Its very quiet, but could this terrible radio be made to work?

[boater sam]

Progress, carefully.

The more I look at this chassis the more it throws up anomalies. The parts that look to be originally fitted are the mains transformer, valve bases, the IF cans and the tuning cap. ( which is solidly mounted, no rubber )
 
The wave change switch assembly with coils and trimmers for 3 wavebands has extra holes around it and the slots for trimming said coils and capacitors are crudely cut suggesting that either it has been repositioned or it was not originally in this chassis.
The switch has 4 positions suggesting a gram position yet there is no gram wiring, the possible rear  pick-up socket, rheostat and wiring, now removed, did not go to the wave change switch. Besides as a volume control the rheostat would have had no effect, it was not connected as a potentiometer.

Stranger and stranger.

I have applied power via lamp limiter with all valves removed. The single pole QMB switch on the volume pot works and after half an hour the mains transformer was cold, giving 655v on the HT winding. An apparently good transformer.

Inserting the rectifier valve, 5Z4G, gave a HT of 350v but only one side of the valve has a working heater, it only warmed on one side.
I will replace the rectifier, with silicon diodes pro tem later.

Some more pictures of the horror.

[attachment=23045]                        

[Mike Watterson]

I wonder was it a kit or a prototype and there had been an intention to have 2 x SW too?

Or was it MW only and extra trimmers and wavechange switch retrofitted? I think that might have been done to some late WWII sets (I think no LW during WWII in UK).

[boater sam]

I have not explored the wave change switch, I was assuming short, medium, long and gram positions. The mains switch is on the tone control.

More progress, it receives radio waves!
Very insensitive and quiet but radio 4 is there.

It took a bit of work. 
The 6V6G is useless, the spigot is missing, some over enthusiastic valve wriggling in the past has broken it off.  But even put in so that the right pins go into the right holes it does not conduct well enough. 
A GZ34 to replace the useless 5Z4G produced 350v HT, sufficient to get the 0.01 cap on the HT line well warm before I cut it out. The electrolytics in the can are doing something, there is hum, but they have not heated up.
A fresh 6V6G got reception going after I used a mains transformer with a 6v winding as an output transformer on the mangled speaker.
The coupling and screen grid caps needed changing, I suspect all the caps in the set are beyond use.
The other 3 valves I think are all a bit low emission and the set really does not warrant any more good valves to be fitted. 
I have got it to work after a fashion with little more than  a soldering iron, multimeter, magic component tester box and some second hand parts so I think that is a success and quite far enough. As a radio it is worthless but I have enjoyed getting it going in a minimalist way, its the last set to be messed with before my winter shut down.
Thanks to all that showed interest and made some comments, that is what this forum is all about.

Sam.

[boater sam]

I think I will end the repairs to this set here unless there is someone who would like me to try anything else to improve it.

If this is to be the end of the set, I will part it out to recover the usable bits, mains transformer, choke, IF cans, pots, etc. I have not the space to preserve lost causes.
Thanks again to all,
Sam.

[Kalee20]

I can understand that.

Though what you have done has nevertheless provided interesting reading! Thanks!

[boater sam]

I generally don't scrap any radio but in this instance I will make the exception.

Has anyone else got a basket case set that they have been pushing under the bench for ages because it is too far gone to be worth fixing up?
Perhaps you would like to tell us all about your efforts?

The purpose of digging this wreck out of the pile of "to do's " was to try to generate some enthusiasm with the members of the forum in the hope that others would join in and encourage some of the many members who have not been posting here for  a while to put finger to keyboard.

I seem to have had limited success, thank you to all who took part in this somewhat futile repair, your input has been appreciated.

Sam.

[boater sam]

Its not scrapped yet so there is time for another comment on here please.
 
As a publicity stunt, this post seems to be a success, with 1369  comments.  It gets the forum content to go up.
I may do it again.

[Mike Watterson]

It might simply be a rare model in 1946 approx?

[boater sam]

It might simply be a rare model in 1946 approx?

Thanks for the encouragement but no, Mike, it is so ugly and unprofessional that no manufacturer would ever own up to making it. 
I have literally lashed bits into it to get it going and my "repairs" are 10 times better looking than the originals! 
The Ex  Gov. Sprague caps, the service valves, the monster Ferranti choke, the rough cuts in the metalwork, all point towards a home brew on what could have originally been quite a nice chassis.
Then there is the horrible thick home made wood cabinet that is too bad to even be a hamsters coffin.

Sam.

[Mike Watterson]

Ha!.
There are no shortage of ghastly sets 1922 to 1950 that are worse.

A lot of dodgy stuff 1945 to 1950 due to shortages of civilian parts but loads of "war surplus". Even some test gear makers after 1950.

It looks to me like it was modified after-market and original back lost.

It's like late 1940s in a 1929 case. Wood for cabinets was in short supply 1942 to 1951, hence the 1944 Civilian model looks like it is make of tea chests. Many 1945 to 1951 models used steel or perspex.

The three model Cs from Ever Ready (1946 to 1948 and the first used valves already 4 years obsolete) had a lot perspex sheet as it was cheap to buy (war surplus) and easily bent to shape. It also used a lot of very cheap poor quality plywood, hence two layer cracked effect paint on sides. https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/ever_ca.html
Ever Read even had a cheap metal only model not long after the war (1948).
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/ever_h.html I have one, and it's better than a 1929 4 valve set!

I also have a commercial made UK FM radio that used an Ever Ready BEREC case and chassis.

The real Ever Ready model, which was a failure in the African market due to Supersonic models.
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/berec_pioneer.html (1955 - 1957)
Gladstone commercial FM radio (not a kit), in BEREC Pioneer case, even using Ever Ready Chassis
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/gladstone_...valve.html
Really quite unprofessionally built. Using a pre-built Mullard VHF tuner/oscillator helped.
They did sell kits too, including even actual Pioneer kits. I guess they bought the entire Ever Ready inventory of the Pioneer.


Supersonic 1955 model https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/mullard_d11.html
Supersonic, likely 1957 https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/supersonic_d16.html
Supersonic's early transistor model: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/supersonic_pr84.html Likely 1961 or 1962
A ?? on a Radiomuseum date means the originator guessed.

There are loads of commercial sets worse than this 1935 beast
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/ever_5017.html

I have also a Kolster Brands Battery/mains valve set in a mad case, and though Mike Edwards thought it was one re-homed, he wasn't 100% sure.

Pye did this in 1950 https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/pye_pe55mbqpe_55_mb.html

This is a nice 1945 UK model, but it's all imported USA parts
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/portadyne_...model.html

OTOH this beast with a metal grill is 1949-1950 Pye Ireland https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/pye_39_jhe.html
The UK version had speaker cloth.

Renting radios and radios on HP was a thing in the 1950s, and you'd get a 55" TV today for the equivalent money of a decent 1950 Bakelite Radio. My parents only had a Vidor suitcase style battery valve portable in 1954.