Thats a beauty. I am currently working on the Hallicrafters S-200 model. Its basically an AA5 using 4: 7 pin Novar tubes and a selenium rectifier. All 5 bands work and receives 20 stations on AM broadcast band.
Nice little radio, Jim. I have a Hallicrafters S-40 myself with the green dials from the early 40's I think. I need to dig it out and fire it up sometime soon.
Regarding video quality, I believe your videos have always been uploaded in 720p? UA-cam used to consider that quality "HD" and would add a HD logo to the gear button. But recently I noticed that 720p is no longer considered HD by UA-cam, only 1080p is. That may explain why you don't get the notification anymore.
I have one of those S-53A's coming delivery in a couple weeks. It is important before attempting any restoral to read the manual(s) and become intimately familiar with what it is, what it does and how to operate it properly. The manual to this unit has been available online for free since "forever". I understand your process will work for a unit void of any available documentation, but what you are doing here is blind tinkering. I wouldn't want to purchase a radio fixed like this.
I doubt he has. That rectangular cap he used looks suspiciously like a class-X and as such utterly unsuitable and unsafe as any line to chassis cap. Especially true with the poor quality we see in these cheap yellow class-X caps these days. BTW; Since the radio uses a transformer and does not rely on a line to chassis cap to work AT ALL (unlike a hot chassis AA5 would where the B- to chassis cap is an active RF part) He would have been better off to leave the cap out for now instead of replacing it with an unsuitable, maybe even potentially hazardous one. Only downside would be to render the antenna switch setting for single wire antenna less efficient, since in this setting the radio uses the power grid via the line to chassis cap as earth. But what strikes me even more; IIRC this is a customers radio. So it will not be him, but a third person to potentially pay the price for him replacing a safety critical component with an unsuitable one. Oh well I guess there will be loads of fanboys to tell us we should not criticize him for making saftey related boo-boos and let him tinker and experiment away merrily.
I concur. Have refurbished many Hallicrafters S-53A, S-107, S-118 S-120, S-108 and S-38E most had the SMD and had to rebuild the IF transformers with external mica caps. When done these radios performed great. I would not do one of these again w/o the IF transformer rebuild.
@@tubeDude48 That's interesting. Never saw that in the Halli's I worked on. Maybe that was done by someone else? Anyway that's abt the right value. I generally found 100 pf on each side resonated well.
I collect old Hallicrafters radios, though this is one I don't have. I'm working on a SX-130 right now, and it's remarkable in that it doesn't have any paper caps in it at all. The other ones I have all have a flock of big paper caps in them, the later radios mainly using those pink "Tiny Chief" ("Mighty Griefs", as Paul Carlton likes to call them)
27:22 You should know your equipment and know how to interpret the readings. First off he has proven videos ago that the other ancient capacitor tester he owns is more sensitive to leakage. So in favor of a proper and long term repair it should be used to test the caps,- unless ofc you replace ALL these old caps anyways which most ppl would do. Second and more importantly, it is not rocket science to test caps for leakage. He has a High Voltage DC supply at his disposal and a DMM that has a 200uA range. So no reason to lament that he does not know how high the leakage on that cap is or how to test it. And free tip tuesday on a friday: If the current scale on your particular DMM is not extending low enough you can always make use of the input impedance of the DMM on the voltage scale to improvise a high sensitivity Current Meter; At a typical DMM input impedance of 10Meg for example, a voltage displayed of 1V equals a current of 0,1uA. Or in other words you get a sensitivity of 10V per Microamp. And even for the cheapest 3$ Chinese DMM with only 1Meg input impedance on the voltage range you still get a current meter of 1V per Microamp sensitivity out of it. All of that is well enough to test the leakage of a paper cap in proper practical terms. Plus it would be a good learning experience to him and convey some real useful information to his audience.
Amazing: what a condition after near 70 years!
Thats a beauty. I am currently working on the Hallicrafters S-200 model. Its basically an AA5 using 4: 7 pin Novar tubes and a selenium rectifier. All 5 bands work and receives 20 stations on AM broadcast band.
I have been wanting to get a shortwave radio and just remembered i have my Dad's old one, this exact model!! Time to check it out before i plug it in
Not quite your age, but I did grow up with rotary phones when I was a kid. I even still ran into them in junior high.
Nice little radio, Jim. I have a Hallicrafters S-40 myself with the green dials from the early 40's I think. I need to dig it out and fire it up sometime soon.
That lazy Susan turntable is an excellent tool. While working on a good radio of this type. Ot muchlikemthe factory assemblers used.
Regarding video quality, I believe your videos have always been uploaded in 720p? UA-cam used to consider that quality "HD" and would add a HD logo to the gear button. But recently I noticed that 720p is no longer considered HD by UA-cam, only 1080p is. That may explain why you don't get the notification anymore.
I have one of those S-53A's coming delivery in a couple weeks. It is important before attempting any restoral to read the manual(s) and become intimately familiar with what it is, what it does and how to operate it properly. The manual to this unit has been available online for free since "forever". I understand your process will work for a unit void of any available documentation, but what you are doing here is blind tinkering. I wouldn't want to purchase a radio fixed like this.
Hope you used a Class Y Safety capacitor to tie the line to chassis.
I doubt he has. That rectangular cap he used looks suspiciously like a class-X and as such utterly unsuitable and unsafe as any line to chassis cap. Especially true with the poor quality we see in these cheap yellow class-X caps these days.
BTW; Since the radio uses a transformer and does not rely on a line to chassis cap to work AT ALL (unlike a hot chassis AA5 would where the B- to chassis cap is an active RF part)
He would have been better off to leave the cap out for now instead of replacing it with an unsuitable, maybe even potentially hazardous one. Only downside would be to render the antenna switch setting for single wire antenna less efficient, since in this setting the radio uses the power grid via the line to chassis cap as earth.
But what strikes me even more; IIRC this is a customers radio. So it will not be him, but a third person to potentially pay the price for him replacing a safety critical component with an unsuitable one.
Oh well I guess there will be loads of fanboys to tell us we should not criticize him for making saftey related boo-boos and let him tinker and experiment away merrily.
i can tell you from personal experience that those IF cans are very prone to SMD. I think the brand is Automatic Radio.
I concur. Have refurbished many Hallicrafters S-53A, S-107, S-118 S-120, S-108 and S-38E most had the SMD and had to rebuild the IF transformers with external mica caps. When done these radios performed great. I would not do one of these again w/o the IF transformer rebuild.
@@tubeDude48 That's interesting. Never saw that in the Halli's I worked on. Maybe that was done by someone else? Anyway that's abt the right value. I generally found 100 pf on each side resonated well.
If they had used TELEFUNKEN Space Charge vacuum tubes Hallicrafters could made it work of 4x PJ996 batteries.
I own one of those, I bought it from The Hallirestorer full restored
I collect old Hallicrafters radios, though this is one I don't have. I'm working on a SX-130 right now, and it's remarkable in that it doesn't have any paper caps in it at all. The other ones I have all have a flock of big paper caps in them, the later radios mainly using those pink "Tiny Chief" ("Mighty Griefs", as Paul Carlton likes to call them)
When I was 5 we has a dial up phone with no dial. The operator would ask number please ?. Give me 324 Elsie, thank you I said.
Wow, new radio... Let the butchering begin !!
27:22 You should know your equipment and know how to interpret the readings. First off he has proven videos ago that the other ancient capacitor tester he owns is more sensitive to leakage. So in favor of a proper and long term repair it should be used to test the caps,- unless ofc you replace ALL these old caps anyways which most ppl would do.
Second and more importantly, it is not rocket science to test caps for leakage. He has a High Voltage DC supply at his disposal and a DMM that has a 200uA range. So no reason to lament that he does not know how high the leakage on that cap is or how to test it.
And free tip tuesday on a friday: If the current scale on your particular DMM is not extending low enough you can always make use of the input impedance of the DMM on the voltage scale to improvise a high sensitivity Current Meter;
At a typical DMM input impedance of 10Meg for example, a voltage displayed of 1V equals a current of 0,1uA. Or in other words you get a sensitivity of 10V per Microamp.
And even for the cheapest 3$ Chinese DMM with only 1Meg input impedance on the voltage range you still get a current meter of 1V per Microamp sensitivity out of it.
All of that is well enough to test the leakage of a paper cap in proper practical terms. Plus it would be a good learning experience to him and convey some real useful information to his audience.