A cabinet for the Pye 65A.

[radioman]

Hi Geordie,

I've got a QP25 you can have if you want - I'll need to test it first though.
PM me your address and if it's OK I'll pop it in the post.

Andy

[Murphyv310]

Next time your here Andy bring it and I'll test it in my set.

[Geordie McBoyne]

Hi Geordie,

I've got a QP25 you can have if you want - I'll need to test it first though.
PM me your address and if it's OK I'll pop it in the post.

Andy

Hi Andy,
           many thanks for kind offer.   Although the KLL32 can be considered a replacement for the QP25 it's much better to keep the valve line-up all Mazda.

Modifying the cabinet front to accept the plastic escutcheon removed from the scrap 65A has proved to be not an easy job.
The attachment shows the cabinet marked up ready for the jig saw.

Geordie McBoyne.
 

[Geordie McBoyne]

The rusty chassis has received it's first coat of paint. On this occasion I've used a grey etch primer.  The final colour will be Ford Highland Green.

Geordie McBoyne.

[Geordie McBoyne]

Reassembly of the chassis started yesterday. The attached picture shows the frequency changer and IF amplifier stages, that's the easy part of the rebuild, the next stage will not be so easy.  The detector, AVC and AF stage is a real rat's nest of components. Tuning scale apart the Pye 65A is electrically identical to the Dundrum Ireland made model 69B. Note the rewound QPP driver transformer. Ed Dinning did the transformer rewind for me. Same for the 69B.

Geordie McBoyne.      

[Nick]

I like the way you keep as much of the loom as is possible.

I did a DAC90A chassis strip a while ago and reduced it to a "kit"... got some flak off purists but there you go....
   

[Murphyv310]

Looks brilliant Nick. I can never understand the flak given by some, to be fair most of what we dabble with is a pile of outdated old rubbish......... fun though.

[Geordie McBoyne]

The chassis of the Pye 65A is fully reassembled and ready for testing.
The 2 and 120 volt power supply made for the Pye 69B is being used for the 65A.
After connecting up the receiver to the power supply I was greeted with no results, the filaments of the QP25 QPP output valve could be seen glowing, lights out in the workshop in to do this. The fault was quickly traced to the HT supply wire from the on-off switch to the unused pin 7 of the QP22 having not been soldered, mea culpa. Now I'm getting results, a rise in noise level when the top cap of the TP25 frequency changer is touched, but no stations coming in. Eventually the fault was traced to a bad connection on the wavechange switch.   However, the performance of the set was no way as good as the 69B.  The first IF transformer would not peak up, the second transformer is OK.  The reason for the IF transformer failing to peak up is well known fault in these sets, the iron dust cores become detached from the adjusting screws.  An attempt was tried to repair the transformer but in due course the only satisfactory solution was to fit a replacement IF transformer.  The "new" transformer is a perfect replacement and has the advantage of having the adjustment trimmers on the top of the can. I think the transformer is a pre-war EMI part.   It's marked 502Kc/s but peaks up on 465Kc/s without any difficulties.
Just the cabinet to finish off now.

Geordie McBoyne.

[Geordie McBoyne]

It's a horrible looking thing but the original loudspeaker delivers lots of crisp sounding sound.  These 2volt valve radios can give almost as good results as many AC mains receivers.

Geordie McBoyne.

[Murphyv310]

Don't forget Andy has one. I believe he has been waiting for a PM from you David.