I am trying to confirm the model. Field bobbin is stamped 2nd Sept. 1948 and is a HMV speaker. OP trans. D1502E

This has circuit boards similar to the larger chassis 661 but has a 6U7 not 6K7 RF Line: 6J8, 6U7, 6B8, 6V6, 5Y3

Dual Wave. Circuit as for 880 & several others, speaker plug is an octal, others are not.

The only serious circuit hassle was a broken padder ferrite on BC Osc. for which I ground a new one.

As you say, that's a common HMV line-up. Here are the HMV ones that I can find that are not also radiograms:

Year, Model, Chassis, Type
1939, 209, 539DL, AC DW Man
1939, 669, 539DL, AC DW Con
1940, 660, 530DL, AC DW Con
1940, 880, 530DS, AC DW Man
1941, 881, 531DS, AC DW Man
1946, 886, 535DS, AC DW Man
1947, 537B, A536 D/S, AC DW Man
1947, 537W, A536 D/S, AC DW Man
1947, 666, 535 D/L, AC DW Con
1947, 667, 535/1 D/L, AC DW Con
1949, C13B, , AC DW Man
1949, C43C, , AC DW Con

True a lot of manufacturers used that valve line up. I some times wonder why they went to 6U7 rather than 6K7. I find 6U7 can really have moments.

The other thing with this one is that it has mantained the plunger type / pushrod trimmer, rather than the smaller Mica type.

A collector down the road has a couple of later sets in the same series but these are a completely different layout and I have sorted out his 661, so I knew what was in it and this one was vastly different. I used the 661 to get an idea of the Padder length as I suspected that they had the same part number coil?

It would not be unusual for the models to overlap. There is the possibility that the speaker is a genuine parts replacement, but I have doubts. The set looked very original.

I also wonder at why the speaker plug had to be on top of the chassis close to the hottest running valves in the thing? As the speaker is to the side, there was plenty of room to put the plug on the side and then the wires would not have been slowly cooked. they used one too many wires as it was.

Picture can be worth a thousand words, it may help? I have plenty of photo's of it.

Marc

Seems I may have misunderstood your topic title. Are you saying that it may not be HMV ... just similar to one?

Is it a mantel or console?

Meanwhile here are some other potential candidates with the given line-up:

Brand, Year, Model, Chassis, Type
Rymola, 1946, 5DA, , AC DW
Rymola, 1946, 5DMC, , AC DW Man
STC, 1940, 536Y, 536, AC DW Con
STC, 1942, 558A, 558, AC DW Man
STC, 1942, 558C, 558, AC DW Con
STC, 1942, 558Z, 558, AC DW Man
STC, 1945, 536B, 536, AC DW Man
STC, 1946, 558, 558, AC DW Man


As to whacky design decisions, I don't think there's a vehicle that I have owned where there wasn't at least one thing that had me asking myself "What on earth were they thinking (or drinking) when they decided to do that?"

Marc, I am sure this is an 886. I have one of these too, which was my first radio restoration back in 1989. However restored that cabinet did an excellent job.

Refer: this page down the bottom.

Brad,

I don't normally do cabinets, however the finish on this one was a write off & the customer, really wanted it sorted.

I sorted out its mechanical issues (glue etc.) and then passed it onto a guy in town who's work I had previously seen (cheque book restoration). He has the right finish for these, so it was rubbed back & re-stained etc.

Not worth me buying stuff to do it, when I knew he could do what you see.

I got a new decal from a guy that advertised in radio waves. Grille cloth is new, but is actually now on a stretcher and that is the white band, that the flash picked up.

Cellulose panel is the original. My main concern, and the most important, is that it meets with the customers approval.

GTC,

Absolutely HMV it's actually stamped into the front of the chassis. Pity they did not do the same with the model number.

Thanks
Marc

Looking at what is on the link, the knobs on this one are original, including the dodgy way that they attached three of them.

I did scan the cellulose function card on the front. You can do same with dial glasses. The numbers on the one I have posted, is loosing station ientifiers from the dial.

Do be aware that if the BC tracking goes out of whack: Check the padder., it too may have broken.

Marc

Okay, now that we have a picture all is revealed. Beautiful cabinet resto.

My data shows that the IF is 457.5 for those models.

Mine has knobs from all over the shop. I suppose I am lucky that the 886 doesn't have the fine tuning feature that was usually fitted to the smaller 881 (same chassis but smaller speaker and proportionally smaller cabinet). One day I'll shop for a set of knobs though I am buying full radios over the next month so buying knobs has to take second place.

I got mine for $20.00 and, like yours, the cabinet needed a once over and I had to hand-make the speaker grille timbers as most of the originals were broken, so that became my first radio restoration, following some of the tips from one of Peter Lankshear's columns in Electronics Australia. Sadly the HMV transfer on the top of my cabinet couldn't be saved and people weren't making replicas back in 1989 as far as I was aware.

At the time, the radio wasn't very old and still worked well electrically so the only big change there was fitting a new cone to the loudspeaker. The method used is one that we probably wouldn't try these days as more resources are available. I just bought a speaker oft he same size from Dick Smith and cut the cone away from the voice coil and frame and then added it to the voice coil and frame of the 886's speaker. It looks great but sounds a bit tinny so either modern speaker cones don't have a lot of travel or the voice coil is polling on the magnet. Either way, as this radio is due for an overhaul of the electronics, this speaker will probably get reconed again by someone more accustomed to the task.

Going by the sound of my 881, the 886 sould have a fairly powerful and clear sound once restored fully.

Some have asked me why there is so much room in the cabinet. The extra space is devoted to an inverter in battery models.

An unrelated interesting fact is that the factory these radios were made in is still standing on Parramatta Road in Homebush. When radio manufacture ground to a halt EMI stamped their records there and now it is occupied by Kennards Storage.

As I said I am not taking credit for the cabinet, that goes to "Dino". Who has seen the set reassembled.

Set does sound quite good. I did "burn test" it on BBC World service. There was a reasonable attrition on resistors. The usual suspects had wandered. I normally check those as I change the caps; It saves time wasting rework, grief & messing up things, that you just made look good.

I also make a point of leakage testing Mica caps if they have one end unsoldered. Every now an then you get a dud.

The big hassle as suggested was the realisation that the BC band was over a 100kHz narrow & would not calibrate. Replacing the broken padder ferrite fixed that, albiet that it took three goes at grinding it to the right length, without it splintering. Worth the effort as the dial is now correct both ends.

Marc

As a matter of interest this set had (damaged) alignment data on the chassis rear. Osc 600kHz then the 1500kHz area for the aerial trimmer and the IF freq.

At least with a frequency counter you can get the frequency even when the sig gen is fairly basic. All it has to be is stable.

Getting the 600kHz in this one, was initially the problem, with the BC bands spread.

Marc