 1960 Zenith that had blown its selenium rectifier, maybe due to bad electrolytic, fragmented a resistor, and maybe in the process made the output tube weak. Fixed all that. On the tube radio, as you stated, you'll want to change your paper caps and the electrolytics and I'll bet that with a cleaning will bring it back.

On the transistor radio, the small electrolytics are probably leaky and need to be changed, but you'd want to see if the power supply works first, and then inject an audio signal at the volume control, output stage, etc. to see if the speakers will squawk, and finally signal trace backwards through the RF stages.

The ceramic disk caps in both radios are probably OK.

Lots of good old radio funtime with these!

Reece

[Hemingray]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Yes, it uses two 50C5's and a silicon diode for a rectifier. I have not looked at the other tubes yet.

The rest are probably 6V tubes, I see an A on the end of one, makes me wonder if it's a 6AU6A. Never seen a 12AU6A/BA6A, etc, Seeing as how if this is all in series, you have 100v between the two 50C5s. I'm gonna hazard a guess that the remaining tubes are 6BE6, 6AU6A, 6AU6 at the audio, and probably a 6BJ6 for the RF amp. I may be wrong on this though. I don't see a triode anywhere on that board (My arvin uses a 12AX7 for the audio stage). Your FM tube (on the tuner) is either a 6AQ8, 12AT7 or 12DT8.

The shielded tube may be a 6BA6.

[Tom Bavis]

One thing to watch out for with Sears... they tended to reuse model numbers. There was ANOTHER model 6021 in 1956:

[Hemingray]

And according to Nostalgia Air, there was a third 6021 in 1939.

http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Resources/309/M0017309.htm

One of your 50C5s looks like a later GE replacement tube, I'd test out both of them.

[Hemingray]

Any updates here? Eager to hear about this

[radiotvnut]

I have not done any repair work yet; but, it uses the following tubes:

50C5 x 2
18FX6A x 2
18FY6A
18FW6A x 2
17C9 (10 pin miniature with the tenth pin being in the center)

This radio actually has two filament strings; as one would expect by seeing what tubes it uses.

[Hemingray]

That's a new one to me. My beside Philco clock/radio uses a 17C9 as well. Never seen the 18x tubes in a series-wired radio before. Clean the socket around the 17C9 if FM is a real issue. That was the problem with mine originally, played on AM, dead on FM. She gets me up every morning to some good tuneage on 94.3 FM

[Jeffhs]

At least one other manufacturer in the '60s had a radio with two series strings--Zenith. My MJ-1035, from 1965, has two strings as well, with a filament transformer feeding both. My set has eleven tubes (two of which are 50EH5s), with one 50EH5 in each string.

The 17C9 is a rare bird, indeed. The last time I saw a 17C9 was in an article in Popular Electronics magazine from the early 1960s. I had never seen a ten-pin tube with the tenth pin in the center of the base before then, and never saw one after that until now. You may have problems finding replacements if you ever need to change it, as I don't think they were all that popular when new and may be very difficult to find these days.