09-12-2012, 12:04 AM
The service info says 20 watts undistorted power output, 30 watts maximum, looks like when Wells Gardner designed a set with a pair of push pull 6L6s they actually built a power supply with enough grunt to run them at their full potential. Some companies, like brand Z, would use 6L6s in their sets just as a marketing gimmick, but then would only run the plate and screens at a paltry 220-240 volts so they were really acting as a pair of glorified 6F6 tubes. But aside from the power output stage the front end of the radio doesn't look to be a slouch either, it has a tuned RF amplifier stage, a separate mixer and oscillator, and two IF amplifier stages, add a BFO and it would make a decent communications receiver.
With regard to the motor drive I've never seen a setup like this before, on most of of my motorized dial radios the drive motor runs at 24 volts not 117, the way the stations are programed is through a rotating disk and a series of spring loaded contacts. So you push a button, the electrical circuit between the 24 volts and the motor is closed, and the motor keeps rotating the disk until the contact for the station you selected hits the insulated gap between the two sections of the selector disk and breaks contact.
The system this Airline uses looks much more complicated mechanically as opposed to electrically, but at least the service info has three pages of instructions explaining how it works and how to set it up. The way it seems to work is there is a series of selector disks that each have an adjustable pawl that you set to a station, the button is pressed, the motor starts, and the selector disk moves until that pawl hits a lever which engages a switch that shuts the motor off and stops the mechanism, hopefully on the right station. Apparently they even had seven tube Airline models with this motor drive system. By the way, if you don't like working on record changers you will hate this device.
Regards
Arran
With regard to the motor drive I've never seen a setup like this before, on most of of my motorized dial radios the drive motor runs at 24 volts not 117, the way the stations are programed is through a rotating disk and a series of spring loaded contacts. So you push a button, the electrical circuit between the 24 volts and the motor is closed, and the motor keeps rotating the disk until the contact for the station you selected hits the insulated gap between the two sections of the selector disk and breaks contact.
The system this Airline uses looks much more complicated mechanically as opposed to electrically, but at least the service info has three pages of instructions explaining how it works and how to set it up. The way it seems to work is there is a series of selector disks that each have an adjustable pawl that you set to a station, the button is pressed, the motor starts, and the selector disk moves until that pawl hits a lever which engages a switch that shuts the motor off and stops the mechanism, hopefully on the right station. Apparently they even had seven tube Airline models with this motor drive system. By the way, if you don't like working on record changers you will hate this device.
Regards
Arran
