Wow I have wanted one of these for ages. It arrived today from ebay and cost me about 80 bucks including postage. I have sent some pics to Brad. it looks very clean and I cant envisage any issues getting it going. Any advice welcome thanks guys.

Whilst replacing capacitors is still probably a good idea it'll probably work from the word 'go'.

One of these was one of my first valve radios, purchased in 1990. I've since sold it though from memory the A battery is two C cells in parallel and the B battery is seven 9V transistor batteries in series.

Don't expect hours and hours of listening pleasure with this one though - it eats batteries and the reason most of these survive electronically is because they would have been very expensive to run so most of them would have received little use.

The antenna coil is inside the lid and there should be a station logging card on the inside of the lid.

The pin switch turns the valve filaments on and off.

Brad I am guessing that one of the lid hinges is actually part of the antenna circuit . Is that the case.

I'm guessing now but I think both hinges play a role. A quick look under the cover on the inside of the lid will confirm either way.

I have a couple of these radios, a rough brown one and a pristine white one. My white one still has all the original black paper caps. All I had to do to it was repair a corroded speaker flex wire and replace a short-circuited electro (same brand as the one in yours). I pulled the guts out and fitted a modern part inside the original can.

With cheap alkaline batteries a 450P is practical to use on a daily basis. I use 8 x 9 volt batteries, clipped together in two "blocks".

In case you need them, I have a couple of NOS original MSP speakers and speaker transformers for this radio. Both are often damaged by leaking A batteries.

Thanks for that Ian . I haven't really assessed it yet but I am thinking I would like to get hold of a 467 Battery kit, I think they are available but hard to find . On the other hand how did you clip the batteries together. There is no sign of acid damage , in fact it looks nice and clean in side. Ian can you tell me is one or both of the hinges part of the antenna circuit, I can see one wire that looks to be clamped to the top hinge but should both be in the circuit. Thanks buddy.

On the other hand how did you clip the batteries together.

I used standard battery snaps and just wired them together, with the outer two wires going to the radio. The batteries just get taped together. When I had my radio I originally tried nine batteries but found that the higher voltage lessened performance. I cut back to seven and found it satisfactory but certainly not as loud as a mains radio. Ian may be on the money with eight batteries though I note his advice about using alkaline batteries. I was using red Evereadys and these pack less of a punch than Energisers. You could even go the whole hogg and use the silver lithium ones but you will need some coin for that.

I am thinking about getting rechargeable from Jaycar. Yes a little expensive but cheap over time .just want to hear this baby.

Found a store in the UK that has cardboard printed copies of some of the old radio batteries . here is there link http://www.classicradioshop.info/s/img/em. I also have found some hardware on Ebay to help you to neatly clip the 9 volt batteries inside the cardboard shells. I will get Brad to put it up when I work out how to send it.

http://www.classicradioshop.info/s/img/em

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I would not recommend using rechargeable batteries for the A supply, they are nominally 1.2V vs 1.5V for regular batteries. I think there would be a significant drop in performance with a lower filament supply.
Harold

Wow, a lot to answer!

Yes, the hinges connect the loop antenna in the lid, one side goes to the 1R5 grid and the other goes to the AGC. It's a good idea to put a light dusting of CRC on the hinges to stop the crackles from happening when you move the lid.

I tried rechargables on the first battery radio I ever restored. I had some 4 cell AA packs in obsolete stock at work that I used. The problem was, the radio didn't pull enough power to exercise the cells and they quickly got lazy. By comparison, a pack made from bulk AA alkalines would last about 18 months to 2 years, used for an hour or so every day.

And don't even think about using nicads for the A battery, it's not worth the performance hit. I couldn't pick up ABC 630 newsradio on the northern beaches with only 1.2v on the A line. Cheap bulk no-name alkalines from Bunnings or Aldi are the way to go.

You can clip the 9 volt alkalines together in two "slabs", taped together, and use the clips from a battery snap to build a bridge. It's a good idea to fit a 250mA polyfuse on this link for safety as the alkaline cells can deliver a lethal amount of current. Another battery snap adapts to the original connector. This way, the 8 x 216s fit nicely in the original battery slot. Let me know if this isn't clear and I'll post a picture of the arrangement from my radio.

I have colour scans of Aussie Eveready cardboard battery covers! They are on my old DLink DNS323 NAS box which (like most DNS323s) is down at the moment due to flash memory wearout. Not sure if I have the 67.5v B battery though. When I get my NAS back up I'll post them - email me to remind me!!!

Oh, a caution about B batteries. The NiCad pack I spoke about above, I once used it to power a 240v rock breaker hammer drill and it worked just fine! Plenty of grunt to dig out some sandstone on the driveway.. So treat B batteries with the same respect you'd have for mains power.