A Restoration Adventure - [ GE Radio Receiver Restoration Series ] 

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I like seeing radios like this one with separate RF, Mixer, Osc and two IF stages. This GE is going to be a very good DXing tube receiver. Can hardly wait to hear it perform.

That Turret band selector is really a wonderful piece of engineering. Gosh, love the mechlectrical approach. Yes that word is of my own making, won't work in scrabble. Loving the series and really loving the engineering expertise of yesteryear.

This video makes me miss the 60s to 80s. The days were quality and long life was the goal, schematics came with equipment, and of course the Heathkit days.

That turret reminds me of some of the early black and white TV sets Beautifully engineered by extremely skilled people Thanks

I love how this is going so far! Excellent job as usual Mr.Carlson!! your restorations are the best i have seen!😁

Though I am a pre med students..... But my high school physics book "Concepts of physics" by "HC verma" taught me so much Of electronics and you taught me how to approach a equipments for service that i buy old equipments at cheap prices from hospitals and university and repair it and give it to primary check up centers in rural area .... You are my idol professor sir I am from India 🇮🇳I would like to meet you soon as I finish my studies May God keep you safe and sound

I wanted to let you know I love your videos, and I love your enthusiasm towards what you do. These videos expose me to equipment that I would never have a chance to see otherwise, and I really appreciate all the effort you put into it.

The dial is the most interesting part of the design. Pretty cool.

Your audio is excellent! The outside noise is hardly noticeable. I only heard a truck in the beginning and not a second time. The video quality is so good that I can almost count the grains of dust on the chassis. I'm also VERY impressed with GE quality from that era. I think it went largely unnoticed back in the day.

What a beautiful cost is no object radio! Shango006 is working on a 1948 Philco TV with a similar turret tuner, which apparently had field modifiable stations so each click on the tuner could be set to the correct stations for the location.

If Mr. Rogers ever got into radio repair and restoration, Mr. Carlson lab would be it. Very educational, as well very pleasant to watch. Thank you for keeping great radios alive, as well giving them new lease on life. I enjoy watching your videos.

perfect distraction for a friday night!!!

A friend of mine has recommended me this tutorial. And i couldn't' be more happier

Really incredible and well thought out design and engineering. I sure wish things were built with that level of quality and thought now days. Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge with all of us.

I really wish they rethink their products and the right to service as they did in the past

3:50 Dang, they even supplied an Allen wrench for the setscrews.

I have watched several electronic restoration channels now, and yours is by far my favourite. What separate you from the others? The depth of your understanding, the precision of your workmanship, your care and attention to detail, your logical approach to fault-finding - to name but a few. I am no longer able to engage in electronics, due to disability, so I take my pleasure from watching you at work. I will have to cope with the regret that I never learned the things your work exemplifies. There again, I doubt I could ever have achieved your level of care with electronics, though I did in software instead.

The engineering and designing that went into it is fantastic. What a piece of art.

Hello I'm from Portugal...!!! I taught at an electronic school, a few years ago, and seeing and listening to your videos ... It's like returning to the "Laser School" seats .... !!! Thank you so much for this extraordinary experience ....!

The last time I saw a tool like that was with a HP DL server where they included a small torx head tool to screw and unscrew down the various parts of the server. The last one I saw was about 10 years ago. Back before HP bought this server line from Compaq, Compaq used to regularly provide such tools attached to every server in a similar manner as to this radio. I haven’t seen one on their more recent models.

Great Video Paul! I am such a procrastinator. I need to build that capacitor testor.

Well I am glad to be here this quick. Thanks again! I want to see the insides of this receiver so bad lol

Yeah Paul, I bet a lot of people would try to convince someone that crackling noises on classic expensive audio equipment are actually a good thing....all that 'natural organic sound' nonsense. Do they even understand what leaking means in this context? I bet you could write an entire book about audio mythology and technical misunderstandings that are floating around everywhere. A big thanks for this video series. I really really enjoy them. All the best for you, your loved ones and all the friends of the channel.

Thanks for doing this one first, Paul, I loved it as soon as I saw it in the line-up, and I love it even more now. Let me know when you need my address to ship it over to the UK for me! When I was ten in 1962 I swapped my friend a bike for one of those old radios. I thought it was a great deal, and I'm sure he must have thought I was crazy as he happily rode off on my bike! But I loved it, kept it in my bedroom and would stay up most of the night listening to short wave stations. That was the start of my love affair with radio. Now at sixty nine years old the love is still going strong. Thanks again, Paul, every video you make takes me back across my lifetime of radio.

My gosh, stumbled onto your run through the GE receiver this morning. I've been away from electronics for many years but watched you go through to the point where you tested the tubes! A Heathkit tube tester! I made a few Heathkits but never knew they made testers. Now there is something for the ages, the spell checker showed my misteak(pho-pho) that there apparently is no word Heathkit. So now this crusty old (just short of 83) can teach this 2020's laptop a thing or two, well, one anyway. My life and retired life has been filled with many other things but a little came back as I watched you go through it. Maybe time will permit me to 'attend" one of your classes later but for now I must run to the coffee clutch of old guys kicking around the worlds problems. Later, JimM

The amount of care and attention to the design and craftsmanship of old radios is amazing. Manufactures did everything they could to build a product that would last. I have a couple of 1941 RCA table radios with cabinets made of wood and constructed like furniture. Sadly, everything today is disposable.

Sir, I am in early twenties and I love your videos. I am learning a lot from you. Excellent job.👍

can’t wait to watch this one! it’s been fun watching you work on this guy

This is absolutely fascinating. I love this old GE restoration. I found a capacitor in my old Philco 60 that was so bad, I could actually take an ohms reading on it with my old Fluke 27. Come to think of it, I wonder if that capacitor tester could be built point to point. I'll check it out on Patreon. Westinghouse wants a snack, and I need a break anyway.

I am fascinated by the turret tuners… I’ve never seen one in person but I’ve always thought they looked awesome.

I really enjoyed this. I love restoring old things like this, it makes you appreciate good quality stuff!

I bought a Framework laptop recently, and they include a tool to help you get it apart for repair or replacement. It wasn't the best choice from a price\specification standpoint but it's good to know they they aren't laughing at me, like some other manufacturers would.

That is one very, very nice piece of gear. I have never seen a turret style like that. That is just awesome. This one is going to receive like a dream when electrically restored!

Scotty Kilmer uses an automatic transmission seal restorer for rejuvenating and preserving rubber bushings, etc. Might be worth looking into for grommets, etc on the electronic equipment.

15:30 That would be awesome, I want to make a tube device but don’t know which tubes to use.

Can Radio be an addiction? Depends on the frequency 😊

There's a TON of valuable knowledge in ur brain. Hope you can get it to us. The interconnection between the unit and the turret has got to be a nightmare. Will you be able to show us it??

That radio for its day was the Cat's Meow!! I went to USN electronics school in 1960/61. Two weeks transistors, and 34 weeks tubes. I remember one radio ham, said no tubes. So one of his friends took and old tube, gutted it, put it back together with a transister inside and gave it to his transister hating friend as a new 0 heater amplifier and gave him a chart on how to use and bias such a current driven device and the old ham came back with nothing but praise for this new 0 volts heater tube.!!

Ah, The good Old days! And those times WERE BETTER ----- Tube testers in Drug store, So many really good , Well built radios - I'm still into Radio, but these days, it's Didgital - I currently have 3 different " Tecsun radios. 2 with SSB. And they do work very well, but I have fond memories of the Old Tube Radios- I also , at one time got into HAM , Lots of fun ! I started out with an old Johnson Valiant I got for $40.00 long ago- I'm 70 yrs old now, but I still am into the hobby, I'm usually up all night reading and working on my projects- Anyway, Love your vids !

Paul, I like this slightly less structured (is that the word?) video style. Also, it lets your sense of humor and personality shine through a bit more. Thanks.

A thing of beuty and a joy for ever! All the manufacturing of the '50s/'60s was so good because there was no imperative of making things to last only a few years and then be thrown away. And now... with the blazing fast technological progress, planned obsolescence and quickly changing fads, the mainstream electronics is way shittier than it used to be. "Tiny Grief" was a good one! Thinking of a T-shirt design that goes like "Leaky Caps Destroy Amps" :)

Coming along nicely Paul. 👍

I have never seen GE tube radio built this well. Pleasent suprise, looks to be built better than most mid range Hallicrafters. In same class wih Saba, Philips and Mende concert receivers. I have more than 100 tube radios, lots of Hallicrafters, some GE and RCA but mostly big Euro multiple speaker units. When that GE was new you could get good used car for its value. Year old family car. SABA with autotune was really expensive, hand built with price tag like volkswagen. Band switching on this one was probably done by sharing same drum with early TV sets, ony different discrete components on those strips as frequency differs.

I've been bulk watching , so I have seen you test the Tiny Cheif's for leakage in earlier videos, but it was a while ago. I always enjoy you proving what you say is true though. If people still don't believe you when you present positive proof of what happens, then it is on their head :). Thanks for another wonderful restore. Your channel was the first "tube radio" restoration channel I ever subscribed to and is still my favourite due to the way you teach us all soemthing as you go along

Mr Carlsson your Restoration on shortwave receivers are interesteing a cool

The schematic shows that the IF Transformers are indeed 455 kHz. The dual-conversion IF sections would use either 8 or 10 MHz (if HF-oriented or an FM receiver with 10.7 MHz) as the first IF frequency, or would use 262 kHz as the second IF (if AM or Broadcast-oriented). It's so much easier to align with a single IF frequency. Such a nice RF section design. I'm shocked to see that the "Tiny Chief" capacitors are really "tiny grief". I have also been amazed at the leakiness of the Black Beauty caps, as we used to leave them in place in the 1970s. But then, time and testing methods do march on. It's so good that you can teach an old dog new tricks...

This receiver is a work of art, thank you Paul for sharing this.

It's is great magic to repair this great Antique radio set super job 👍

great video Mr. Carlson, I'm learning a lot. looking forward to the next installment.

Very interesting and convenient pointing mechanism.👍

A great looking receiver as always a very detailed and quality repair.♥️

wow,, That is a design that I have not seen before,, Happy to be along on this adventure,,, :-)

Suggestion: add "part 4" to the title, this wasn't obvious that's what this was! Cool stuff, love your channel!

Very impressed by the design of this part of the receiver. They spared no expense to get it to perform flawlessly. I love that they used a Fahnestock clip to hold the Allen wrench in place! Black beauties were created by the devil. No words have ever rung truer!

Well, I learned something new. I had one of those special white capacitors fail in my Hallicrafters SX100. I replaced it with a "regular" capacitor. I haven't noticed any problem. I may have gotten lucky.

I am not sure if you were referring to the same thing, but my restoration guy called the "green eye" tube on my Magnavox console, a "Magic Eye". It's a cool feature.

I am really enjoying this series of videos. I can't wait until the next video comes out.

Thank you so very much for sharing your unbelievable expertise and experience - I really enjoy your work and first class teaching. Thank you again

8:50 My dad's old Hallicrafters S-107 had a bunch of these in it - ended up replacing them all. I should go back and see how leaky they are, if I can find where I stuck them.

Mr Carlsson your GE shortwave receiver is cool your utube videos are awesome

Best restore work Mr Carlson sir very nice condition GE model radio and thanks for sharing this I enjoyed your video thank you Mr Carlson sir.

REALLY enjoying this resto, Paul!!!

creative radio design and very cool description 😎 thank you

nice radio loving the vids i bet it was not cheep when it was new and it got look after well to

Please make longer videos' love them all need more!! barely ate half bag of funyuns and it was over GEE

I can imagine modern electronics, EEVBlog forum types laughing at this sort of thing and dismissing it as "old school stuff, there's a reason things aren't built like this anymore". Nonsense - give me discrete point-to-point connections over a silly green board with a bunch of surface-mount sprinkles and a big black square in the middle!

Great that you enable a deep look into that technology. Thank you These days you got value for money. This times have gone! --> Dire Straits: Money for nothing and the chicks for free......

Enjoy your videos. Love to see radios designed by Engineers instead of today equipment designed by accountants,

Great series Paul, really enjoying it! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for taking the time and effort to make this video. Seen on 11-6-22 at 9:19 in the NL(Amsterdam)pe1krx

This is gonna be an awesome reciever when completed and your work is top shelf (as always) am following this series closely and am also looking forward to the Collins project and the Racal I thought I saw as well...your expert narration and explanations are perfectly done to teach what you're doing Always love your vids and cant wait to retire from the road so I can do your course...keep em coming Jeff de WD8JM

I see that you're not going to be needing the gym after all the lifting and spinning of that chassis!

I was going to disagree with your "bygone era" statement about tools included but I look up and realise I'm still living in that era and do make tools or include them. Last week I was explaining my Gem war bonds records to someone and they looked at me like I was offering them last week's fish.

You have to admit, on that dial, some engineer earned his pay!

watching your great video 📹 and having a cup of coffee ☕ what can be better than that 💯

If I may, could I make a suggestion about your audio? I know you use that lovely tube Mic which is nice and clear, however, it really brings out the sibilant characteristics in your voice. You could add a multiband compressor or de-esser in your post production, it would really tame that sibilance right down but retain the high quality audio. (Audio engineer in me here). Its not the very top end, but rather around the 3khz-7khz area... Love the videos, anything RF has my undivided attention, thank you so much for the time taken to produce some very high quality content.

Thanks once again Paul!

That turret makes me think of the gold fingers on an old Tek scope (albeit considerably larger than the Tek cylinder).

Even a hardcore Hallicrafter's or Hammarlund fan would be forced to agree that this is a far superior design. (wooden cabinet: designed for 'home use'; the 'business side' has longevity written all over it)

Hell ya. I wonder why GE spent the money to do this. ! Out their is a story about the why of this raido. Thanks for the find. Best Regards Jack

Really looking forward to seeing this one working. It looks a great radio.

Fascinating. Thank you.

Wonderful as usual

This just makes me want to see how complicated the innerds are in the R-390A.

Nice! Off Topic: Because I see that you are very good with RF: Please suggest a simple way to find if a Ferrite core is good for transformer (low losses) or EMI filter (high losses). Thanks.

I'm a guitar guy. And I never use black beauties, bumble bee or paper in oil capacitors in my guitars. I prefer mylar.

15:43 I'm definitely interested. One of my other hobbies is RC stuff and I'd love to build a charger for my Li-FE receiver packs out of nothing but components that existed pre-transistor, save for the connectors going to the batteries themselves. It would not be a particularly small and portable device, but it would have the following features: * Proper Li-PO balance charging, including automatic charge cessation, for 2s and 3s packs at 5 amps and 2.2 amps * Proper Li-FE balance charging, including automatic charge cessation, for Li-FE 2-cell packs at 0.5 amps, 1.4 amps, and 2.2 amps * Proper lead acid charging up to 6 cells @ 10 amps(Mostly so I could also charge automotive batteries off of it) * Built in fireproof charging cell so a battery failure does not create an unsafe condition Portability would not be a concern. I have a modern charger that will work if I need to take a charger with me somewhere.

About the only industry that still encourages end user repairs, is the motorcycle manufacturers. A lot of motorcycles still come with tool bags for roadside repairs.

Awesome sir. Thank you for posting!

You are such a great presenter on repair Thanks Mr. Carlson.

I was expecting the turret assembly to contain a separate set of coils for each waveband, but it turns out to be just a complicated multi-pole switch, selecting different fixed coils; or combinations thereof?

Like the dial, shame we can't get good reproduction dial prints

Mr Carlson just want to say Ive been following you and your videos for a long time and your work is extraordinary very precise I I've learned a lot from your videos these last months almost a year I've been following you, and I've even seen some of your old videos and the way you explain everything and very thorough very professional keep up the good work and I'm learning a lot. Also I was wondering if there's any way to contact you or other websites or if you have any other way to be contacted because I'm looking for tubes I have a sonar amplifier the BR- 21 and I would like to find the original sonar tubes the (6JB6A) or the (6JB6) also a (12AT07) just wondering if you have an email or something where I can communicate with you other than RU-vid thank you and keep up the good work...

WOOOOW I WANT THAT RADIO

Thank you for the clarification on th "black beauties" IN the guitar. Not under current.

The world before bean counters.

Very akin to what the Russian manufacturer VEF did on the VEGA Multi-Band radio

Excelente. Tengo ese ,mismo Radio CX-371 pero no tengo la placa de la Fuente de Alimentacion. Si quieres te lo vendo. Tiene todas esas valvulas.

Excellent video Mr Carlson. BTW...My son gave me an old Telequipment Serviscope S51A, that he obtained from a friend that's father was in the TV repair business back in the day, for fathers day present. Can you please provide me a link to a schematic diagram. The scope works but the left side of the signal trace is elevated above the right side on the screen, I'll have to manually rotate the CRT to fix that Thanks