That is a Japanese made radio, they had all sorts of weird names and brands. You are not going to easily identify it. You can tell old japanese radios because of the heavy gauge steel in the chassis and they were usually galvanized or sometimes anodized. The IF transformers are a give away as well. Another clue is the grey dog bone resistors. They are actually very well made and will likely last forever.
Thanks!...Shango 066...For doing your personal explanations on trouble shooting on vintage electronic instruments of our past...Like your gut explanations,as though you were talking to us in person...Comparing to others that are explaining about the electronic device...Along with your sense of humor,it takes it to another level of your diagnostics...You have my attention Shango 066...
I liked the Viscount! The sound was good by my ear. The build was lightweight, but looked adequate. And the dial cord offered gear reduction for easy tuning with a simple stringing. I think it looks very 60s, definitely the end of the tube era. Nice tube retainers, disc caps, soldering.... an odd one indeed. The Viscount (silent 's') name was on pocket & portable Japanese radios as well.
I had two of these branded Omscolite. Their building burned down In 1964, putting an end to them. I picked a lot of stuff out of the ruins. Later on I found a blue one (the color of the tuning dial plastic) on eBay and got it for nostalgia. I have seen it with different names, still with the "V" on it.
3:50 I'll bet those tube retention clips, and the lock-tight everywhere were included to help it survive the 12,000 mile trip here. Just looking at this set I anticipated it sounding cheaper and tinnier than the parts in it would suggest. I love the way the FCC notices on these things always say "as of the date of manufacture", but the date of manufacture is seldom clearly marked on these old sets.
It looks very similar in component type to the Matsushita/Mitsubishi I am working on at the moment. Same resistors, same IF transformers, same lack of sensitivity on FM. Even the larger power resistor has darkened and probably is arcing with B+ voltage. Crappy tube sockets with oxidized tin like material that looses conductivity. But it has good tone with a 8" woofer and 2" tweeter.
I like that you use mobile one oil because it won't gum up ,the heat won't bother it ,I use to be a net engine mechanic ,all net use synthetics oil because of the heat ,I been use mobile one for over 30 years never a problem ,I not a fan of paraffin oil it can and will gum up ,I seen test test done with different oils ,show what parts wear the most ,that's why I am a fan of synthetics.
The 17EW8 is a dual triode. It's actually a European tube; its European designation is HCC85. I might try converting one of my AA5 radios to work with a 12BA7 converter tube; I've read it can help quite a bit with sensitivity and it doesn't need a lot of work to get one working in an AA5 radio. I might even made an adaptor to fit the tube in there. Have you seen any 3- or 4-tube Compactron radio sets? There is a schematic somewhere for an "AA3" Compactron tube radio.
I notice on most of your vintage restorations they are as dirty as they come in and you seem to not clean them at the end. Why not clean them before troubleshooting them???
Triggered much? What's so bad about not cleaning the inside of a radio before trouble shooting? Shango has a point. Cleaning has a chance of messing something up so get a baseline when it's still dirty and only if it doesn't work, clean it.
I found the best paint to touchup the white so called loctite is white appliance touch-up paint. I honestly don't think they were trying to lock anything down is that paint gives way very easily. I think it was more for seeing if somebody had tampered with the radio during the warranty period.
Generic drug-store Japanese import, badged however the import house wanted. I recently got a quart of Pennzoil 0W20 synthetic (no one knew why it was on the shelf since we never carried it.) I was thinking about doing the same thing with it when I ran out of straight 20w.
I got a couple of early 60s AM/FM radios at a local electronics recyclers - they had pulled the tubes, probably expecting to make good money online. Ha! Wasn't too hard to retube them although the 19T8 was kind of a pain as the first one I got had a short. (Seems to be an issue with that design).
+Mark Owen Zenith used that 19T8 and yea issues always seem to surround that tube. Those era Zenith radios also have the IF transformer capacitor issue.
+shango066 I first watched a radiotvphononut vid figuring out how to replace the selenium rectifier in that Zenith G730, so it led me to watching your vids. (IFs seem ok so far and once I got the B+ up the electrostatic tweeter started working again.)
Shango0666 I have a question for you can you fix two things of mine I will pay you for it I live in Phoenix Arizona I have an RCA 5 disc DVD carousel it is not working correctly will not read the CDs I think it has a bad DVD Lens I think it needs to be replaced and I have a Technix 1050 MOSFET amplifier 100Wx5 The amplifier is not playing stereo separation it's only mono and the FM indicator on the stereo is not coming on I have an antenna and it still will not play in stereo I need this fixed how much will it cost please I trust you I watch every single video you put up love your channel can you please help me I live in Phoenix Arizona let me know thank you
