You are missing the little color wheel that goes in front of the pilot light. Each station will have a different color pilot light on the front. It attaches to the end of the long shaft of the station switch. That's how you know what station, or which preset you are tuned to.
Perhaps it's in a comment already, I didn't read them all. We have one of theses in our New Jersey Antique Radio Club's museum. It's a "Secretary's radio", designed to sit on the floor under a desk, and were often used in a reception room. The Secretary used her foot to roll the volume down when greating a guest or taking a call. Tapping the roller changed stations. The example we have is its original ivory color.
It Just Blows my Mine, How You Just go right at a radio, with know second thought of what to do, What a mine for electronics, Great Repair like always, I have Never seen a radio that looks like That.Great Video
Sure could use more people like you in the world Ron, as far too many people like to throw out good things. Glad you got that radio so it would have a chance.
If I could hazard a guess as to why the strange tuning mechanism, I'll bet it was aimed at elderly people or people with limited eyesight who might have difficulty tuning a regular radio tuning dial. At the dealership (remember when there were radio and TV dealerships?) the salesman would set the presets to the stations that the person wanted to be able to listen to. Or, conversely, a relative or friend could set the presets when the radio was brought home. A great job, as usual.
That's a good theory but if so, why is the channel indicator (missing in this example) a colour wheel that would require the user to see it; surely they would have used something tactile instead?
The size of the dual purpose wheel and lack of a dial makes me think this may be designed to be foot operated. Like in an office. Certainly a unique piece. Nice work as always!
Never advertised as a floor model. Why it is just a novelty desk unit where you set six active AM stations from underneath and use one hand to operate it afterwards. It would sound pretty crappy on the floor and with shoes on hard to adjust the volume without accidentally changing the station!
I was mesmerized for 42 minutes and 21 seconds! Miss the old Philco named tough products and our old TV, standup radio Grandma had, the bakelite plastic, and painting it that green, that brought me back to the old Wizard of Oz movie I'm not that old but I grew up with all that stuff and this truly made me nostalgic for all those things. It was a great honor watching the restoration and thank you for this.
Ron, your chuckling at yourself when you get bitten by not previously checking a potential bad tube (the 50L6, on this video) makes my day! Your knowledge and skill at your craft is simply amazing to watch and in this day of multi-level integrated circuitry, is a refreshing thing to watch. It recalls my own vacuum tube days as a US Navy Tradevman from 1965-69. Keep 'em coming! These are some of the best videos on RU-vid!
Interesting fact, this is a foot operated radio! Designed to be placed under desks in offices or for secretary’s. Move the dial with your foot for volume and press it down to change the channel. Also became pretty popular for physically disabled people, particularly wheelchair bound folks. They really did think of everything!
@@rareblues78daddy It could be. In fact, it looks like it's designed for that purpose. (Edit: as a matter of fact, it IS - radioattic.com/item.htm?radio=1620012)
Jacob Garby I should have been more specific. Used in hospitals ect for people who are wheelchair bound but not permanently disabled, say a broken leg ect
Nice save! Let’s set the record straight on these Philco “Secretary” models (Philco model 49-901) for the viewers at home. These were never intended to be put on the floor and operated by foot. The original advertising confirms this, and besides, there would be very, very few left with this kind of treatment. These are unique, but certainly not rare. Philco was a very prolific manufacturer. I own 3 of these radios myself. They were only available in 2 colors from the factory-ivory and green (the green being a sort of institutional colored green). Any other variation (including plain Bakelite was modified at a later time). The whole point of this radio was to provide a desktop radio that would cause as little distraction/disruption to the secretary’s primary functions (typing, filing, answering the phone etc,) as possible. Volume and tuning could be accomplished with a quick reach-not even needing to take your eyes off of your work. I caution anyone that works on these to be very careful of the rotating color wheel as they are very fragile and brittle. This is one of the key elements of the radio as it filters the light from the pilot lamp so the jewel indicator on the outside glows a different color corresponding to the different station/frequency selected. This is the only visual feedback to the user.
Thank you Ron ,I always look forward to your videos.what a fantastic radio ,I love how you instantly know what the faults are ,Only years of experience repairing electronics can teach you this knowledge I wish I had a electronics teacher like you .If you could bottle your knowledge I would buy it ,looking forward to the next episode best wishes.
Thank you for gifting us with being able to watch your amazing work. Just got a 1942 Sentinel 7 tube that, amazingly, covers extended a.m. band, 50 years before it was authorized! (Bows to Master Glasslinger)
For removing the paint I use this method. Apply the paint remover and let it soften the paint. Use a low power pressure washer to power wash the old paint off. You can dry the water and reapply the paint remover if needed a second time. No scratches or damage to the surfaces you are cleaning and it's much less messy a job. I would tie the shells down so they can't dance away when the water hits them.
Excellent and informative video as always. You'll forever inspire this novice to raise the bar in tinkering with my old radios! I've seen that model before, and yes, they don't turn up often. The first one I've seen working. I would suspect these were for an office desk. It looked less conspicuous than an ordinary set. Much like an intercom. The styling is actually a good example of early post-war modernism.
Nice job as always. One of the things that draws me to the tube radio era is the fact that designers could let their imaginations run wild and produced so many varied designs.
Welcome back ! Ah the Secretary by Philco c.1949. Sat on the desk, it WAS a desktop model, and you could turn the dial from off to on and then turn it to raise the volume. You could press the dial to change the stations. It had 6 preset stations that could be dialed up from underneath. Of course you would set the radio to your liking from only listening to what was playing since there wasn't a true frequency dial to see the frequency number. That did add to both it's uniqueness and it's downfall.📻 Note, bandersontv did a complete and great restore of this model a year ago. It was in much worse shape!
Well done Ron! The radio is missing the preset indicator wheel. It should have a transparent colored wheel numbered from 1 to 6 on the front with the lamp illuminating it from the back, and the corresponding preset would shine from the hole in the front. All the best, Moshe.
Perhaps no one has realized yet, but that radio was designed to be on the floor under your desk. You use your foot to work the volume control and change stations. That's why it's so big, and why it's built so sturdy. Like a guitar stomp box!
I think you have something there. Something one might have in an offce/receptionist area back before "Musac". Pretty handy indeed. It may also explain why that volume control was so filthy too. 😃😉😉 Great observation.
@@hestheMaster Many references on the Internet for this radio, called "The Secretary" by collectors, indicate it was designed to be operated by foot under a desk, hence the unique design. One reference: radioattic.com/item.htm?radio=1620012 By the way, if anyone runs across an owner's manual for this radio, they would be doing the collector community a favor by scanning it and uploading it at philcoradio.com, a site devoted to Philco Phanatics: the Philco Phorum!
That is very unique for sure. It would be good for folks when they are 102 and can't figure out which way to turn the knobs anymore, when they only get to take one to the care home.
bandersentv has one of these as well that he is working on restoring. His unit's case was badly cracked so a significant portion of his restoration videos for it are focused on repairing/rebuilding the case. Search his channel for "Philco 49-901".
Some IF transformers have more windings on the secondary than primary to give some gain. In that case you’d want to make sure they were installed with the secondary going to grid. Love watching you work!
yes he always seems to paint stuff whatever color he has on hand.if it were mine i would restore to original rather than paint it that metallic bright green. it looks wrong to my eye. but thats just one mans opinion.
Love that turn-and-push control - an early example of the rotary encoder with push click that we have now. Some minidisc players also had a rotary-push control for volume and track skipping - the same idea in miniature.
So both IF cans have silver mica disease? Shango066 replaces the caps as well, and has tutorials about it. I've followed his tutorial to repair one myself. Works pretty good, and isn't that difficult if you do it under magnification....
Never really seen this kind of radio b4,I couldn't work out what it really was in the first place,but by the shape of it,it looked really like the shape of a fan heater with the rotary control,like a thermostat with an on/off switch. Amazing how there,s no radio dial,u had to guess what station u are listening to. I like the cat in the video too,that is so cute. Must've been hungry for the dine food too. Very nice metallic green finish on the radio case too. But would've been good if u had put the light globe in to see what colour the wheel was showing each time a radio station was selected. Good to see the fine radio tuning controls on the bottom,and the instructions of tuning the oscillation coils for each preset. Would've been good if the speaker was repaired,as there was a hole thru the paper cone.
Yeah. That's about the goofiest radio and have ever seen. Quite unique. 46 years ago. I received another rather unique, Philco radio. I had been working as an electrician's helper. When I found this in some very old lady's house. Sitting way in the corner of the attic. Inaccessible to an old lady. No problems for an 18-year-old like me. So I bring it down to her. And I asked her about it. She said it used to work but just fades out. And it was put up there years earlier. Buyer husband. Who since died a long time ago. And she gave it to me as a gift. It was this nasty cruddy mottled black color, yuck color. And instead of taking some caustic petroleum-based solvents. I grabbed some Fantastic spray cleaner. And within seconds. It revealed. This gorgeous, golden orange colored, varnished, new, without a scratch, furniture quality case. And Yep. It works for a short while. And fades to nothing. But here is what is most unique about this particular Philco radio. It was a multi band radio. With the standard AM radio band of North America. Followed by some of the international shortwave bands. But then there was this one other special band. That no other radio in the world has. This Philco radio had the first, Armstrong, FM band. The Armstrong FM band. Was not the FM band we know today from 88 through 108 MHz.. It was something like 40 through 49 MHz. And that was supposed to be the world's first, FM band. But it never came to pass. Even though this radio went into commercial production. There were no FM stations at 40 through 49 MHz. There never were. There was never going to be. Unfortunately with my relocation move halfway across the country. After 40 years. I had to give it up and sell it. As I could not take everything with me. And I gave up a little piece of history. I never wanted to give up. Because I started working in radio for my career. Right about that time that I received that radio. I was never an electrician's helper again. But a professional broadcaster. And that's a keepsake piece of history one wouldn't want to give up. Waaaaaaaa. Sorry I don't mean to be a crybaby. I just turned 64 and I'm going through my second childhood.
You've got a year maybe two on me. I started my small collection about 12 years back and just now starting the restorations. Love it. Doing a 35 GE, currently but having a few Philco's, Tru tones, BorgWarner, a Belmont, a White Dept. Store ---my favorites are Zeniths (have 4 of them).
Looks like you finally got the video recording and export parameters down! 16:9 output with no stretching, and quite high bitrate! Keep this up for your future videos :)
So it's for foot switching, or elbows maybe? If it's not constructed for handless animals it's maybe made for workplaces where you can't use your hands?
Too bad about the SMD. I either do a cap replace or I just put a new core in. I know you did some work on replacement IF transformers a while ago. I looked at that and some other sources of ideas and carried on with some further research on it. As a result of that I designed a core for 3/4" transformers that has all components on a PCB and its works pretty good, actually a bit "hotter" than the stock ones (higher gain). I need to get around to putting them up somewhere for others to get... Cheers,
Could it be that this radio was designed for a blind person? Maybe it was intended to be tuned by someone who can see, then you have a radio all set up that can be tuned from channel to station, volume changed, turned off and on all from the same rheostat switch! That is actually pretty ingenious. It would’ve been neat if they designed it so you could have the added function of scrolling through the stations with the same rotary switch by depressing it while scrolling. I really appreciate the mechanism. Does the station setting mechanism work like the kind of mech in an old time automobile radio deck? Sort of seems like it does. I really love the craftsmanship that went into old time equipment like this.
+bandersentv, hey Bob, I told you there was more than one of those "foot-controlled Philco's" out there! ;-) BTW, +glasslinger; Ron, I've used your videos, and pages referencing tubemaking, and the "understandable physics" behind some of your work, to figure out why some of the rarely seen (these days) tube moderated stuff (early Cold War years) isn't behaving properly. Many thanks!
Another great resto Ron. Bit of a weird looking radio, certainly a good conversation piece. Yeah, the little indicator light would look good if it were working. Haha, pay more attention to me, human!!
Not even at 2 minute mark and i love the radio already! Glad to see you're posting still also, youtube bumped your notifications off again though :/ Ah well, back on they go mr Googlebot.
