20-06-2020, 02:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 20-06-2020, 02:56 PM by Mike Watterson.)
Putting in rivets isn't hard, esp. if the soft copper kind. Removing them is tricker. The photo looks like a conversion job. I've certainly got paxolin octal sockets that will fit the same mounts as P8 and wouldn't need plates. They sit on top of the chassis. The common Bakelite octal sockets with a metal mounting plate might have a gap.
I agree that oscillation stopping with stronger signals is usually AGC action. I saw it recently on an Ever Ready Skyranger 6802. It wasn't the main decoupler, but the 100uF one decoupling the IF/RF supply that had dried out, very high ESR. The other decouplers and speaker cap were a different brand. The pair associated with the volume control same make and high ESR, though there it doesn't much matter. The difference in audio quality after replacing the RF/IF section supply decoupler (I think was 100uF) was amazing. Coincidently that's the last set I've restored and the very last from Ever Ready. The 5214 being the first Ever Ready portable without a Lead Acid cell, The All Dry Portable. The AD3 pack it uses was deliberately huge to give the big running time compared with running to the cycle shop to recharge the lead acid. In fact about the same life as the HT pack in the Lissen Picnic Portable 8168 (Ever Ready 5010), a TRF, maybe 1936. I have one (forget if Lissen or ER) in terrible condition. I'd say smaller and lighter than the 5214, but needing very frequent recharging. I think I might have one of the last Vidor and Pye 2V portable superhets (both 1938), I must restore them and compare to 5214. Both lighter and possibly smaller. The AD3 probably had EIGHT F cells (the insides of 2 x 996 packs) and 60 B cells (=20 of the 1289 style flat 4.5V packs still sold as 3R20, not the rather rarer AD28 which is also sold as 3R25). It was called an Ever Ready No.3 All Dry Pack when the 5214 family was released. I've wondered what the No.1 and No.2 packs were.
The B103 replaces the B cells with multiple packs of layer cells. Some of the later PP range of 6V and 9V certainly used the same size "biscuits" as in the layer cell HT packs which seems to have been first used in the 1930s in the USA. The last 1950s model to use B cells instead of the layer cells for HT seems to have been the Vidor CN420A, which had 125mA LT, so the large 1.5V pack is 4 x F cells. I expect the batteries in the CN420 lasted about the same as the AD3 in the ER 5214. The only longer life UK model would have been the Sky Prince with the optional massive B137 pack rather than the merely large B136 the Sky Queen also used, very similar chassis.
The AD3 and B103 is for 250mA and the B136 and B137 are for 125mA
I agree that oscillation stopping with stronger signals is usually AGC action. I saw it recently on an Ever Ready Skyranger 6802. It wasn't the main decoupler, but the 100uF one decoupling the IF/RF supply that had dried out, very high ESR. The other decouplers and speaker cap were a different brand. The pair associated with the volume control same make and high ESR, though there it doesn't much matter. The difference in audio quality after replacing the RF/IF section supply decoupler (I think was 100uF) was amazing. Coincidently that's the last set I've restored and the very last from Ever Ready. The 5214 being the first Ever Ready portable without a Lead Acid cell, The All Dry Portable. The AD3 pack it uses was deliberately huge to give the big running time compared with running to the cycle shop to recharge the lead acid. In fact about the same life as the HT pack in the Lissen Picnic Portable 8168 (Ever Ready 5010), a TRF, maybe 1936. I have one (forget if Lissen or ER) in terrible condition. I'd say smaller and lighter than the 5214, but needing very frequent recharging. I think I might have one of the last Vidor and Pye 2V portable superhets (both 1938), I must restore them and compare to 5214. Both lighter and possibly smaller. The AD3 probably had EIGHT F cells (the insides of 2 x 996 packs) and 60 B cells (=20 of the 1289 style flat 4.5V packs still sold as 3R20, not the rather rarer AD28 which is also sold as 3R25). It was called an Ever Ready No.3 All Dry Pack when the 5214 family was released. I've wondered what the No.1 and No.2 packs were.
The B103 replaces the B cells with multiple packs of layer cells. Some of the later PP range of 6V and 9V certainly used the same size "biscuits" as in the layer cell HT packs which seems to have been first used in the 1930s in the USA. The last 1950s model to use B cells instead of the layer cells for HT seems to have been the Vidor CN420A, which had 125mA LT, so the large 1.5V pack is 4 x F cells. I expect the batteries in the CN420 lasted about the same as the AD3 in the ER 5214. The only longer life UK model would have been the Sky Prince with the optional massive B137 pack rather than the merely large B136 the Sky Queen also used, very similar chassis.
The AD3 and B103 is for 250mA and the B136 and B137 are for 125mA
