Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help me.

I recently bought a HMV Little Nipper Burgundy radio for $50. The radio is great. The seller also sold me a record player with it that has a cable that attaches to pick-up outlet at the back of the Little Nipper Radio. I assume it's to play the Record Player through the speakers of the radio.

I have two questions :

1) I can't figure out for the life of me for to get the audio to play from the record player to the Radio. Do I need to tune the radio in to a certain frequency or turn one of the four switches on the radio to something? I simply can't get it to work.

2) Is there a way that I can connect other Audio devices such as modern CD player to the Pick-up outlet? Are these pick-up connectors easily available?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

I'm not familiar with the Nipper but the following applies to a great many radios ...

One of the knobs will be a two position mode switch: one mode is radio the other mode is gram.

The other knobs will be station tuning and volume, and if it's a 4 knob set it will also have a tone control. The on/off switch will be on either the volume of the tone control.

If you can't get it to work, but the radio itself works, then the problem may lie in the record player or the radio's mode switch.

The phonograph input is designed to match the tone arm pickups of that era. Playing modern audio sources into it may or may not get a satisfactory result depending on how the impedance match goes, but you will need a mono signal from a stereo source otherwise you'll only hear one channel (either left or right).

As for plug, many types were used in the day, and some can still be found, but in your case I can't say without knowing what it looks like. A photo would be useful.

One terminal is *ground the other will feed to the amplifier. Perhaps?

Some switch it in, some don't. On the back will be a number which will identify which one it is eg 52-61 (RH side on that one). We can then look at the specific circuit.

* It is actually important to note if a set uses a system called "back bias" . The Philips 2462 I am attempting to get at & burn test, is just one of many that have this.

Its turntable's pickup head actually floats above ground and is DC blocked, so that it does not short the "back bias" out (albeit the monkey that serviced it last time, did find a way).

Shorting the "back bias" impinges on every valve in the set and can result in damage.

The CD player is probably low impedance? Earpieces & Specs may reveal? Catch 22 is that the CD or iPod is likely stereo and the "Nipper" Mono. and may be High impedance (Crystal head shell).

To match these & combine these the general trick to provide matching & recombination is to use transistor radio audio transformers. Also bear in mind the volume (input level) as that will potentially over load the amp & sometimes, I think they need inputting directly to the output valve/s, when those things are used. Some valve radios for Magnetic pickups actually input into a cathode follower, or an attenuator.

There is some info on how to do that on the WEB but "caveat actor" applies. There are idiots out there that will catch the unwary. The radio forums are likely the safest to ask if you are not sure. The big US antique radio forum is another good source as there are so many on it, that know; crap will be spotted and jumped on swiftly (that keeps them out).

A second consideration that says transformer isolate is that where there is a regulated Solid State power supply (not batteries only) there are instances where, unless the earth is DC isolated, using a mains rated cap of around 0.01mfd (103) The PSU will go crazy. I have a couple here that do that.

Thanks for the replies fellas.

Am I allowed to upload photos or links to the plug /outlet in the forum?

I have a little more information -

The Radio is a HMV Little Nipper model 64-52.

There are 4 dials on the radio -

The top left has two switches - off/on.
The bottom left is volume.
The top right - I'm not sure exactly what this does.
The lower right is radio band tuning.

You can either link to any photos you have on an image hosting service or e-mail the photos to me and I will upload them to your post. The latter choice is the better option as the photos load quicker and are resized to fit the forums.

Click on my username to grab my e-mail address.

Upon a quick look at the schematic for the 64 chassis, I don't see any gram input.

The 4 controls do appear to be: tuning, volume, tone and an on/off switch.

I'm now curious to know what you're seeing as a gram input. Perhaps a previous owner has added this?

The case of several of the Nippers with the same valve line up has a hole and a blank plate with no plug in the chassis.

Check R6 (RF screens) that often burns as it is overloaded, if one 10K resistor is used 10mA is the limit for 1Watt through 10K. The older sets paralleled 2 x 22K as the draw is above that.

Thanks for uploading the photos, Brad.

The first two photos show the plug from the record player. I cannot identify the name of the plug, so if anyone could help and knows where to buy similar plugs to plug into the back of the radio, that would be great.

The second photo shows the pick-up outlet on the back on the Little Nipper Radio. I doubt that the pick-up outlet on the back of the radio was added by the owner as she is a 75 year old lady and couldn't even remember how to get the record player to work in the back of the radio. I could be wrong, but I just have my doubts.

That's definitely a DIY job!

That's a miniature bayonet bulb type socket poking out through the elongated hole labelled Pick-up, like this one:

Image Link

... and I have never seen a plug like that.

Very strange arrangement, indeed!

A better choice would have been RCA plug and socket, like this:

Image Link

Image Link

So, as it's an "aftermarket" modification, I guess it's not a switched input and you probably have tune the radio off station to use the "pick-up" input ... assuming that it still works.

Would need to look at the internal connection to see what's been done.

It certainly is not an HMV original fitting. I seem to recall that these plug/socket connections were related to old car radios, either the aerial connection, or power in, perhaps with an in-line fuse.

I seem to recall that these plug/socket connections were related to old car radios

Yeah, now that you mention it I have a vague recollection of some association with car radio. I think it would have been power as aerials tend to have coax type connectors.

I just had a look at one of my Ferris model 74's and they have 3 of those bayonet sockets. One is for the aerial; one for an extension speaker; and the other for a dummy plug for when the extension speaker is not used. I've also seen them used for a phono pick-up connection.

UPDATE: Just looking at 2 1960's transistor radios, one an Astor, the other a Ferris, and both have those bayonet sockets for an external car aerial.

I've also seen them used for a phono pick-up connection.

On a mantel set? Love to know which one(s).

No. It was actually a 1960's stereo radiogram. I can't remember which brand though. I don't ever recall seeing them on mantle sets. That's not to say they didn't exist on some mantles for a pick-up.