In my opinion you're a genius !I'm a auto mechanic and I love watching the vids of restorations .I love old TVs ,radios !such cool design and am fascinated how they all work .great job shango!
That reminds me of a story: My father said his father (my grandfather) liked a dry martini. Apparently, my father never got it dry enough for my grandfather, and he would always complain. My father got tired of hearing this and instead of gin, used Everclear. Grandpa told him: you finally made a dry martini! ;) hahaha
That unboxing was hilarious! It brought back memories of whenever we received a parcel in the mail from Germany, my dad would not let us simply cut the string around the parcel! He made us open the knots by hand first saying instant gratifrpication is not a good thing to get used to! This really thought me later to be meticulous and patient which really came handy later in life building and repairing electronic kits!
I had a good laugh, My brother and I were just hanging out over the weekend and talking about what "the kids" are watching these days and I lost my mind when he said a few of his son's friends LOVE watching toy unboxings on RU-vid. Thankfully he dosen't let his son use RU-vid unaccompanied ... It's educational only. Learn about something, learn how it works, how to fix, etc ...
So, today of all days, I decided to let the video start while I just listen through the intro and do my breakfast dishes...and, after several minutes I come to the conclusions that, yes, Shango is a genius and a psychic.
Those little tube portables were neat radios. Just the fact that the engineers tried to wring as much efficiency out of those little battery-operated tubes as possible is amazing. They were essentially "instant on" due to their directly heated tiny cathodes. The fact that they were able to get enough power out of the tiny output tube with it's relatively low B+ to drive a speaker with any volume at all is pretty cool in itself
Hi I am an aussie In about 1963 I had a STC personal valve radio very similar to the Westinghouse radio in your video. I remember hearing about JFK'S assassination on this radio, in Australia this was beyond our believe we just thought this couldn't happen. I learnt so much from this old radio when I was 12 years old. I also had an old 1929 wet cell 6 volt mental radio. I went on to become a radio and TV technician an industrial technician and Microsoft programmer and hardware engineer and designer but I always remember where it all started on my old valve radios. Thanks for your great videos. Stay safe Ashleigh 💖
A cautionary point regarding the filament string: When running the radio on AC, never, ever pull one of the tubes while the power is on, and then re-insert it (with the power still on). The reason is: the 250 mf. electrolytic which filters the filament string will charge up 'waaaay high, and will blow the whole string if the tube is re-inserted.
yep, one UK radio, if you switch it off fairly slowly on mains, the way the multipole batt-off-mains switch works, the filaments disconnect slightly before the mains, so the filament cap builds up an excessively high voltage, especially bad with our 230v ish mains, so if you then switch it back on before that cap discharges (may take a while as no discharge resistor) BANG goes the output valve/tube filament ...they were notorious for it and reported to have cause a bit of a shortage of replacements here, DL33/3Q5...the designers didnt learn, and the later model with B7G valves also can blow its valve, DL94/3V4, guess how i found out 😲😢, luckily a further later model was redesigned to have separate mains battery switch, ganged to the mains input cable 'socket', and had on/off ganged with the volume control, one pole breaking a mains pole(lt- when on battery), other the ht supply
Hallicrafters put resistors across the filaments in order to keep current flowing and limit the voltage rise across the filament capacitor on the TW 1000 if a tube was pulled. I'm sure the extra current in the filament circuit drained the A battery faster and the voltage rise was still alot more than I was comfortable with but I forgot exactly how much it went up. Still, for 1953. it was better 'n nothin. There's also a zener in mine now.
I got an Admiral one from 1953 working recently. It's a battery-only set with no paper capacitors and only one electrolytic. It also happens to be a very good performer and I take it on walks all the time. It got it working by replacing the electrolytic and one tube. I ended up replacing three out of the four tubes due to them being weak or microphonic. Two of the tubes came out of a parts radio and the output tube is a good quality Tungsram one I ordered online. Power is from seven 9V batteries for the B+ and a pair of "F" cells from a lantern battery (they're wired in parallel) for the filaments. I also have another working battery radio- an Emerson 560 in red- which was very professionally converted to AC. It uses a 117Z3 rectifier and a resistor divider to produce the B+. Interesting that this radio uses D cells for the filaments. They typically use larger ones.
Last time I got that excited from ASMR my favorite Vtuber was in the bathroom 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Nice little radio and interesting tubes. I should have bought some old Eastern Bloc night vision years ago...
6:17 After you glue the knob back together, get some 8.5x14" paper (or newspaper) and cut a strip out longways so you have a piece of paper that is 14x the knob size. Then soak the strip in glue and then wrap it around the outside edge of the inside of the knob as it if were tape. That really strengthens this kind of knob repair. Since that portion of the knob is countersunk, you'll never see it.
I had to do this to the stanchions that my power window master switch screwed into on my car door as they were super flimsy from the factory and if I put several windows down at once the return springs on the switches had force enough to strip out the mounts and split the stanchions.
I did similar with the hvac control knobs on my 2004 Jeep. On those, gussets extend down the length of the shaft, so a strip would be impractical. I filed notches in the gussets, then wrapped poly fibers (like dental floss, without wax) around several times, with epoxy. That repair has been effective for years now.
@@DrewskisBrews Yes. You always have to secure the outside of where the shaft goes in because when you turn it, it generates an outward force on the plastic shaft. So whether it's paper soaked in glue or dental floss, with epoxy, those fibers add the necessary strength to keep it together. Gluing it on the broken seam will never be enough, especially on automotive HVAC controls which are generally harder to turn than this tuning knob and thus generate more outward forces.
I've got 3 of these portables using the same tubes. They all perform really well compared to the typical AA5 radios as far as reception but they're not quite as loud as an AA5 set with a 50C5 output tube. I have an Admiral and a Zenith portable but the aluminum lunchbox RCA is my favorite.
they wont , as the anode current capability of battery valves is much lower, dunno about the US, but here in the UK, there were a few larger portables that had push pull DL96/3C4 outputs, and they had a fair bit of oomph for a portable, ah have seen circuits of european models using similar
Just today i watched a semi-speechless video from NoNonsenseKnowHow and it brought to my mind that "didn't shango have a speechless video some time ago?" what a co-insident :D
That's one thing I've noticed about electronics that use directly-heated tubes, wherein the heater also functions as the cathode. They behave much like transistorized devices when you turn them on, in that there's very little delay. The Westinghouse AM radio in this video appears to be a quality receiver, likely sold at a budget price.
As a collector of these battery AC tube portables, I can tell you they are smoking hot DXers especially the ones that have an extra RF amplifier stage and very selective. Also, microphonic tubes are common. Unless it’s really objectionable, I just live with it. Try finding an RCA 6BX63 from 1953. Five tube with an extra 1U4 RF amplifier. It’s a blistering hot DXer.
I picked up a Sentinel 2-way set recently which also has an RF amp stage. It's a big octal tube portable and it may had been sold as a farm radio but I'm really not sure. The cabinet is covered in brown and tan Tolex which is in excellent shape. It is all wood on the inside and made to be very easily serviced.
Love the opening of the video. Especially UPS getting shanked! Made my whole day right there! Great video of a really cool radio. Thanks! Now we need a FedEx shanking video. Don't want to be prejudice. Need to include all the package smashers.
Great hint on reusing the Teflon insulated wire from an old O2 sensor. B- is separated from the chassis by a 0.047uF cap. Microphonic tube test using a small screwdriver. 1U5 is the detector/1st audio. Nice mid-century looking portable, American made and high quality. Although Shango ran it on AC only you could put your own batteries in it for a replacement "A" and "B" cell , it should work as well. Night vision works great on exposing the lighted 1.5 volt tubes.
I totally agree, Shango, about unnecessarily replacing parts that are still functioning properly. Equipment manufacturers, have effectively turned us into a disposable mindset, to be persuaded into buying their newest products, instead of repairing what we already own.
I enjoyed the entire video/tutorial. But, I was surprised to see, you did one helluva-good job on cinching up that Tuning Knob! 😎👍 ☕ You do good work, anyway...
that radio, did well to just have the knob broke. I paid for a reel to reel tape recorder online, and when i opened the box it looked like at least third or fourth floor damage in transit.
I'm not sure what those birds were saying in this video but whatever it was it sure pissed off the birds in my tree, they flew in here looking for whatever bird was making all that racket LOL
The tube that's acting up sure looks a LOT brighter in the night vision than the other tubes and the one between the cans is exceptionally less bright than the others.
That broken knob will fix right up with a little mixed resin and a wall of tape around the neck to allow it to build up and set. Then some dremel work to open up the shaft hole.
Get a 1 volt portable with an RF stage. They can be awesome performers and DX machines at night. Remember the zenith transoceanic is nothing but a 4 tube battery set with an RF stage and some extra coil combinations to get the shortwave bands. And they can perform when they're working correctly. They use the same 3v4 as the output tube and they get louder than this Westinghouse seems to
It's humorous to make fun of ASMR like all trendy things. It is however a real effect that stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system in many people. If not fetishized or used like candy for weak minds, it's actually useful for people who suffer from sympathetic nervous system pathologies like PTSD. Thanks for both the reduction in cortisol and the laugh. Mad genius.
As for the microphonic tube, many manufacturers put small rubber bands around these type tubes to help prevent microphonics, the rubber band would act as a small cushion against external vibration.
You CAN see the filament in a completely dark room. You should never be able to see it in a normally lit area. Even in a completely dark room it will barely be glowing a dull red.
Greetings: My guess is the extra components go back with the radio to the client. Looks like he was stocking up as well as getting Westinghouse repair parts.
I have one of these. My radio, you can see the tubes glow. Not as bright as a 6V tube but noticeable. The volume in mine is really loud. Mine needs caps for sure.... loud hum... in audio
