Re: 1947 Philco radio

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2010/7/27 22:37:49

Tubes are not hard to find. A friend of mine has 25000 of them in his basement. He went around and bought up the NOS inventory of all the old radio shops in the area.

When transistor radios and TVs came in, it happened so fast thousands of shops got stuck with millions of tubes. The tubes are made of glass with a vacuum inside so they will keep for 1000 years.

For this reason there is no shortage of NOS tubes. There are a few that are considered rare and expensive, my friend has some that look like purple light bulbs, they are for some of the first tube radios made in the 1920s. Most tubes from the mid 30s on are easy to find however.

There are dealers online, ebay etc. I can't recommend any specifically because I don't know them.

This guy is a good source for capacitors and resistors. I have done business with him.http://www.justradios.com/

It's getting hard to find such things locally because there is so little demand for them. And, the values used in tube radios are different from transistor and other modern applications.

There are lots of radio repair services that advertise online but again, I can't get into specifics as I do not know who is good and who is not. There are probably hobbyists and repair techs in your area if you can find them. Possibly by asking around among your old car friends, or tube radio and audio fans if you know any.

Here is a good site with great advice forums, slanted towards home radios.http://www.antiqueradios.com/

I don't know how deep you want to get into the old radios. They are not that hard to fix. It's mostly a matter of cleaning them up and replacing the old capacitors and wiring, if the insulation is falling off the wires.

Tubes may or may not need replacing but most are probably OK. The only way to know for sure is by testing with a tube tester. Tubes are not usually the problem, it's the capacitors that wear out. Replacing the tubes accomplishes nothing.

The schematics and specs available on this site, are worth their weight in gold.

Also you are very lucky Packard radios are made by Philco, they are about the most popular brand of tube radio. There are hundreds of Philco fans out there ready to help.