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Front View [19K]

  • Unknown year, probably first half of the 1950's.
  • LW, MW and SW waveband superhet.
  • 4 valves (6K8G, 6K7GT, 6Q7GT and 6V6GT)
    plus 2 metal rectifiers.
  • A.C. Mains
  • Original cost unknown.
NOTES Period Advert [8K]This is clearly a home built effort, though that's not to say it isn't well constructed. I don't know the date, but the advertisment shown opposite appeared in the November 1954 edition of Practical Television magazine and looks similar (though it does state bakelite ??).

Although the valve line up seems a bit out of date, it is consistant with an amateur using cheap old stock parts.

The power supply is a little unusual. There is a mains transformer providing the filament supply but the HT is generated directly by rectifying the mains. This makes the chassis potentially live, just like an A.C./D.C. set. But this just isn't dangerous enough for the well-hard amateur, so the mains on-off switch is wired in series with the chassis side of the mains connection, so most of the components will be live even when the set is switched off!

Incidently, the rather out-of-place central control knob looks like its from a pre-war Ultra "Tiger" set.
SERVICE DATA Nope:-( Perhaps the circuit may turn up in an old Practical Wireless magazine ?
CURRENT STATE Basically sound. After removing a thick layer of dust the chassis is revealed to be clean and rust free.

Broken Cap [5K]However as with a lot of sets I've aquired recently, the wax capacitor on the mains input might (and this is just a wild guess) be faulty, though at least it doesn't leak ;-)

I'm not sure about the reliablity of metal rectifiers so I may bypass these with a modern rectifier plus series resistor if I can find somewhere to hide them. And I'm definately going to re-wire that mains switch.
WHERE FOUND Birmingham antiques market for ~£15.
Chassis View [12K] Underside Components [17K]

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Last updated
23rd November 2001