Hi there,

I'm generally into modern electronics, but am about to start building a valve preamp and have picked up a fascination with these valve things! Anyway, I have now picked up a great looking Philips valve radio which I find difficult to date. I've looked at the pages on here and it has features of a few eras, to my eyes.

It's a Philips Model III with an upright pressed steel casing and bakelite ends, and a bakelite handle. It's am only, and battery only, and has a neat steel cover over the tuning dial (marked in station names only) which when you open the cover, switches it on. It runs off 2 x 45V 'B' and 1 x 1.5V 'A' and I think has 5 valves. The Philips badge is brass coloured (may even be brass) with the circle painted red. Indented in one bakelite end is the tuning dial, and the other, the volume.

I have photos if anyone is interested...

The licence number inside is 172580 with no letter.

What do you reckon?

I now have to find a method of battery replacement; maybe some sort of transformer/capacitor power supply.

Cheers

Stuey

Hi Stuey,
Fixed one of those last month. Apart from the battery source what would you like to know ?
Regards
Rudy

As a rule if there is no letter prefix in the number on the licence transfer then it is a post-war set. This is not always the case though - I have a small Gulbransen transportable with an "I" prefix but it was generally thought that H was the last letter, indicating the last half of 1942 (rumour has it that "G" went for two years but I can't verify it.)

This set is also earthed which is strange. The set is connected with a three-core figure-8 style cable. In my 17 years as a licenced electrician I've never seen three-core figure-8 cable anywhere.

Hi Rudy and Brad,

Rudy, do you know what years these were built? My guess was mid to late fifties, but the Philips Model II text inside looks more 40's.

I don't suppose you have a circuit diagram? It still has all the original caps and some components I'm unsure of as I'm more used to modern components.

Brad, I'll send you through some photos to attach if that's OK like on the other threads.

Thanks guys.

Mark

Oops, I meant 'Model III' above...

Stu

I can put pics up, no worries - Bradmail.vintage-radio.com.au.

I am sure the set you are speaking about is early 50s but I may also be wrong. I'll do some digging.

Hi Stu,
As far as I can check it appears to be a model 148 - 1952. There are about 3 pages of info. What is the problem with it ?
With these ac/dc radios I usually check B+ then the speaker transformer, after that I check the filament continuity of each individual valve ( you can't see the filaments light up ). In the one that I repaired R15 a 2K 1 watt had gone high, it comes straight off the rectifier 6V4. I will send all the circuits etc through Brad's e-mail.
Cheers
Rudy

Stu ,
I should have had that closer look, which I am having now. I can't see the 240 socket that mine had and also I see but can't read the model number besides Philips.
Could you let me know and I'll have another look for the circuit.
Rudy

Stu,
Could it be Model 111 ( 1948 ) also what's the number on that big valve 1Q5GT ?
Rudy

Hi Rudy,

It's certainly a Model III, but I don't know what year!

I'll have a look on the valve tonight for the number.

There's nothing wrong with the radio I know of - it's just that (a) it's a battery radio and the batteries are NLA; and (b) as far as I know it hasn't been powered up for years.

So, I'm assuming that at least some of the caps may be suspect?

Thanks for the help.

Stuey

Oh, I should have confirmed that, yes, it is battery only.

Stu

Just a hint with the batteries: you can make a suitable B battery out of 9 volt 'transistor' batteries. You just need to add up the voltages of the old B batteries and make sure the number of 9 volt batteries closely matches. In this case you'd need ten 9 volt batteries. You'll need an equal number of battery snap connectors (Dick Smith or Jaycar have these). If you find the sound distorted or muffled, try removing one of the 9 volt batteries from the B supply.

Only downside to this is that these tiny batteries don't last long and are quite expensive. You may get a couple of hours out of them.

A C or D size cell should suffice as an A battery.

I forgot to mention, you'd need to wire the 9 volt batteries in series, not parallel. You may well know this already but I am just covering bases. You may well also know that if you touch the connected wires from the home-brewed B battery with damp fingers it might give you a belt.

On an unrelated note, what do you guys think of the flags behind the usernames? It is something I added this weekend, along with a couple of security upgrades.

Thanks Brad.

Actually, I'll be quite happy with an ac conversion - as you know there are plenty of sites showing you how. While portability would be great, I'll probably use it in the shed mostly, which has power.

I reckon the flag background looks excellent. One thing though; the forum would be better if it showed that someone had posted in a thread without having to open it. No big deal, but just in case it can be done.

Thanks guys.

Stuey

An AC conversion is the inevitable approach for many reasons and probably understandable due to price and convenience. There is nothing remotely like the batteries of old still made now. I still remember my mother changing the battery in the old portable we had when I was a young lad. Funny thing is, I was too young to remember the brand of the set. All I remember was that it was in a fire engine-red leather case with a perforated brass speaker grille and a four inch plastic tuning dial similar to the last model Astor Mickey.

I'll ponder on your suggestion regarding post indication. Most forums do have such a function. It's just a matter of working out how to implement it. In the mean time there are the quick links to recent posts just under the login/logout buttons in the sidebar though these won't always point to the threads you want them to.