That's a cool device; they did their best to make it as versatile as is could be. I was looking at a house for sale last year that had been owned by a British couple; they wired both 120V phases to a UK-style socked in their kitchen so they could use their electric kettle, which, designed for a 3,000 watt UK socket, could boil water over twice as fast as anything you could buy here.
Dave, I have more than a few tube radios and understand the need to replace all the paper and electrolytic capacitors. I knew a little of what you were talking about, but really appreciate the thorough explanation of the capacitor deterioration and how it affects the radios performance. That is a nice radio you've got, a real keeper. Regards, Tom
I enjoyed listening to Short wave on an old valve radio back in the early 70's, Voice of America, Radio Moscow, Radio Tirana Albania, hilarious.....Lovely old radio, look after it.
One the ones I have and just restored one of them (they do perform well) both have 2 decorative 3mm angled wood trim on that run down the inside of the cabinet where the speaker grill cloth and glass frequency dial is , just cosmetic but looks nice , great work enjoyed the video
Well done and a great couple of videos. I have just been given a Philips AM FM valve radio from the 1950’s. I also have an isolation transformer as well so I can make the Philips the first restoration. Cheers Lynton G4XCQ
I just picked up an old marconi and ge radio from the 30s & 40s. The ge is older as it has the metal cover tubes in it. Will be going full restore videos on them.
That’s brilliant, fairly easy to get going these are. I normally tend to change the HT smoothing capacitors and the capacitors across the volume control. The sounds normally amazing
I have one of these myself , because there are so few MW stations in the UK I built a simple phono input to hear DAB radio stations from a modern radio because I enjoy the Pye radio's excellent audio performance ! .
Back in '93 an accident in the line of duty put me on the permanently disabled list on the PD. Workers Comp was our retirement system for disability, and they decided I was savable by re-educating me from a cop to a paralegal. Didn't work for either of us, and after 4 more major back surgeries, I was put out to pasture. Thus began my playing with electrons. I had always had a deep interest in electronics, even back in the early 70's when I was in the US Army Communications Section I would be called upon to fix the Officer's televisions, now I have no idea why they thought a field wireman, who's duties include hanging telephone wire from trees, climbing poles and hooking up switchboards should know anything about televisions I have no idea, but after some experimenting, I got quite good at TV repair (Just a tube switcher, I stayed away from the bottom of the set.) So I learned by playing as it were, and, of course as my Army Career progressed, I constrained into teletype, then radio teletype, then became a communications chief with my own Company Commo Section and doubled as the Headquarters Company Platoon Sergeant as the rest of the NCO'S refused to take the job. All that said, I can honestly say that I have learned more about electronics from watching several of your great videos then I ever did whilst attending the Army Training Centers and what I picked up on my own. It was discovered that contrary to my old high school record with grades around a D average, that I did in fact test in the low genius level on the IQ tests, and in college I maintained a 4.0 GPA which really pissed off the youngsters just out of High School who would not put the work into the courses as I threw off the grade curve for everyone. I guess what College showed me was the fact that High School was a place where my main interests were pussy and beer, I could never get enough of either and never cracked a book for most of my High School Days, but in college, I lived in the damn books, having to spend my nights and weekends in a dorm room whilst my wife and kids kept the home fires burning and enjoyed the weekends that I could make it home when the blizzards and major snow storms of North Dakota allowed. By that time, I no longer had any interest in beer, and as far as pussy, well I had a wife waiting for me at home, and should I have accepted any of the opportunities that I was offered, it would have broken her heart, and I would never do that, even for some strange stuff on the side.
I had a tube turn red years ago on a mac amp. I fixed that and a few months later, the filament winding to the rectifier shorted to ground and blew the rectifier filament apart. Tubes are temperamental.
That's an ideal little transformer, "Just the job" :-D Excellent discription of capacitor construction and it's failure, it's no supprise that they fail given the voltage on them. If you can earth the chassis of that radio, a coaxial cable from the radio ant input +earth will reduce the noise, then you will only get the antenna pickup. It does help, i've used coax :-D Electronic noise is horrible now, so many things have emmisions from switchmode psus or computers that are full of squarewave noise/harmonics.
Yes I know. No ground wire attached at the moment. I should hook it to my 40 meter dipole and see how it works. So much DSL noise but fiber is coming, and it can't happen soon enough.
I bet that 40 meter antenna would make a hell of a difference. I would imagine that the internal antenna would work with very local transmitters, the bbc had quit a lot of them, i suspect that power levels have dropped over the years.
Radio looks to be in excellent shape - not too difficult to repair that one and a real winner. The right AC input voltage makes all the difference! It would be nice if the radio had FM instead of LW, but I did like your explanation about capacitors. :)
FM broadcasting started in Australian capital cities in 1947 on an "experimental" basis, using a (monaural) ABC national network feed, consisting largely of classical music and Parliament, as a program source. FM receivers were expensive and the audience consisted largely of Hi-Fi enthusiasts. There was no mainstream TV in Australia before 1956. How times have changed!
Nice video. Most European radios of this period (and all British sets) had the dials marked in metres. Long wave broadcasting never existed in the Americas, but there are till quite a few stations in Europe on this band. Shortwave propagation varies throughout the day, but generally look out for stations above about 7 MHz/40m in the daytime and 40m and below after dark. Wonder what it was doing in the US, especially without the correct voltage modification? It's a typical 1950s radio. Not worthy of collection over here these days. Bakelite radio are more desirable. Try and get a Bush DAC90A set - early to mid 1950s. Quite common here and nice little sets, from ebay for less that 50 pounds/$65 plus shipping to US! Of course they're 220 to 250 V but will run from AC or DC - not that DC has been used in the UK since the early 1950s! Most serious vintage radio users use a little AM transmitter these days like yours. They are theoretically illegal in Europe, even a few milliwatts, but this isn't enforced anywhere to my knowledge now. We don't have the equivalent to a Part 15 licence - yet.
Yes I built an am transmitter 400 milliwatts get a signal out 100 meters or so before it fades away. Good enough to test my vintage radios. I have 5 wood and a bakelite radio in my small collection
Great videos on this radio. I have never seen tubes like those. I Have an old Philco Butterfly radio and I initially didn't change any of the mica caps but, when it didn't behave well, I started testing and found I had three bad mica caps. After replacing them, the performance improved remarkably. I originally thought I had done something wrong but, after thoroughly checking the wiring, I found no mistakes. What I found odd was that none of the paper capacitors tested even remotely good, they were all shot. Usually, you will find that some of them test sort of OK but not so with this one. I am wondering if this radio had been stored either in a damp environment or a really cold one. Would either of those cause this result? This is from 1935 but even so I thought some might be OK. I was going to replace them all anyway so it doesn't really matter, just wondering about this.
Thos capacitors look like they all would short out, without a second insulator. if I was repairing electronics, wonder if there was a need for having something that shorted and defused , besides needing a replacement,like a battery. Would there be a needle or wire , foil and Tape jumper fix for a capacitor?
Where did you find the step up step down transformer. I purchased one for a 25 year old project that I have with a 230 volt Radio Corporation of New Zealand Radio. However my step up transformer is quite a bit larger and clunkier and must be turned on before it can be used. The transformer that you have looks ideal for my needs. The radio that I have will draw 60 watts while working but a bit more at start up. The step up transformer one that I have is rated for 100 watts and fused for 2 amps and seems like it should work just fine. The one that you show does appear to be a better solution from the standpoint of how it will look in a room, my wife hates the looks and size of the one that I have and the fact that it will need to have it's own shelf on the table that the radio will be sitting on. It is a extremely beautiful radio that is 78 years old and needs a total restoration. Aloha from Maui
I bought it at Lees Electronics in Vancouver. They do have an online sales dept, and will probably ship you one. It was 13.00 canadian, rated 100 watts.
Why would I have a 240 volt power supply? We use 120 here. Sure I have a 240 plug for my car, and shop heater, but I am not about to plug into that. SO I picked up a cheap transformer.
A very good radio receiver restored to its original state.We had one PYE like this set in 1960.I would like to buy one.Could you please find out for me.thank you.I am now 74 years old from Srilanka.
It's a shame that more efficient lighting requires components that cause interference. As for the capacitor, it is amazing how they compact the plate and the dielectric.
broadband routers and Wifi plays havoc with MW/AM radio these days too, i can drive past various shops and houses and the interference the AM radio picks up is enough for me to switch the radio off
![Electronic Circuitry Diagnosis And Fault Finding! [Repair]](/img/n.gif)
Great follow up video, thanks for explaining about the caps.
That's a cool device; they did their best to make it as versatile as is could be. I was looking at a house for sale last year that had been owned by a British couple; they wired both 120V phases to a UK-style socked in their kitchen so they could use their electric kettle, which, designed for a 3,000 watt UK socket, could boil water over twice as fast as anything you could buy here.
Dave,
I have more than a few tube radios and understand the need to replace all the paper and electrolytic capacitors. I knew a little of what you were talking about, but really appreciate the thorough explanation of the capacitor deterioration and how it affects the radios performance.
That is a nice radio you've got, a real keeper.
Regards, Tom
Great radio!! Nice job repairing/restoring it, and the explainations!
I enjoyed listening to Short wave on an old valve radio back in the early 70's, Voice of America, Radio Moscow, Radio Tirana Albania, hilarious.....Lovely old radio, look after it.
One the ones I have and just restored one of them (they do perform well) both have 2 decorative 3mm angled wood trim on that run down the inside of the cabinet where the speaker grill cloth and glass frequency dial is , just cosmetic but looks nice , great work enjoyed the video
Well done and a great couple of videos. I have just been given a Philips AM FM valve radio from the 1950’s. I also have an isolation transformer as well so I can make the Philips the first restoration.
Cheers
Lynton G4XCQ
I just picked up an old marconi and ge radio from the 30s & 40s. The ge is older as it has the metal cover tubes in it. Will be going full restore videos on them.
Even better now Dave. The Pye is a real keeper. Regards, Dave
That’s brilliant, fairly easy to get going these are. I normally tend to change the HT smoothing capacitors and the capacitors across the volume control. The sounds normally amazing
I have one of these myself , because there are so few MW stations in the UK I built a simple phono input to hear DAB radio stations from a modern radio because I enjoy the Pye radio's excellent audio performance ! .
Beautiful radio nicely restored
What an excellent explanation! Now I won't plug in my 1966 tube TV again before I inspect it and change the paper caps if there are any...
Great explanations
Back in '93 an accident in the line of duty put me on the permanently disabled list on the PD. Workers Comp was our retirement system for disability, and they decided I was savable by re-educating me from a cop to a paralegal. Didn't work for either of us, and after 4 more major back surgeries, I was put out to pasture. Thus began my playing with electrons. I had always had a deep interest in electronics, even back in the early 70's when I was in the US Army Communications Section I would be called upon to fix the Officer's televisions, now I have no idea why they thought a field wireman, who's duties include hanging telephone wire from trees, climbing poles and hooking up switchboards should know anything about televisions I have no idea, but after some experimenting, I got quite good at TV repair (Just a tube switcher, I stayed away from the bottom of the set.) So I learned by playing as it were, and, of course as my Army Career progressed, I constrained into teletype, then radio teletype, then became a communications chief with my own Company Commo Section and doubled as the Headquarters Company Platoon Sergeant as the rest of the NCO'S refused to take the job. All that said, I can honestly say that I have learned more about electronics from watching several of your great videos then I ever did whilst attending the Army Training Centers and what I picked up on my own. It was discovered that contrary to my old high school record with grades around a D average, that I did in fact test in the low genius level on the IQ tests, and in college I maintained a 4.0 GPA which really pissed off the youngsters just out of High School who would not put the work into the courses as I threw off the grade curve for everyone. I guess what College showed me was the fact that High School was a place where my main interests were pussy and beer, I could never get enough of either and never cracked a book for most of my High School Days, but in college, I lived in the damn books, having to spend my nights and weekends in a dorm room whilst my wife and kids kept the home fires burning and enjoyed the weekends that I could make it home when the blizzards and major snow storms of North Dakota allowed. By that time, I no longer had any interest in beer, and as far as pussy, well I had a wife waiting for me at home, and should I have accepted any of the opportunities that I was offered, it would have broken her heart, and I would never do that, even for some strange stuff on the side.
Great little radio. i have a P75 in my workshop. Always thought it had a nice sound. On a good AM station the quality is not far off of FM.
I had a tube turn red years ago on a mac amp. I fixed that and a few months later, the filament winding to the rectifier shorted to ground and blew the rectifier filament apart. Tubes are temperamental.
That's an ideal little transformer, "Just the job" :-D
Excellent discription of capacitor construction and it's failure, it's no supprise that they fail given the voltage on them.
If you can earth the chassis of that radio, a coaxial cable from the radio ant input +earth will reduce the noise, then you will only get the antenna pickup.
It does help, i've used coax :-D
Electronic noise is horrible now, so many things have emmisions from switchmode psus or computers that are full of squarewave noise/harmonics.
Yes I know. No ground wire attached at the moment. I should hook it to my 40 meter dipole and see how it works. So much DSL noise but fiber is coming, and it can't happen soon enough.
I bet that 40 meter antenna would make a hell of a difference.
I would imagine that the internal antenna would work with very local transmitters, the bbc had quit a lot of them, i suspect that power levels have dropped over the years.
Looking forward to your videos on your latest acquisitions.
Lynton G4XCQ
Should get on them in the next week or so. Under the weather today, so not feeling like restoring .
Dave VE7LID
Radio looks to be in excellent shape - not too difficult to repair that one and a real winner.
The right AC input voltage makes all the difference!
It would be nice if the radio had FM instead of LW, but I did like your explanation about capacitors. :)
Well in 1953 there wasn't any FM stations around.
Good point, I think Armstrong had some experimental ones but not in the UK. We think everything was always around.
Still a good radio for its time :)
FM broadcasting started in Australian capital cities in 1947 on an "experimental" basis, using a (monaural) ABC national network feed, consisting largely of classical music and Parliament, as a program source.
FM receivers were expensive and the audience consisted largely of Hi-Fi enthusiasts. There was no mainstream TV in Australia before 1956.
How times have changed!
Nice video. Most European radios of this period (and all British sets) had the dials marked in metres. Long wave broadcasting never existed in the Americas, but there are till quite a few stations in Europe on this band. Shortwave propagation varies throughout the day, but generally look out for stations above about 7 MHz/40m in the daytime and 40m and below after dark.
Wonder what it was doing in the US, especially without the correct voltage modification? It's a typical 1950s radio. Not worthy of collection over here these days. Bakelite radio are more desirable. Try and get a Bush DAC90A set - early to mid 1950s. Quite common here and nice little sets, from ebay for less that 50 pounds/$65 plus shipping to US! Of course they're 220 to 250 V but will run from AC or DC - not that DC has been used in the UK since the early 1950s!
Most serious vintage radio users use a little AM transmitter these days like yours. They are theoretically illegal in Europe, even a few milliwatts, but this isn't enforced anywhere to my knowledge now. We don't have the equivalent to a Part 15 licence - yet.
Yes I built an am transmitter 400 milliwatts get a signal out 100 meters or so before it fades away. Good enough to test my vintage radios. I have 5 wood and a bakelite radio in my small collection
Great stories
Great videos on this radio. I have never seen tubes like those. I Have an old Philco Butterfly radio and I initially didn't change any of the mica caps but, when it didn't behave well, I started testing and found I had three bad mica caps. After replacing them, the performance improved remarkably. I originally thought I had done something wrong but, after thoroughly checking the wiring, I found no mistakes. What I found odd was that none of the paper capacitors tested even remotely good, they were all shot. Usually, you will find that some of them test sort of OK but not so with this one. I am wondering if this radio had been stored either in a damp environment or a really cold one. Would either of those cause this result? This is from 1935 but even so I thought some might be OK. I was going to replace them all anyway so it doesn't really matter, just wondering about this.
Thos capacitors look like they all would short out, without a second insulator. if I was repairing electronics, wonder if there was a need for having something that shorted and defused , besides needing a replacement,like a battery. Would there be a needle or wire , foil and Tape jumper fix for a capacitor?
Love your cats btw.
Where did you find the step up step down transformer. I purchased one for a 25 year old project that I have
with a 230 volt Radio Corporation of New Zealand Radio. However my step up transformer is quite a bit
larger and clunkier and must be turned on before it can be used. The transformer that you have looks ideal
for my needs. The radio that I have will draw 60 watts while working but a bit more at start up.
The step up transformer one that I have is rated for 100 watts and fused for 2 amps and seems
like it should work just fine. The one that you show does appear to be a better solution from the
standpoint of how it will look in a room, my wife hates the looks and size of the one that I have
and the fact that it will need to have it's own shelf on the table that the radio will be sitting on.
It is a extremely beautiful radio that is 78 years old and needs a total restoration. Aloha from Maui
I bought it at Lees Electronics in Vancouver. They do have an online sales dept, and will probably ship you one. It was 13.00 canadian, rated 100 watts.
Was that Glen Hauser's World of Radio?
Hard to think that you wouldn't immediately have any particular piece of electronic equipment on hand, especially a power supply of 240 volts.
Why would I have a 240 volt power supply? We use 120 here. Sure I have a 240 plug for my car, and shop heater, but I am not about to plug into that. SO I picked up a cheap transformer.
@@12voltvids I know, but it seems you have almost everything electronic. I admit to being in awe.
One thing I don't understand is if the radio had a 120 switch on it, why did u have to buy a transformer ?
I don't think it did, I think it had some different variations of 200 or so volts.
@@neodonkey oh, ok ..... thank you
A very good radio receiver restored to its original state.We had one PYE like this set in 1960.I would like to buy one.Could you please find out for me.thank you.I am now 74 years old from Srilanka.
How can you run a 110 volts only tube type radio with a transformer on 120
very good radio,low noise
It's a shame that more efficient lighting requires components that cause interference.
As for the capacitor, it is amazing how they compact the plate and the dielectric.
Not just fluorescent and led lighting that causes interference. It is everything digital these days.
broadband routers and Wifi plays havoc with MW/AM radio these days too, i can drive past various shops and houses and the interference the AM radio picks up is enough for me to switch the radio off
I would have tried a 9:1 UNUN and see if that works.