This radio has "Hybrid Modules" throughout, see how to reverse engineer these hybrids. Also a quick "general description" of the workings, and a run down on the alignment.
I enjoyed it a lot. I worked at Philco Ford in Lansdale designing together with a large group of engineers and technicians building about 2 million radios per year. Those epoxy covered thingies were made specially by Centralab for Philco, we used to call them PEMs. they saved PC board real estate, and diminished the amount of components in the board. We fed the signal thru a dummy antenna that represented the real antenna, a capacitor divide, so the antenna trimmer was matched to the real antenna. Big issue when they went from a whip antenna to a windshield antenna...bad idea.
Indeed! Windshield antennas were more for aesthetics, that whip antenna on the Ford LTD was fantastic. This Philco radio is a testament to the engineers behind it. Man, at night, you sure could DX with that little rig! I could tune in Idaho to Mexico, living in California.
From what I've heard, one of the reasons they eliminated whip antennas was because they could be used as weapons in a pinch. Take it with a grain of salt, I'm certain they had other reasons, (like cost per unit).
Ok, I have to tell you upfront, and I love this video, that I am a 69 year old guy that had a 262KC IF radio in my 63 Ford Fairlane in my dating years. These radios are the max! I now own two of them and am trying to figure out how to marry them to a highlly-directional loop type antenna. The 1970 Philco Ford LTD AM only is the very best you can find! I got two of them! They are not for sale.
I did the radio from a 1937 Cord. The radio lived in the trunk, with aircraft cables running to the controls on the dashboard. Vibrator power supply. All the old girl needed was cleaning and capacitors. :) Just don't put a scratch on the thing; Pebble Beach grade restoration. Nice radio! Car radios for American cars were generally built to last and were generally still working while the quarter panels were flapping in a light breeze. Mopar (Chrysler) radios of that period were made by Motorola - the astute will Google the origins of that company name. :)
" and that's how easy it is." He says. As that song goes , 'they're coming to take me away ha ha...." - And I am merely watching the process. Very skilled and patient Mr. Carlson. It is fascinating to see someone so competent in their feild. Very steady hands man. Amazing.
You gotta do what you gotta do to make it happen- I admire that spirit. Craftsmen like You became so terribly rare, it´s a shame. Even in Germany where i live and us folks were known for that kind of perfection and spirit. My dad worked in Wolfsburg when there was nicer times as a diamond grinder, those were used in cutting tools and so. He deliverd ALWAYS 100% perfection in everything he worked on and he expected that, too and that`s where i came in as the black sheep... I lost track. I belive in spirit and perfection. You show how it can be done. With ease. You are a great teacher because of the way You explane eeevery detail without becoming boring. It´s very entertaining. I shure hope there are many more jears of You spitting into the bad guy´s soup by sharing aaaall that knowledge for free. And not stopping there, You even build and release awsome inventions like the low voltage cap tester. Awsome.
This was an amazing video, It's refreshing to learn so much from you Mr Carlson. This video contains crucial lead in analysis, troubleshooting and reverse engineering all in one unique repair video..Top Shelf Teaching!!
Looks like it just came out of my old '72 Maverick! Super sensitive, and that's all I cared about back then. Good work on that module; a better radio to operate than to service. Thanks!
Excellent presentation. I'm working on a Motorola 'all transistor radio' model # unknown 50's model. It has Tetrode transistors. After watching your video I got the courage to tackle it. Tested the transistors and no two are alike.
repaired many of the Philco car radios. I used graphite powder to lubricate the tuning cores. also clean the audio power transistors and reapplied heat sink compounds. Yes, those modules do die and I have spares as a Philco repair dealer .
I repaired these at my first job in the industry. I worked at a Philco warranty repair station in 1970. That year the Ford AM radio vendor was Philco, the AM-FM was Bendix and the 8 track was Motorola.
Sam's photofact repair schematic sets used to be quite decent about including separate schematics of those couplets. A horrible insight into what was to come in electronics. Philco made that thing a real joy to work on. Interesting video, thank you.
I thought this was going was going to be another boring quick fix, Until . . . I saw the hybrid board. that blew me away. Then I knew I was watching a true professional. And that's when I knew I was going to learn from your videos. This one was my 1st of yours, and I look forward to catching up on the rest. Thanks, Brad
I thought you were going to upgrade this to an AM/FM stereo radio. I admire your devotion to restoring old devices. I wonder how many of these radios are still in place. As for me, I would have replaced the unit with a new head unit with FM stereo and Bluetooth capability. I haven't listened to an AM station in 20 years. I am a great admirer and love watching your videos.
He said it’s out of a 1970 Mustang. Now, it could be a straight 6, or it could be a Boss 429, we don’t know. But for the collector cars originality is king and you would be drawn and quartered by the auction buyers at auctions like Barrett-Jackson if this was a collectible Mustang and you replaced the original Philco AM radio with a modern one.
If it is out of a straight 6 base Mustang, or even a 302, putting an aftermarket anything or modifying the car in any way is ok. The car isn't that collectible. That's an $8-10,000 car. But if it's a 351, 390, or Cobra Jet 428 or Boss 429, those are high dollar cars that can fetch 6 figures at auction and if you even use the wrong bolt on the hood latch you can lose money on the value of it. Everything should be as it left the factory in 1970 to keep the value of the car at it's highest, that includes the original AM radio with one speaker. Heck, AM radio was an option. Many of those cars had no radios and that even increases the value more - all that power with weight reduction of less accessories = faster car. And if you have one with heater delete? Rare, rare, rare and the most value. The best ones have no power steering, no power brakes, 4 speed manual, no heater, and no radio.
To get Fm, "from" a Am car radio. They sold FM CONVERTER's. Kraco many other companies sold them too. I just pulled 2 ford/1973-79 radios from a bronco & f-150 at a junkyard yesterday. And one had an audiovox fm converter. Today it's raining out so good day to see if either work or if the fm converter works. That was a real treat, to watch a Mr. Carlson lab video on a 1970's Ford radio. And of coarse the tear down of one of those space saving modules, with just capacitors and resistors inside. What ever there called.
Watching this channel quickly demonstrates the difference between an electrical engineer, and a break-fix repair guy. I'm an ace with computers, but a level 2 electronics tech (on the 1-10 scale)....
Im amazed with the new circuit board you made. Ingenious. Id like to see a video of you making them and going through the process/equipment it takes to make them. Thank you for sharing. 5 Stars! I enjoy the topics.
ughh the alignement! when I was a kid, I used to believe I could reach the magic combination where all stations are loud with an optimized tuning of all the IF cans and trimmers... you can imagine what disaster I went through :D and the long hours to try to get it back to normal :D cool old days ...
I'm pretty sure this video represents the most effort that has ever been put into repairing one of these radios. Making a new module for something that has been discarded by the tens of thousands is pretty hardcore.
@@MrCarlsonsLab I've been enjoying your channel which is why I'm replying to 4 year old videos. I worked with electronics for many years but I'm still learning new things surfing YT.
Thanks Mike for this great video on this now very rare piece of old technology. I remember repairing these type's of radio's myself and it was great fun doing them. Some people would wonder why even wasting time on a old AM radio but if your restoring a classic car you want to keep the car in as original condition as you can. My car is a late 1980's Nissan Skyline and it has a radio with the same sort of tuner in it with the carbon slug's. It is AM/FM stereo cassette with 4 speaker outs made by Clarion AWA Japan. This radio only has 8 watts per channel (4 watts per speaker) and has what's called a "Supertune" function and makes the radio very sensitive to weak radio stations. Unfortunately we have only 2 AM stations being broadcast here and FM is now Digital making this radio useless. I now have to put up with the "JUNK" radio's that are now flooding the market that have poor receivers and crappy sound
+Dallas Dorrington Thanks for taking the time to write Dallas! Times sure are changing fast. Those slugs you mention are actually made of a material called "Ferrite." Paul
I had to do the same thing for a defective module in a 1957 black-and-white TV. Luckily I had a schematic that showed the values in the module and I just re-created it on perfboard with discrete components
A fine video even from 8 years ago. My first car was a 1968 Ford Mustang. I didn't want to cobble in some sort of Craig AM/FM radio, which would have ruined the look of the dash in this car. So, I purchased an Audiovox C980a FM Radio Tuner that mounted under the dash. I tuned the AM radio to a specific frequency and this tuner worked fine to give me FM stations.
Really enjoy watching the repair work. Don’t have the skills to fix this stuff, wish I did. I’ll just rip the head unit off and replace it with a DVD player, a set of speakers, subwoofer and a backup camera.
I've had good luck adding, drop by drop, spec grade acetone to, spec grade denatured alcohol (not rubbing alcohol which is isopropyl rather that ethanol.) You can gently soften the whole potted mass and then use an Xacto style knife along the top edge. Basically, it peals back a few quarter inches at a time. No scrapping. Add acetone very slowly. Every pot is a different age with a different heat history (effects the cross linking, I won't bore you.)
Cool nostalgia rebuild, I really enjoyed that, never knew what the hybrid modules were. Also reminded me of the old clocks the cars use to have. I remember waiting for my mom in the Buick "wildcat" car she had, and every minute or so you heard a "thunk" from the clock. Turned out to be when it wound down, it closed a set of contacts that somehow wound the clock back up. I was like 8YO when I tried to fix it, so I don't exactly remember the details, other than the contacts would burnish together and I unstuck them to fix. Sorry for the digression, just reminded of the "70's". Still looking for a clock like that to mess with, if you come across one, you could do a repair video. Anyhoo..thanks for taking me back in time with the radio, parted out many of those back in the gap.
I have no idea why anyone in their right mind would give a thumbs down to any of your uber excellent Vids, but I have a good idea as to where their other thumb is...
When I returned to the farm in South Dakota after leaving the USAF in '71, I got a part time job in town at the prime electronics repair shop. Ray, the owner, gave me my own little room as I was to work on everything except TV's. He showed me an old refrigerator box in another room that was piled half full of car radios. "Those are the ones we couldn't fix" he told me, "your spare time project." They were all just dead. The first ones I looked at had burned out 2N3055 final amps, but I couldn't get the radios to work. After close examination, I happened to notice on one of the radios that the trimmer screws were either totally tight, or backed clear out. The IF can slugs were at the top. A large percentage of the radios were like this. I showed this to Ray, he admitted that he had told his 17 yr old son that he could try to fix anything in that box. It took me about three months to get the 80% of the radios going that I could. Those damn modules were unavailable. The shop had Sams books for nearly all of the radios. I usually set the bottom of the band to 540kHz and the top to 1610kHz. After sending the first five back to the Ford dealer, I was requested to come out and look at the first one they had reinstalled. It worked great, until the car was started. Ignition noise!! I had tuned them all too well. Vehicle ignitions back then were NOISY! Adjustments made, everyone was happy. I confiscated all of the alignment tools that the kid had, another problem solved. I love how you explain everything so well as you go along. I have been an electronics geek all of my life. Retired in '17, building my dream shop now, 45 mi NE of Denver, will be back at it only working for me. Great, great videos, have watched many of them since subscribing way back when. Am planning on visiting V.I. from Victoria to the top in the next year or two, gorgeous looking place! Micheal in Colorado.
Regarding the blue wire.It is for the light,and if hooked to the yellow the light will say on when the radio is turned off.You can wire the blue to the on/off switch on the radio or if you are using a power supply leave as is..This radio will not be going in a car,,but in my work shop.The audio is great,plus the reception.
50 years from now, some future technician will be making a UA-cam video about restoring this radio and will express frustration at not finding the "Carlson" hybrid on eBay
The technician won't be frustrated. He or she will simply say, "I can't find this part. Oh, well. It is working just fine." I know I am echoing you, Bruce! :-)
That very radio right there is the hottest radio for nighttime DXing ever! The problem is how to efficiently connect that radio to a directional antenna.
...sorry, just remembered something. You mentioned the 5 being 550, not 500. On the old one's here in Texas growing up, the dial had a small 4 just above it to the upper right, next to the 5. Always thought it meant 540. Anyway, just thought it was interesting. Thanks again for another great video.
Interesting piece of technology, but for beeing grown up in Europe/Germany I seem to be to young to really remember broadcast stations on these frequencies, although I remember a lot of radios beeing able to receive this among other long since abandoned bands. Listening to a radio usualy meant VHF frequencies. Listening to any AM radio (as that was the band slection designation on most radios, AM and FM) usually meant crapy sound quality with a lot of hissing, whistling and other noises. One of the last radio stations on AM I can remember was actually just automated traffic information for North rhine westfalia, and any car nearby with either having the heater on the rear windo switched on or trucks with especially noisy generator or ignition systems almost blew your ears of... Today VHF / FM is still most commonly used. A digital replacement for AM called DRM never really overcame some experimental state. Only for VHF already the digital next generation is commonly used in form of DAB/DAB+. I think lateron I have to check if my current car radio stil has an am band and if there is anything at all I can receive. Most stations had been shutdown by end of 2015, maybe there is the one or other british or AFN station I can get. Today I just wish they would not only use the "better quality" technologies for broadcasting, but put in some better quality content every now and then...
Hi Super BadFast, Thank you for the comment! For some reason, your post has no reply link? Harsh conditions and temperature variations are the reasons for using permeability tuning. (slug tune) These radios usually seem more sensitive than others because they rely on short antennas to receive long wavelengths. (They have a tuned front end.)
U sure about the size of those shoes? I think you're a bit less entertaining but much more accessible; if I'm well rested, I learn much more from you than from Dave..
The PTC on the right top was to avoid damaging the output stage if the speaker leads were short circuited. The coil with wire in bottom right had a screw as core and mounting mechanism, was used to filter line noise, lots in a car near the ignition.
Had one of these in my 66 ford most only had only one speaker in the middle of the dash. Some of the old radios did have 5.5 on the end of the scale some of the old radios had indicators where to tune for Civil Defense broadcast.
Just an AM radio. Amazing to think all my Dad's used VW buses (early 70s vintage) had AM radios in them and you had to buy an FM converter (available at yard sales) to go into the AM antenna, IIRC. Now there's rarely anything on either band worth listening to.
It's interesting that these AM car radios worked with a vertical antenna instead of an antenna coil like a desktop or portable radio. Maybe you could do a video of how the different antennas worked for car radios vs. portable. Also maybe a video on converting an AA5 radio antenna to a vertical.
I could never figure out why the IF is so low on AM car radios. In many places here in the U.S., that module you worked on is referred to as a "couplate." I heard the receiver came off of a '70 Mustang. A few years earlier, AM car radios made here had little Civil Defense triangles on the dial to enable the user to tune in to CONELRAD frequencies for important news, information and instructions in case of enemy attack.
Are you willing to talk a little about your business model? Clearly you are extremely knowledgeable and skilled and the work you're doing takes enormous amounts of time. Do you do this work for paying customers? Is it ever economically advantageous to pay you to fix things vs. replacing? Is it primarily collectors for whom the cost is not important? Or is this primarily about content creation?
I just passed my Technician, General, & barely missed passing the Advanced Extra exam for ham radio, and was looking at modifying ham radios when I came across your videos. WOW, my license has already paid off in spades, and it is not even valid yet! I will let you know what call sign I get. I will go back & pass the Extra next week, as they say they will allow me to use my HP-48. I still vow not to cheat & use the memory to solve any pre-programmed equations for me. I don't own a non-programmable scientific calculator, and I am addicted to RPN.
I few thought come to mind after watching this. I would think that the curve tracer would be very useful to discover what hidden structures there are in modules like this. Also, would a flexible drive on a dremmel with a dental burr be useful for depotting these? The factory assembly for this radio must have been rather tricky.
It would be fun to see you trouble shoot or rebuild one of those yellow radiation detectors commonly sold on E-Bay.
8 років тому+2
Mr Carlson's Lab for me is somehow like the "Walking Dead" series. Can`t stop watching and cannot await a next restoration or techtips video. I don´t do radio restauration but I am into synthrepair. Have you ever tried acetone instead of alcohol to rubb off the outer modul substance? Acetone for me works better, but maybe I have different (newer) material in 20year old synths. BTW. Found out that the tonertransfer works with many glossy papers. Thanks for that again. Take care and go on. I am here;) bye
+Jürgen Driessen Hi Jurgen. I use a whole bunch of different chemicals for different purposes. My three most used are Acetone, Lacquer thinner, and alcohol, each having their own distinct cleaning properties.
I have the schematic for the 69 mustang radio and will be making some new modules for my radios. I noticed the radio you repaired had only one cap in the IF module. The 69 IF module had 2 caps one connecting pins 3 and 5 and one connecting pins 3 and 4. Philco must had made that change from 69 to 70 radios.
My first car, a 72 pinto, sky blue, well used by my 3 older sisters by the time I got it. But hey, I was in 10th grade and it was paid for and mine....lol.
You are a valuable person to know, and a dying breed. I;ve been burned 3x on ebay/craigslist. Now I have 3 radios to junk or get repaired. Any contacts in the Deadwood, SD area (summer) or Mesa, AZ (winter) that can do this type of work?
The sealed modules make no sense from a technical aspect (at least nothing I'd believe) however, it's a great way to discourage third-party repair. If Philco dealers only had access to the modules, they would have a virtual monopoly on repair. It's easy to see why foreign manufacturers were able to make inroads during those years.
Not true. "Foreign" manufacturers had their squirrely procedures as well. These integrated modules were made by most manufacturers and it had more to do with stability than anything else. By building and potting these parts, the circuit in which they were installed would not be subject to drift or instability by the simple action of physically changing the distance between parts, something that could be done from vibration or even moving them aside for measurement. They also would be forced to share the same heat cycle profile which would contribute to stability and minimize drift. Besides, the secondary TV part suppliers provided these parts as well. Encapsulated modules weren't proprietary. In addition, the manufacturer could be sure the circuit retained a specific type of resistor, capacitor or inductor should one fail. If these were all discrete, a technician could install a different type of capacitor in the circuit, one which might reduce the performance or reliability of the circuit. If the tech has to replace the encapsulated module, it would retain the same parts the engineer spec'd for it.
Stability and economy. To save money, the PCB is cheap phenol and any sensitive parts are on potted submodules. It actually makes sense. Now, I do know that once ICs began to be used in cars, manufacturers would order common parts with house numbers on them to obfuscate the circuits.
I have a AM only out of a 1967 Ford Mustang (7TPZ) single speaker output. It powers up, has plenty of audio but its static and with sounds of oscillations as I tune across the dial. The dial indicator also skips as I turn the dial. It looks like a few teeth on the rod that goes across the wheel it merges with is missing explaining why the dial skips. I have no idea what to do about that but at least the push buttons still work. With a 5 foot piece of wire I was able to tune in 1 stations at 920KHz weak. Based on a portable radio I have the AM radio should have received it much better. If I connect the antenna to an outside wire antenna I lose the station as though the radio was being overloaded. I am looking for a schematic and possibly some tips for troubleshooting. I am wondering if there is some AGC in the I.F. that might not be working right, (Cap or diode) . There is only 3 transistors and checking all 3 give me similar voltage readings with my meter in diode position of .295-.3v base to emitter and base to collector. Not sure for these transistors if that is normal. Collector to emitter is around 1.4v. There is a germanium diode near one of the I.F. cans. Forward bias was around .3v I noticed a large round tube what looks like it might be a multi cap but I can't read the values until I remove the board. Any sources of a schematic I can download or tips on trouble shooting with be appreciated. Thanks
Great to see how that radio performs. Generally when I see that type of construction I think it is built to a price and somehow low tech, but if it performs so well after so many years, I believe it is the result of good design. Question, how do you make your PCBs? Charlie.
Coast to Coast AM!..... 1970 ...the year I was born.......I first saw those modules in a TV repair video ..... I think they arealso called K networks or something like that...
262.5 KC IF frequency. I seem to remember that automotive radios used the lower IF frequency to be able to get higher gain. Why did common AM radios never use that IF frequency. It seems to have worked well in automobile units. I have been considering rigging up an old auto radio to do DX receiving. Do you see any problems with that?
I hated when car radios went solid state. The old tube type radios made great table radios as they employed an RF amplifier stage and permeabilty tuning.Philco made good products until Ford bought them. Then they were fix or repair daily like the name said.
Great video! I have a 1971 Philco radio from my Ford truck that I was working on. My problem turned out to be a bad potentiometer. I do not have a way to measure the sensitivity but my radio also seemed very sensitive, much better than any desktop radio I have. Is this because the car radios have a RF amp in them or could it be the fact that they don’t use ferrite coil antennas? Also do you know why the old AM car radios tuned with the slugs instead of a variable capacitor? I was thinking that maybe it had to do with vibration.
+Mr Carlson's Lab, just wanted to say greetings from Morton County in North Dakota and nice job on repairing the radio. Thanks for sharing that with us. Do you get 960 AM in Baker, Montana or what about 910 AM in Minot, North Dakota?
Two silly little very late things: -Later Philco-Ford radios indeed had the bottom number as '54' with the 4 in smaller type. -Boy, those ceramic-substrate hybrids. They must've developed that into the Thick Film Ignition modules, since they're constructed much the same (and are sort of a hybrid themselves).
I enjoyed it a lot. I worked at Philco Ford in Lansdale designing together with a large group of engineers and technicians building about 2 million radios per year. Those epoxy covered thingies were made specially by Centralab for Philco, we used to call them PEMs. they saved PC board real estate, and diminished the amount of components in the board. We fed the signal thru a dummy antenna that represented the real antenna, a capacitor divide, so the antenna trimmer was matched to the real antenna. Big issue when they went from a whip antenna to a windshield antenna...bad idea.
Indeed! Windshield antennas were more for aesthetics, that whip antenna on the Ford LTD was fantastic. This Philco radio is a testament to the engineers behind it.
Man, at night, you sure could DX with that little rig! I could tune in Idaho to Mexico, living in California.
From what I've heard, one of the reasons they eliminated whip antennas was because they could be used as weapons in a pinch. Take it with a grain of salt, I'm certain they had other reasons, (like cost per unit).
Boy did this bring back memories! Wheil I was working at Radio/TV shop summers in High School.
Ok, I have to tell you upfront, and I love this video, that I am a 69 year old guy that had a 262KC IF radio in my 63 Ford Fairlane in my dating years. These radios are the max! I now own two of them and am trying to figure out how to marry them to a highlly-directional loop type antenna. The 1970 Philco Ford LTD AM only is the very best you can find! I got two of them! They are not for sale.
Reverse engineering that defective module was brilliant to say the least. Very cool.
+Thema inproblem Thanks! Very time consuming, but made for a good video.
I did the radio from a 1937 Cord. The radio lived in the trunk, with aircraft cables running to the controls on the dashboard. Vibrator power supply. All the old girl needed was cleaning and capacitors. :) Just don't put a scratch on the thing; Pebble Beach grade restoration. Nice radio! Car radios for American cars were generally built to last and were generally still working while the quarter panels were flapping in a light breeze. Mopar (Chrysler) radios of that period were made by Motorola - the astute will Google the origins of that company name. :)
" and that's how easy it is." He says. As that song goes , 'they're coming to take me away ha ha...." - And I am merely watching the process. Very skilled and patient Mr. Carlson. It is fascinating to see someone so competent in their feild. Very steady hands man. Amazing.
"...to the funny farm, with grass and trees and radio repair, they're coming to take me away! HoHo Hee Hee Ha ha.." Ahh. Napoleon XIV. Funny Song.
You gotta do what you gotta do to make it happen- I admire that spirit. Craftsmen like You became so terribly rare, it´s a shame. Even in Germany where i live and us folks were known for that kind of perfection and spirit. My dad worked in Wolfsburg when there was nicer times as a diamond grinder, those were used in cutting tools and so. He deliverd ALWAYS 100% perfection in everything he worked on and he expected that, too and that`s where i came in as the black sheep...
I lost track. I belive in spirit and perfection. You show how it can be done. With ease. You are a great teacher because of the way You explane eeevery detail without becoming boring. It´s very entertaining. I shure hope there are many more jears of You spitting into the bad guy´s soup by sharing aaaall that knowledge for free. And not stopping there, You even build and release awsome inventions like the low voltage cap tester. Awsome.
+LaLaLand, nice picture icon you have. Hahahahahahahahahahaha! =-D
This was an amazing video, It's refreshing to learn so much from you Mr Carlson. This video contains crucial lead in analysis, troubleshooting and reverse engineering all in one unique repair video..Top Shelf Teaching!!
This was the first video of his I watched. I was amazed at his technical techniques. I subscribed and also became a patron. 👍👍👍
Looks like it just came out of my old '72 Maverick! Super sensitive, and that's all I cared about back then. Good work on that module; a better radio to operate than to service. Thanks!
Best Looking module / couplet repair I have ever seen. Very Professional.
Thank you for the upload.
Thanks for the nice comment Bobby!
Excellent presentation. I'm working on a Motorola 'all transistor radio' model # unknown 50's model. It has Tetrode transistors. After watching your video I got the courage to tackle it. Tested the transistors and no two are alike.
repaired many of the Philco car radios. I used graphite powder to lubricate the tuning cores. also clean the audio power transistors and reapplied heat sink compounds. Yes, those modules do die and I have spares as a Philco repair dealer .
Mr Carlson you are good at electronics restoration of vintage shortwave radio Receivers and Alignment
I repaired these at my first job in the industry. I worked at a Philco warranty repair station in 1970. That year the Ford AM radio vendor was Philco, the AM-FM was Bendix and the 8 track was Motorola.
Great demonstrations and information! Your knowledge, skill and ability amazes me!
Sam's photofact repair schematic sets used to be quite decent about including separate schematics of those couplets. A horrible insight into what was to come in electronics.
Philco made that thing a real joy to work on. Interesting video, thank you.
Nice video and excellent fix Mr Carlson! Don't throw it away, just fix it, like it, like the effort.
I thought this was going was going to be another boring quick fix, Until . . . I saw the hybrid board. that blew me away. Then I knew I was watching a true professional. And that's when I knew I was going to learn from your videos. This one was my 1st of yours, and I look forward to catching up on the rest.
Thanks,
Brad
Glad your enjoying the videos Brad. Thanks for the comment too!
Wow, amazing pcb! Absolutely incredible that you made that with a laser printer and copper clad board. You're an artist.
I thought you were going to upgrade this to an AM/FM stereo radio. I admire your devotion to restoring old devices. I wonder how many of these radios are still in place. As for me, I would have replaced the unit with a new head unit with FM stereo and Bluetooth capability. I haven't listened to an AM station in 20 years.
I am a great admirer and love watching your videos.
He said it’s out of a 1970 Mustang. Now, it could be a straight 6, or it could be a Boss 429, we don’t know. But for the collector cars originality is king and you would be drawn and quartered by the auction buyers at auctions like Barrett-Jackson if this was a collectible Mustang and you replaced the original Philco AM radio with a modern one.
If it is out of a straight 6 base Mustang, or even a 302, putting an aftermarket anything or modifying the car in any way is ok. The car isn't that collectible. That's an $8-10,000 car. But if it's a 351, 390, or Cobra Jet 428 or Boss 429, those are high dollar cars that can fetch 6 figures at auction and if you even use the wrong bolt on the hood latch you can lose money on the value of it. Everything should be as it left the factory in 1970 to keep the value of the car at it's highest, that includes the original AM radio with one speaker. Heck, AM radio was an option. Many of those cars had no radios and that even increases the value more - all that power with weight reduction of less accessories = faster car. And if you have one with heater delete? Rare, rare, rare and the most value. The best ones have no power steering, no power brakes, 4 speed manual, no heater, and no radio.
To get Fm, "from" a Am car radio. They sold FM CONVERTER's. Kraco many other companies sold them too. I just pulled 2
ford/1973-79 radios from a bronco & f-150 at a junkyard yesterday. And one had an audiovox fm converter. Today it's raining out so good day to see if either work or if the fm converter works. That was a real treat, to watch a Mr. Carlson lab video on a 1970's Ford radio. And of coarse the tear down of one of those space saving modules, with just capacitors and resistors inside. What ever there called.
Watching this channel quickly demonstrates the difference between an electrical engineer, and a break-fix repair guy. I'm an ace with computers, but a level 2 electronics tech (on the 1-10 scale)....
Wow, bandersentv does a nice job rebuilding those modules but you take it to a whole new level. Very nice.
Thanks for the nice comment Colin! I will check out bandersentv.
Im amazed with the new circuit board you made. Ingenious. Id like to see a video of you making them and going through the process/equipment it takes to make them. Thank you for sharing. 5 Stars! I enjoy the topics.
Probably a 'newbie' question; but the cap on the Antenna keeps out any 'noise' ?
You do some amazing work. I want to emulate your abilities to the best of my abilities.
ughh the alignement! when I was a kid, I used to believe I could reach the magic combination where all stations are loud with an optimized tuning of all the IF cans and trimmers... you can imagine what disaster I went through :D and the long hours to try to get it back to normal :D cool old days ...
I'm pretty sure this video represents the most effort that has ever been put into repairing one of these radios. Making a new module for something that has been discarded by the tens of thousands is pretty hardcore.
Numbers matching car.
@@MrCarlsonsLab I've been enjoying your channel which is why I'm replying to 4 year old videos. I worked with electronics for many years but I'm still learning new things surfing YT.
@@bryede Great, Glad you're enjoying the channel!
Thanks Mike for this great video on this now very rare piece of old technology. I remember repairing these type's of radio's myself and it was great fun doing them. Some people would wonder why even wasting time on a old AM radio but if your restoring a classic car you want to keep the car in as original condition as you can. My car is a late 1980's Nissan Skyline and it has a radio with the same sort of tuner in it with the carbon slug's. It is AM/FM stereo cassette with 4 speaker outs made by Clarion AWA Japan. This radio only has 8 watts per channel (4 watts per speaker) and has what's called a "Supertune" function and makes the radio very sensitive to weak radio stations. Unfortunately we have only 2 AM stations being broadcast here and FM is now Digital making this radio useless. I now have to put up with the "JUNK" radio's that are now flooding the market that have poor receivers and crappy sound
+Dallas Dorrington
Thanks for taking the time to write Dallas! Times sure are changing fast. Those slugs you mention are actually made of a material called "Ferrite."
Paul
I always thought that the low end was 540...
Great work and excellent video. Thanks!
I had to do the same thing for a defective module in a 1957 black-and-white TV. Luckily I had a schematic that showed the values in the module and I just re-created it on perfboard with discrete components
A fine video even from 8 years ago. My first car was a 1968 Ford Mustang. I didn't want to cobble in some sort of Craig AM/FM radio, which would have ruined the look of the dash in this car. So, I purchased an Audiovox C980a FM Radio Tuner that mounted under the dash. I tuned the AM radio to a specific frequency and this tuner worked fine to give me FM stations.
iheard coast to coast am in there... i miss art bell he was a riot to listen to
Most all car radios are much better than those around the house ....hands down.
Really enjoy watching the repair work. Don’t have the skills to fix this stuff, wish I did. I’ll just rip the head unit off and replace it with a DVD player, a set of speakers, subwoofer and a backup camera.
This came out of a high dollar, numbers matching car. It needs to be original.
I've had good luck adding, drop by drop, spec grade acetone to, spec grade denatured alcohol (not rubbing alcohol which is isopropyl rather that ethanol.) You can gently soften the whole potted mass and then use an Xacto style knife along the top edge.
Basically, it peals back a few quarter inches at a time. No scrapping.
Add acetone very slowly. Every pot is a different age with a different heat history (effects the cross linking, I won't bore you.)
Cool nostalgia rebuild, I really enjoyed that, never knew what the hybrid modules were. Also reminded me of the old clocks the cars use to have. I remember waiting for my mom in the Buick "wildcat" car she had, and every minute or so you heard a "thunk" from the clock. Turned out to be when it wound down, it closed a set of contacts that somehow wound the clock back up. I was like 8YO when I tried to fix it, so I don't exactly remember the details, other than the contacts would burnish together and I unstuck them to fix. Sorry for the digression, just reminded of the "70's". Still looking for a clock like that to mess with, if you come across one, you could do a repair video. Anyhoo..thanks for taking me back in time with the radio, parted out many of those back in the gap.
Thanks for taking the time to write. Great story!
Totally impressed with your videos! Thank you for masterful work!
Thanks George!
I have no idea why anyone in their right mind would give a thumbs down to any of your uber excellent Vids, but I have a good idea as to where their other thumb is...
Amazing how complex a simple, single-band car radio was less than 50 years ago. Can you imagine how long it took the factory to assemble one? Yeesh!
When I returned to the farm in South Dakota after leaving the USAF in '71, I got a part time job in town at the prime electronics repair shop. Ray, the owner, gave me my own little room as I was to work on everything except TV's. He showed me an old refrigerator box in another room that was piled half full of car radios. "Those are the ones we couldn't fix" he told me, "your spare time project." They were all just dead. The first ones I looked at had burned out 2N3055 final amps, but I couldn't get the radios to work. After close examination, I happened to notice on one of the radios that the trimmer screws were either totally tight, or backed clear out. The IF can slugs were at the top. A large percentage of the radios were like this. I showed this to Ray, he admitted that he had told his 17 yr old son that he could try to fix anything in that box. It took me about three months to get the 80% of the radios going that I could. Those damn modules were unavailable. The shop had Sams books for nearly all of the radios. I usually set the bottom of the band to 540kHz and the top to 1610kHz. After sending the first five back to the Ford dealer, I was requested to come out and look at the first one they had reinstalled. It worked great, until the car was started. Ignition noise!! I had tuned them all too well. Vehicle ignitions back then were NOISY! Adjustments made, everyone was happy. I confiscated all of the alignment tools that the kid had, another problem solved. I love how you explain everything so well as you go along. I have been an electronics geek all of my life. Retired in '17, building my dream shop now, 45 mi NE of Denver, will be back at it only working for me. Great, great videos, have watched many of them since subscribing way back when. Am planning on visiting V.I. from Victoria to the top in the next year or two, gorgeous looking place! Micheal in Colorado.
Thanks for sharing your story Michael!
Regarding the blue wire.It is for the light,and if hooked to the yellow the light will say on when the radio is turned off.You can wire the blue to the on/off switch on the radio or if you are using a power supply leave as is..This radio will not be going in a car,,but in my work shop.The audio is great,plus the reception.
50 years from now, some future technician will be making a UA-cam video about restoring this radio and will express frustration at not finding the "Carlson" hybrid on eBay
LOL, good possibility.
...not a chance, because Carlson Hybrids(R) NEVER fail! Haha
The technician won't be frustrated. He or she will simply say, "I can't find this part. Oh, well. It is working just fine." I know I am echoing you, Bruce! :-)
Wow, great video. Thanks for sharing
Glad you enjoyed Carlos!
That very radio right there is the hottest radio for nighttime DXing ever! The problem is how to efficiently connect that radio to a directional antenna.
Perfect!old but gold.
Fun and instructive video. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed.
...sorry, just remembered something. You mentioned the 5 being 550, not 500. On the old one's here in Texas growing up, the dial had a small 4 just above it to the upper right, next to the 5. Always thought it meant 540. Anyway, just thought it was interesting. Thanks again for another great video.
I remember working with potting compound on electronics as a young airman in the early '70s. :D
Interesting piece of technology, but for beeing grown up in Europe/Germany I seem to be to young to really remember broadcast stations on these frequencies, although I remember a lot of radios beeing able to receive this among other long since abandoned bands. Listening to a radio usualy meant VHF frequencies. Listening to any AM radio (as that was the band slection designation on most radios, AM and FM) usually meant crapy sound quality with a lot of hissing, whistling and other noises.
One of the last radio stations on AM I can remember was actually just automated traffic information for North rhine westfalia, and any car nearby with either having the heater on the rear windo switched on or trucks with especially noisy generator or ignition systems almost blew your ears of...
Today VHF / FM is still most commonly used. A digital replacement for AM called DRM never really overcame some experimental state. Only for VHF already the digital next generation is commonly used in form of DAB/DAB+.
I think lateron I have to check if my current car radio stil has an am band and if there is anything at all I can receive. Most stations had been shutdown by end of 2015, maybe there is the one or other british or AFN station I can get.
Today I just wish they would not only use the "better quality" technologies for broadcasting, but put in some better quality content every now and then...
Hi Super BadFast, Thank you for the comment! For some reason, your post has no reply link?
Harsh conditions and temperature variations are the reasons for using permeability tuning. (slug tune) These radios usually seem more sensitive than others because they rely on short antennas to receive long wavelengths. (They have a tuned front end.)
Mr Carlson's Lab
I love your videos..You explain very well and they are very informative.
Mike
Thanks Mike!
You make learning very easy, please put many more tutorials up on to U/tube..Les.
+Les Johnson
Thanks Les!
It's called a couplet (kooplet). The module came thru later. Good stuff man!!! Nice video.
Steven King Up here it's pronounced (cup-let) Module, Couplet, Hybrid.....Etc.... Thanks for your comment! stop by any time!
Yeah I know you know 1000x more than I do! Hahaha I subscribed . You have a BEAUTIFUL SHOP! Man I would pay for a tour! Nice videos sir.
Thanks for the comment Steven!
Hay you know more than I do! Nice video!
I'm a new subscriber... Good work!
i love your videos keep up the great work i think your better then dave jones of the eevblog :)
Joe Schmoe Wow, those are some pretty big shoes to fill :^) Thanks for the nice comment! More video's coming!
U sure about the size of those shoes?
I think you're a bit less entertaining but much more accessible; if I'm well rested, I learn much more from you than from Dave..
And look at that analog memory control !!!
great job thank you MR CARLSON
The PTC on the right top was to avoid damaging the output stage if the speaker leads were short circuited. The coil with wire in bottom right had a screw as core and mounting mechanism, was used to filter line noise, lots in a car near the ignition.
I feel like this is "Vintage Mr. Carlson's Lab" and it is only 5.416 years ago! :-)
Sometimes, boiling the potted assembly in a suitable solvent will dissolve the conformal material. This was a ver interesting video.
+MrShobar "very". Sorry.
+MrShobar
Thanks for your comment!
Mr Carlson I like your utube videos are awesome
Had one of these in my 66 ford most only had only one speaker in the middle of the dash. Some of the old radios did have 5.5 on the end of the scale some of the old radios had indicators where to tune for Civil Defense broadcast.
Just an AM radio. Amazing to think all my Dad's used VW buses (early 70s vintage) had AM radios in them and you had to buy an FM converter (available at yard sales) to go into the AM antenna, IIRC. Now there's rarely anything on either band worth listening to.
It's interesting that these AM car radios worked with a vertical antenna instead of an antenna coil like a desktop or portable radio. Maybe you could do a video of how the different antennas worked for car radios vs. portable. Also maybe a video on converting an AA5 radio antenna to a vertical.
I could never figure out why the IF is so low on AM car radios. In many places here in the U.S., that module you worked on is referred to as a "couplate." I heard the receiver came off of a '70 Mustang. A few years earlier, AM car radios made here had little Civil Defense triangles on the dial to enable the user to tune in to CONELRAD frequencies for important news, information and instructions in case of enemy attack.
Amazing, very inspiring! Keep it up!
Are you willing to talk a little about your business model? Clearly you are extremely knowledgeable and skilled and the work you're doing takes enormous amounts of time. Do you do this work for paying customers? Is it ever economically advantageous to pay you to fix things vs. replacing? Is it primarily collectors for whom the cost is not important? Or is this primarily about content creation?
I just passed my Technician, General, & barely missed passing the Advanced Extra exam for ham radio, and was looking at modifying ham radios when I came across your videos. WOW, my license has already paid off in spades, and it is not even valid yet! I will let you know what call sign I get. I will go back & pass the Extra next week, as they say they will allow me to use my HP-48. I still vow not to cheat & use the memory to solve any pre-programmed equations for me. I don't own a non-programmable scientific calculator, and I am addicted to RPN.
+Seth B . I use white carpenter's chalk on the ferrite cores. It also works superbly well for sticky drawers, and squeaky floors too.
woah, i'm getting lost way back in your videos LOL. Video production has improved vastly since the beginning :) haha
Art bell, lake Ontario. Good times.
I few thought come to mind after watching this. I would think that the curve tracer would be very useful to discover what hidden structures there are in modules like this. Also, would a flexible drive on a dremmel with a dental burr be useful for depotting these? The factory assembly for this radio must have been rather tricky.
It would be fun to see you trouble shoot or rebuild one of those yellow radiation detectors commonly sold on E-Bay.
Mr Carlson's Lab for me is somehow like the "Walking Dead" series. Can`t stop watching and cannot await a next restoration or techtips video. I don´t do radio restauration but I am into synthrepair. Have you ever tried acetone instead of alcohol to rubb off the outer modul substance? Acetone for me works better, but maybe I have different (newer) material in 20year old synths. BTW. Found out that the tonertransfer works with many glossy papers. Thanks for that again. Take care and go on. I am here;) bye
+Jürgen Driessen
Hi Jurgen. I use a whole bunch of different chemicals for different purposes. My three most used are Acetone, Lacquer thinner, and alcohol, each having their own distinct cleaning properties.
Great video
Superb ! , you are one clued up dude ! love your channel !!
+craig staggs
Thanks for the kind words Craig!
Pretty sure I heard the opening music to Coast to Coast AM. Staying up late Mr. Carlson?
I have the schematic for the 69 mustang radio and will be making some new modules for my radios. I noticed the radio you repaired had only one cap in the IF module. The 69 IF module had 2 caps one connecting pins 3 and 5 and one connecting pins 3 and 4. Philco must had made that change from 69 to 70 radios.
Excellent video, thank you!!!
My sister's radio probably wasn't as good, but it looked just like that one. Her was in her old Pinto.
My first car, a 72 pinto, sky blue, well used by my 3 older sisters by the time I got it. But hey, I was in 10th grade and it was paid for and mine....lol.
You are a valuable person to know, and a dying breed. I;ve been burned 3x on ebay/craigslist. Now I have 3 radios to junk or get repaired. Any contacts in the Deadwood, SD area (summer) or Mesa, AZ (winter) that can do this type of work?
Saludos desde Cuba.
😔yes I missed dem old radio's 😔
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sell me that radio sir. 🙄
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The sealed modules make no sense from a technical aspect (at least nothing I'd believe) however, it's a great way to discourage third-party repair.
If Philco dealers only had access to the modules, they would have a virtual monopoly on repair. It's easy to see why foreign manufacturers were able to make inroads during those years.
+Landrew0 It's cheaper to manufacture, and (as you stated) a convenient way to keep the independent repair shop out of business.
Not true. "Foreign" manufacturers had their squirrely procedures as well. These integrated modules were made by most manufacturers and it had more to do with stability than anything else. By building and potting these parts, the circuit in which they were installed would not be subject to drift or instability by the simple action of physically changing the distance between parts, something that could be done from vibration or even moving them aside for measurement. They also would be forced to share the same heat cycle profile which would contribute to stability and minimize drift. Besides, the secondary TV part suppliers provided these parts as well. Encapsulated modules weren't proprietary.
In addition, the manufacturer could be sure the circuit retained a specific type of resistor, capacitor or inductor should one fail. If these were all discrete, a technician could install a different type of capacitor in the circuit, one which might reduce the performance or reliability of the circuit. If the tech has to replace the encapsulated module, it would retain the same parts the engineer spec'd for it.
Stability and economy. To save money, the PCB is cheap phenol and any sensitive parts are on potted submodules. It actually makes sense. Now, I do know that once ICs began to be used in cars, manufacturers would order common parts with house numbers on them to obfuscate the circuits.
Mr Carlson me and my cousin are going to a Swap meet in September 11 Sunday morning at 8 am in Milwaukee 2022
I have a AM only out of a 1967 Ford Mustang (7TPZ) single speaker output. It powers up, has plenty of audio but its static and with sounds of oscillations as I tune across the dial.
The dial indicator also skips as I turn the dial. It looks like a few teeth on the rod that goes across the wheel it merges with is missing explaining why the dial skips. I have no idea what to do about that but at least the push buttons still work.
With a 5 foot piece of wire I was able to tune in 1 stations at 920KHz weak. Based on a portable radio I have the AM radio should have received it much better.
If I connect the antenna to an outside wire antenna I lose the station as though the radio was being overloaded. I am looking for a schematic and possibly some tips for troubleshooting. I am wondering if there is some AGC in the I.F. that might
not be working right, (Cap or diode) . There is only 3 transistors and checking all 3 give me similar voltage readings with my meter in diode position of .295-.3v base to emitter and base to collector. Not sure for these transistors if that is normal. Collector to emitter is around 1.4v. There is a germanium diode near one of the I.F. cans. Forward bias was around .3v
I noticed a large round tube what looks like it might be a multi cap but I can't read the values until I remove the board. Any sources of a schematic I can download or tips on trouble shooting with be appreciated. Thanks
Genius module remake
Great to see how that radio performs. Generally when I see that type of construction I think it is built to a price and somehow low tech, but if it performs so well after so many years, I believe it is the result of good design.
Question, how do you make your PCBs?
Charlie.
Charlie Pechiar The PC Board video is coming. That old Philco sure worked well!
Coast to Coast AM!.....
1970 ...the year I was born.......I first saw those modules in a TV repair video ..... I think they arealso called K networks or something like that...
Nice too se a heavy car radio 👍
Awesome job! Thanks so much for sharing. Do you have any other radio alignment videos?
Hi Rick. Just click on my channel name, then click on my Videos tab, there are lost of alignment related video's there.
262.5 KC IF frequency. I seem to remember that automotive radios used the lower IF frequency to be able to get higher gain. Why did common AM radios never use that IF frequency. It seems to have worked well in automobile units.
I have been considering rigging up an old auto radio to do DX receiving. Do you see any problems with that?
i also have a i think rare fm-540 fm converter for the am radio ,,just a two wire hook up
73 from ve2 land
Coast to coast AM!
I hated when car radios went solid state. The old tube type radios made great table radios as they employed an RF amplifier stage and permeabilty tuning.Philco made good products until Ford bought them. Then they were fix or repair daily like the name said.
Great video! I have a 1971 Philco radio from my Ford truck that I was working on. My problem turned out to be a bad potentiometer. I do not have a way to measure the sensitivity but my radio also seemed very sensitive, much better than any desktop radio I have. Is this because the car radios have a RF amp in them or could it be the fact that they don’t use ferrite coil antennas? Also do you know why the old AM car radios tuned with the slugs instead of a variable capacitor? I was thinking that maybe it had to do with vibration.
Did you say you were in "BC"- British Columbia?
+Mr Carlson's Lab, just wanted to say greetings from Morton County in North Dakota and nice job on repairing the radio. Thanks for sharing that with us. Do you get 960 AM in Baker, Montana or what about 910 AM in Minot, North Dakota?
Great video !!!
Thanks Matt!
What does he do for a job I luv watching his stuff
Two silly little very late things:
-Later Philco-Ford radios indeed had the bottom number as '54' with the 4 in smaller type.
-Boy, those ceramic-substrate hybrids. They must've developed that into the Thick Film Ignition modules, since they're constructed much the same (and are sort of a hybrid themselves).
What happens if you get oil on the slugs? I recently purchased a 1967 Ford Bendix Am/Fm model F7TBF, it get static but no audio.