Hello all,

I'm Rod, and I've just signed up to the forum as a near-newbie to radio collecting. I'm not a total beginner - I've been an electronics hobbyist since I was a boy, & was a Telstra tech (the genuine kind, apprenticeship & all) for 20-odd years. In pre-Internet times I restored a couple of chassis - my grandparent's old AWA upright from the 30's, and a Kriesler mantle radio / clock from the 50's or 60's - but left the cabinetwork to others. Apart from that, I'm now a student who dabbles in shortwave listening.

I recently bought an old unidentified 40's-looking Philips tabletop with what appeared in the photos to be a badly cracked & poorly repaired bakelite cabinet, with the intention to try my hand at cabinet repair. On the plus side:

- the cabinet is nowhere near as bad as the pics made it look; it's mostly damaged on one side (cracked, broken, and repaired with heavy-handed Araldite, but all the pieces are there), and may have been painted or lacquered at some stage (finish is hard & bakelite-y, but I can see some runs)
- internally the set is very clean for its age, & the chassis only has light surface rust.
- it's almost totally complete with original knobs, dial glass (plastic of some sort?) in good (if dirty) condition, & what looks offhand to be mostly the original valve line-up.

On the down side:

- "it worked until I plugged it in, mate!". Nice old guy, but when I picked it up it was all I could do to stop him plugging it in again to show me it didn't work!
- there's a piece of profile between the dial & speaker broken & missing, and a fair bit of what appears to be bondo used to fill it
- it turns out to be a US-made Philips 513 AN. 1941 or thereabouts, and live chassis? Definitely not my first choice as a 'starter' set to get back into the swing of things.

Overall, it's in good enough condition and enough of a rarity that I now care about doing it properly rather than treating it as a practice piece. Or maybe that's a sign the restoration bug is biting me. Either way, I'll be back to ask some questions once I get it apart, cleaned, & inspected!

I should've listened to my Good Lady Partner & paid a bit more for the AWA 467MA she wanted

Welcome to the site.

"it worked until I plugged it in, mate!" ... at least there's no power transformer to burn out.

Schematic may be hard to find on Oz -- probably best chase that via a US or Dutch site.

Meanwhile, suggest opening a thread in Tech Talk under that model name.

Here's an Indonesian ad for it:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fa/b7/e9/fab7e99f85b79d30014db6cef1ea0b12.jpg

Thanks for the welcome, GTC. Yes, that ad (and another - http://www.nvhr.nl/data/showcase/Philips_513AN.htm has both) seem to be the most solid information out there about this model's existence.

There seems to be a real gap in the record after Philips fled The Netherlands in 1940 and before the establishment of NA Philips Co. in 1942, & this set falls into that hole. The Europeans seem to have little information about overseas-built sets from this period, and the Americans seem to have little interest in non-US manufacturers of the time. I'll definitely chase up both sides, as well as the Philips Museum, after I pull out the chassis & gather details of valve lineup etc.

I'll also start a topic in the Tech forum when I have some more info.

Thanks again,
Rod.

Dear Rod.

If you no longer have need of your Abloy key, I would be pleased to give it a good home. Mine.

By the way, where does one buy the elusive "Tool No89? I use mine on a daily basis and am terrified of losing it. Surely, it must be the only thing that the Chinese have not ripped off.

Wayne.