Hmm, that magic eye has the Philips 8-pin base which was never a good idea. When used on output valves the heat would often melt the solder causing the valve to jam in the socket, or the little sideways pins would become loose on the rivets. Those problems shouldn't affect the EM4, but perhaps the radio has a bit of Philips pedigree. Who can say.

Badge engineering was just as common in the early days as it is now. So its a case of lets see what the chassis looks like?

I have on several occasions, reverse engineered a chassis to get a circuit to see what I have & in some cases where the Monkey went wrong, aside from touching it in the first place.

I bough an AutoCAD decades ago for drawing up circuits.

Oh well I guess it's a bit of a mystery bag. Hopefully the photos I took will appear soon. Otherwise it's appears to be a pretty good example as it does not look like anyone has introduced any man made faults.

Photos uploaded to Post 8.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

The EM4 valve was popular with Philips and Mullard, but I'm not aware of those being OEMs for retail chains.

The EM4's pin-compatible cousin the EM34 was used in sets made by Southern Cross. From the RM:

QUOTE: Southern Cross Pty Ltd.; Sydney, manufactured radios and TV sets up until around 1960. Their models were branded “Oxford” up until 1953 and “Southern Cross” after that.

Production: 1949 - 1960

History:

The Southern Cross Radio Co. of 10 Little Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney began manufacturing "Oxford" brand radios and radiograms in 1949. By 1954 they had become Southern Cross Radio Pty Ltd and had moved to 163-165 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.
By 1956 they had become Southern Cross Radio Television Pty Ltd and had commenced manufacturing TV sets.

So possibly that's an Oxford or Southern Cross model.

Does the set work? (Note: definitely NOT asking you to power it up if it hasn't been in recent use).

Reason for asking is they might not be the correct valves in it. Ignorant people have been known to valve-stuff a set with anything to make it look "complete".

Looks like a bit of a mixed bag inside.

Those knobs look like a white version of Radiola knobs. The trimmers are Philips ones. The valves might be too (hard to tell from that angle). The black caps were used in AWA & Hotpoint sets. The IF transformers look familiar too, but I can't remember where I've seen them.

Still, even without a schematic it shouldn't be too difficult to get going.

Good luck!

All the valves including magic eye are Philips. I haven't tried powering it up yet as the power cords are all cracked and I of course will test it through my light bulb tester with variac.

Hi Ben, from the photos that looks like a well-engineered set.
Decent rotary switches, flywheel tuning spindle, Ferguson choke and transformer.
The tuning coil set and IF's look competent.
Shows a bit of care in design.

A careful dim bulb/variac power up may even get it going.
A lot of the caps are probably leaky, and some resistors may be off value.
Those electros need watching may be dry and unable to re-form.
I would do a careful power up, after replacing the twin rubbish cord with a 3-core earthed lead and monitor the electros for heating.
Once it works, replace the electros and the dud or suspect R's and C's.

Looks like a nice chassis to work on and should be a good performer.
Cheers, Fred.

Thanks Fred, I have been thinking it's quite a good chassis to work on. I will replace the electrolytic capacitors and check resistors. I'm not sure if there are any other capacitors there that should be changed without checking first. I will first do a dim bulb/variac test with the 5Y3GT removed to check the transformer and if all good with it in place. I will of course replace the totally cracked mains lead with three core earthed and clamped. This is in a full size radiogram, the radio and turntable plug into American style two pin flat sockets. I guess I'll have to replace with three pin sockets.

I'm not sure if there are any other capacitors there that should be changed without checking first.

There will be a capacitor that connects the 6N8 anode to the 6M5 grid, this should be changed out. From the photo it looks like it could be a black one.

Next, check for continuity of the primary of the speaker transformer.

If there's any capacitors connected to the 6M5 anode, change them out too.

And have a visual check of all the remaining black caps, any that are cracked/melted/leaking should be replaced.

Those black caps are from an era. They have a terrible habit of cracking jackets & that often shorted them They and every electrolytic cap have to go.

That looks like a crack & missing insulation on the figure eight wire to the switch. That goes along with the power cable which apart from being rotten, is illegally tied. Use a three wire cable & earth the chassis. Use a gland pointy end in (might have to shift it). when drilling a hole, they will sell you a gland 12mm: It and the thread are 1/2" WW or UNC, not metric. Jaycar HP 0720 is one type

Do note: IEC cables breed in Moonlight. I often cut the IEC end off & recycle the cable. In some things I go the other way & fit an IEC socket, thereby making storage easier as there is no cable.

Do not run 5Y3 sideways.

Marc

Hi all, thankyou very much for the advice. I am an ex electronic tech. but never was taught or worked on valve equipment. I have previously restored an HMV mantle radio but it was an easy one. I'm well aware about bringing the mains cord up to spec and it of course will be done. I suppose I will have to upgrade the outlets as well for the radio and turntable. This radiogram wasn't for sale but we noticed it. The old guy that it belonged to had it in his house so was kept in nice dry situation. It belonged to his mother. He had cut the power cord off long ago due to all the cracking. Thankyou again for all of the great advice, I'm hoping to get into it shortly, just had to clear a bunch of other jobs first.

Ferguson mains transformer and filter choke.

MSP paper caps (very few OEMs used these, mainly used by AWA in their own production)

UCC electros

EFCO dial mech

Aerostat pots

IRC resistors

Chassis stamped for octal valves, adapted for mostly miniatures.

That puts it in the early 1950s.

Chassis wiring style looks like Precedent, except Precedent used Ducon for most passives.

Technico is a possibility, except I don't think they did much OEM.

My guess? Reliance, by ruling out the others!

Thanks again for the interest in my radiogram project. It has been interesting reading but I've concluded I will never find a schematic. I'm confident I can restore it without the help of a schematic. I will post pictures when completed.

One of the things that happened was, that six pin tubes were replaced with Octals as many were the same tube with a different base and numbered tubes with different base & heaters.

There is no reason why this is not an old chassis with a tube upgrade. The wiring "lead dress" is suspicious, Conventional wisdom was that you kept it as close to the metal chassis as was possible. This to reduce the tendency of instability from radiation & induction, from wires flying through the air becoming radiators & antennas.

I will never fire up a set with old unused electrolytic caps. That was described to me as Irish roulette & I have in some cases not been able to commercially fix the damage from the exuberance of powering up to see if it works.

I am able to power a sets "B" from a stepper also designed to "reform", to see if it is drawing current, and how much, when it should not be drawing any; except for bad caps & perhaps a voltage divider not disconnected.