Magnavox Hepplewhite

[19and41]

Over the last couple of weeks I have gone through the system.  I opened and checked out the antenna connections under the eaves and everything looked just great.  I put synthetic grease in the connections as a preventative measure.  So I was left with Horrible RFI across the bandspread.  I pulled out the receiver and checked for any distorted electrolytic filter caps.  Darned if I didn't see one of the original filter caps still in the circuit.  I'd left it by mistake during the restoration.  I had disconnected them and left them in place to have the unit look original.  I disconnected this one and installed new filter caps.  Still horrible 60Hz RFI.  So, I went through the house with the radio on, volume up, pulling the plugged in circuits one by one.  I got to the wall supply for my digital cable box.  I pulled the plug in the box and the noise dropped by half.  I pulled the supply from the wall and it dissapeared.  I dug through my odds and ends and found another supply to graft onto the coaxial connector.  The radio now works better than ever before.  I listened to WOWO, WSM, Radio China, Radio Havana and KBC International, all as clear as Atlanta.  I put up a pic of the console on The KBC site.

http://www.kbcradio.eu/index.php?dir=gallery

[19and41]

The AM reception has been good enough that I have been able to start putting the station presets on to the stations they were originally labeled for in the Chicago area.  It is getting KMOX really well.

[19and41]

I am now in the process of setting up a period turntable in the console.  I have bought an old Webster-Chicago single speed 56-3 for it.  I have had to get the isolation springs to mount it and a start button.  I thought I would do a trial fitting and found that the sliding mount for it had been heavily modified, to the point that it is unusable with the turntable.  I put up a want ad on the radio forum, and will be having another mount shipped shortly.  It's more expense than I wanted to put into this portion of the unit, but there you are.

[HarrySmith]

Very Cool!! Keep us updated please. Don't forget pictures!

[19and41]

It looks like the frame is on the postmans' truck for delivery today.  I may be able to get pics of the ratty one and the "new" one in the next couple or 3 days. I'll use the new one as the test stand for doing the clean and lube on the turntable.  I am ordering a replacement type cartridge/stylus for it.  I had hoped to renew the Idler wheel for the platter drive, but the rubber on it doesn't seem to have the ability to absorb the super lube like many other items do.  That may be an iffy prospect, as I want no wow on the thing.  I dug up two RCA 78 album collections that I had neglected to get rid of and they appear to be in very good shape.  One is 4 swing bands, the other is Glenn Miller standards.  4 discs each, 8 sides.  mighty puny compared to the Mp3 library I am now used to.

[19and41]

The frame arrived without damage.  The first photo shows the frame in the console, modified to the point of ruination,  The second shows the replacement frame.  Note the mounting point to the right, missing in the gray original.

[19and41]

While the turntable project is on hold for the eventual purchase of a welder to make the graft from one frame to the other,  I am still casting about on the AM/SW receiver evenings seeing what I can bring in.  I have recently gotten NHK Japan, the Voice Of Vietnam and am still getting Radio Havana Cuba, as well as blowtorch Radio China.  On the AM side, I was able to get WOWO pretty strong.  For some reason it is usually a difficult station to get.  KMOX comes in better.  The difficulty in getting genuine stations on SW is that a number of stations are rebroadcast here.  I have to keep checking the frequency I get them at with online lists to make sure they aren't retransmissions.

[19and41]

Some mornings, when I wake too early, I'll see what I can tune in and a bit over a week ago, I got an English speaking station.  They were doing the news and mentioned Wellington and Christchurch.  The Latter I had only heard associated with New Zealand, on the opposite side of the earth.  After checking the frequency to see if it might be the origin, It worked out to be Radio New Zealand International on 7425Khz.  I went online and filled out a QSL form and I Just got confirmation from them today.  My first QSL using a 70 year old console shortwave.

[AL_as_needed]

How exactly did you lay out your antenna? From what I gather you ran a long wire loop through the eve under your roof? I have had one of those "slide ruller" type 8 band radios for years now and it works ok.... but its not nearly as precise or sensitive to really grab a good signal.

[19and41]

It is a single stranded wire laid in the bottom drip cap of my eave cover. It is 55 ft. long and is connected to an RG-8 cable with a earth grounded shield, grounded to an 8ft. ground rod.  It is oriented east-west.  I wanted something along the line of what would have been used with the console when new, in 1947.  It has definitely been worth the effort to set it up.

[AL_as_needed]

That actually seems fairly simple despite the tedious bit of sneaking the wire into the flashing. I one day would like to get a helicrafters or similar but dont really have the room to set up a dedicated aerial on a pole or anything too involved.

My parents have a old zenith consol that at one point was wired to the copper radiant base-board heating pipes, worked surprisingly well.

[19and41]

You could go on Ebay and find an old wire loop antenna from a console radio to use as an antenna.  Hallicrafters radios are pretty good performers as long as the coupling capacitors in the IF transformers are not damaged.  They can be found at a wide range of prices.

[19and41]

The shortwave reception petered out in November and I have checked from time to time to see what's up.  Yestderday morning I barely got Radio New Zealand again, so I left the tuner where it was and shut it off. just turned the radio on and this morning I got it understandably.

[AL_as_needed]

What do you think is/was the cause? Weather related conditions disrupting signal strength?

[19and41]

I'm getting the impression that it may be a seasonal kind of thing.  A couple of years ago about this time of year I was able to get the Radio Australia service about the same time of morning (7:30 to 8:30 am EDT).