RCA Victor 11Q4 motor tune radio.

[bobhowe]

Just been looking at this set this afternoon very well made going to be a good one

[Geordie McBoyne]

The resoration of the chassis proved to be an easy job.  However, it's not the same for the cabinet. I was aware that the shelf that supports the chassis was in poor condition, the plywood was badly delaminated.
An attempt to clamp the plywood together was tried with no success so a new shelf will have to be made.
This has now been done. The plywood chosen for the job is about 0.3mm thicker than the original so rebates had to cut out along the sides of the new shelf in order the new part can be inserted into the cabinet. The old shelf was used as a drilling template.
Now that job has been done the loudspeaker baffle will be next cabinet part to be replaced, again it's the delamination problem.
The first picture shows the original shelf was cut in two in order that it could be easily removed.

Geordie McBoyne.

[Geordie McBoyne]

Showing the wood chopped out of the cabinet during the course of the restoration.

Geordie McBoyne.

[Geordie McBoyne]

The cabinet restoration is almost complete.  Three wooden bars had to be made because the originals were missing. Just a few minor details to attend to and the cabinet job will be done.
Picture of the set as it stands now. The Marconi model 209 has a similar styling theme, those bars across the loudspeaker aperture.  

Geordie McBoyne.

[Crackle]

Looking very good, I guess the bars could help stop some objects being poked through the speaker cloth.

Mike

[Geordie McBoyne]

Hi Mike,
I'm sure that's the function of those bars, simply to protect the cloth and loudspeaker cone. The bars above and below the loudspeaker are there only for aesthetic balance.

Geordie McBoyne.

[Radio Fixer]

Very clean chassis underneath and reasonable on top. Circuit is similar in functions to the Marconi 561 and HMV 650 so I would expect there sort of performance. Even the selectivity is the same by tertiary windings in the IFs. Having done a number, a Wobbulator is essential to get the bandwidths looking good and correct widths (the alignment instructions never achieved it for me but came close on only one set I did). Some were way out and took a lot of patience. About 10K Hz for 'wide' and 6 KHz for 'narrow' with only a small shift in centre tuning, maybe 2 or 3 kHz when switching

See that no AFC is used which I thought was normal with the Bendix motor tuner? Philips did it without also but with a much more precision looking mechanism.

You did a grand job on the cabinet.

Gary

[dtvmcdonald]

I own a very similar chassis, the radio in my RCA TRK-12/120 1939/1940 TV.
The TV is a 12, the radio a 120 (difference: 120 has no eye tube). The difference to the one
in this thread is that a couple of tubes are different numbers but essentially identical specs,
and mine has a separate power supply (to avoid magnetic problems with the CRT ...
which would have worked when TV was synced to our 60Hz line, but when TV here went
to 59.94 Hz ... very annoying 1/8 inch wobble, easily fixed with a photomultiplier
muMetal shield.)

It a fine performer with its big 12 inch speaker.
But as somebody mentioned, it lacks the AFC present in really truly top of the line
RCA sets of that period. This is a problem with mine. Its possible to get the
alignment of the gapped disk right, but it won't last well enough at the
top of the band. In the TV set its possible to reach the preset aligners with it
in the cabinet and running, and at 24 volts it won't bite, so I just reset
every once in a while.

As to the cabinet ... that photo simply shrieks "Poor Man's Art Deco". The TRK-12 is
clearly of similar concept, but it has more bars and they are rounded. See

http://earlytelevision.org/rca_trk-12.html

The radio is clearly visible.
 I think the bars are supposed to be Art. The bars to the top
of the TRK-12 are actually ventilation slot cover-uppers.

This is my first post here.

Doug McDonald

[Geordie McBoyne]

Hi Doug,  Welcome to the Golborne vintage radio website.

Re the post by Radiofixer. I believe RCA produced a very stylish console version of this set and it had AFC.

Where I'm having problems with this is the motor tune push buttons.  These are made from sort of pre-war plastic and over time they have become deformed. I've spent considerable time today attempting to make the buttons work as they should. It would appear that the "plastic" is a type of vulcanite, if that's possible. I've been using the hot soldering iron to reshape the buttons and the material certainly doesn't smell like regular plastic when melted.
Pictures of the motor tune buttons.  

Geordie McBoyne.

[AlanBeckett]

You've set yourself a task there Geordie, they look 'orrible

Alan