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May 27, 2020 16:21:38 GMT
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Phil - Credit to you - you lost me at the start of the radio restoration when you took the cover off the set - 99% of other owners would have found a period looking radio off the shelf that is stuffed with modern workings - It's always nice to keep something has original as possible Now see, had the original radio been of an abysmal electronic design (for instance, cheap parts, poor design, low fidelity) I would have probably gone looking for a better set of guts to go into the case and leave the front panel looking original. As it is, the AM receiver has good selectivity, the sensitivity is pretty good too and the power output stage is likewise well designed and they hadn't gotten round to cheaping out quite by this point- '51 was still post-war boom. so, it's essentially a 5-tube radio with a 4 tube output stage (2 tubes shared for a total of 7 tubes plus a rectifier) and as the 2 detector stages are split between tubes the AM selectivity is improved. A basic, cheap set would not have the second stage of IF amplification and would be single-ended with a single output tube and as much of the circuitry shared into a hugh-mu pentode as possible to cut down on the number of tubes. You could make this radio work with 3 standard tubes. It wouldn't pick up anything other than strong local stations and the audio quality would be mediocre. The chassis itself, although limited, is designed in a fairly good way- the RF stuff is as far away from the power supply as it can be and the output transformer is at 90 degrees to the power transformer. The only thing they didn't add was heater circuit filtering, which is odd but nevertheless, I added it and that has made sure there's very little noise coming from other electrical circuits in the car. Barring the voltage conversion and addition of the Bluetooth, the radio is as original. Pop the back off like above and granted, you'll see the circuit board with its' modern components at the bottom but if I was feeling perverse I could remove it completely. I'm not going to , obviously but the AM radio works well and adding BT means there's no need for a complicated FM setup to be grafted in. This conversion can be done on most radios, too. A bunch of people here have pulled the radio wires off the volume control of their old head units and grafted in an auxiliary input. It does work really well and leaves the face of the radio in place and the sound it makes on AUX the same as it would have sounded new. Link to the Bluetooth Receiver Board I used. It's versatile. --Phil
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May 27, 2020 17:20:00 GMT
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Thanks for the explanation. There's no info or label on the light, total POS so back to Home Depot it shall be sent.
Nothing is as good the OG but here's a cool modern version of California Dreamin', showing at a minimum that today's kids appreciate such songs as much as us.
John
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May 27, 2020 17:51:48 GMT
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Thanks for the explanation. There's no info or label on the light, total POS so back to Home Depot it shall be sent. John Best plan. It is worth spending a bit more on a halfway decent one but outwardly they are all the same. Just bring a transistor radio with you and hold it in the lighting aisle of HD. George Benson's version of California Dreamin (1971)I particularly like this rendition of the song but it is a bit slow for a demo video.
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May 27, 2020 19:26:19 GMT
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"Does it get The Wolfman? " i was going to say that !!! ^^^^^ or some reference to that film its such an iconic sound phil .brilliant .
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Last Edit: May 27, 2020 19:28:19 GMT by ivanhoew
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May 27, 2020 20:39:57 GMT
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I understood very little of the technical radio bit but it was interesting to see the work carried out, looks great fitted!
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May 27, 2020 23:29:53 GMT
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I understood very little of the technical radio bit but it was interesting to see the work carried out, looks great fitted! At the end of the day, I think that's what counts, no? Phil
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May 28, 2020 14:34:28 GMT
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Too cool, Phil!
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May 28, 2020 21:34:14 GMT
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In your spare time....., please....
It would be fun to put together a "mix tape" of early 50's music, but with your voice between and announcing songs as a DJ would have while "spinning records" back in the early days of Independent AM radio... Of course, every 10-15 minutes DJ Phil would give a shout out to "our sponsors", hawking products, drive-in theaters, hardware stores, etc..... all the local Mom and Pop businesses and products who advertised on radio before the 2 or 3 huge conglomerates bought up all the airspace to tirelessly spew out the same few handfuls of commercial ilk nationwide.
I'd download and enjoy listening the show..., even if played in current vehicle systems or on my control room monitors.
Thank you in advance..., lol
Lance
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What is this "spare time" thing your speak of?
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May 29, 2020 13:13:50 GMT
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Something wemen have apparrently
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May 31, 2020 23:56:35 GMT
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Pulled the radio back out of the car. Set about doing a full alignment. This involves getting everything in tune, from the IF oscillator to the tuning slugs. AM reception is improved. It's actually a really very good radio. Last part should be here tomorrow some time, then it can go back in the car permanently. Phil
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brc76
RR Helper
Posts: 1,107
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There doesn't appear to be a lot of real estate left on that desk!
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There doesn't appear to be a lot of real estate left on that desk! Nope. 1/3 of it is test equipment, 1/3 is workspace, the remaining 1/3 is stuff yet to be worked on. Phil
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,090
Club RR Member Number: 64
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1951 Pontiac Chieftainglenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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Had a little play with the bluetooth module I bought the other day. Bit disappointing. Lots of interference and ticking from what appears to be the bluetooth signal. Shame, but it was only a tenner...
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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You might find you need to do what I did- that's likely going out via the power input. That choke I added to mine came from an old computer power supply; a decent value (220uF+) filter capacitor across the power + and - before the choke should shut it up.
A lot of cheap little boards assume a good power supply with heavy filtering on the power. If you run a moderate length unshielded power wire to it (more than about 15cm) it acts a a very effective antenna. You need to prevent whatever it picks up from leaking into the power input of the Bluetooth board. Most have woeful power rail filtering to cut cost and size.
Phil
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Last Edit: Jun 1, 2020 17:04:35 GMT by PhilA
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,090
Club RR Member Number: 64
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1951 Pontiac Chieftainglenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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I was running it off a car battery, so I don’t think a choke on the power line would make a difference. I was getting a rhythmic kind of chatter when the Bluetooth was pairing, then a regular “tick tick tick” once it was paired.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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I was running it off a car battery, so I don’t think a choke on the power line would make a difference. I was getting a rhythmic kind of chatter when the Bluetooth was pairing, then a regular “tick tick tick” once it was paired. That just sucks. Tried a different source to see if the fault is common to the board or the source?
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I think I'm going to fix this up and fit it. Found where it mounts on the radio (tucked up on the left) and having a second speaker in the back would be nice. Phil
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,090
Club RR Member Number: 64
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1951 Pontiac Chieftainglenanderson
@glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member 64
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That front/rear fader is a nice touch. It's going to be a lovely thing to slide around in with all the work you've done on it.
I did try a different source, and it's still there even with nothing paired, so I can only assume the amplifier circuit is picking up from the Bluetooth receiver part. I emailed the supplier and they're sending me another, so we'll see how that goes. Other than the interference, it sounds pretty good, so maybe I just have a duff one. We'll see.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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All cleaned up and wired in. It's not a fader, but a switch; allows selection of front, both, rear speakers. Trying to figure what I should do for a rear speaker- either use the spare one or fit a more modern 2 or 3 way 6x9 in the parcel shelf or keep an eye open for a vintage enclosure. Phil
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