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Picked up a very nice example of a 1940-1 ? made in Canada Philco 53A s radio at a garage sale yesterday. Don't see many radios this era with the cabinets in such good condition. At least ones that are for garage sale prices . Expected to see a field coil speaker but there is actually a rather large 12" speaker that looks like a Jensen. All the tubes are present but I haven't been able to track down a schematic yet.
Will need some TLC for sure.
Here's the tube compliment from left to right:
6J8E, 78, 6J5, 617FG, 6C5, 2 - 48s.
Not sure what's up with the 48s, they're battery radio tubes. As well as the AC cord though there is a cord with a male three-way plug on the end, combined AC/Batt radio?
Yesterday was a good day. Actually picked up some nice vinyl for free as well.
Cheers
Lar
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Lar,
According to Ron's 2nd edition Philco Radio guide the Canadian Philco 53AX is a 1942 model with no U.S. equivalent. It lists this as a 6 tube AC radio? Obviously you have a seven tube unit!
The plug may be the old speaker plug for an original electrodynamic speaker...may be the existing speaker was a changeout as the audio output transformer is mounted next to the chassis? Schematics can be had from Just Radios. Looks like a nice radio. 
Good luck, John
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John R Wrote:Lar,
According to Ron's 2nd edition Philco Radio guide the Canadian Philco 53AX is a 1942 model with no U.S. equivalent. It lists this as a 6 tube AC radio? Obviously you have a seven tube unit!
The plug may be the old speaker plug for an original electrodynamic speaker...may be the existing speaker was a changeout as the audio output transformer is mounted next to the chassis? Schematics can be had from Just Radios. Looks like a nice radio.
Good luck, John
I e-mailed Justradios earlier today to see if they have a schematic. I've gotten a few from them before. Great folks to deal with.
I suspect the plug was for the original speaker hook up.
The 48's kind of threw me.
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Lar,
After looking at your chassis again it is an eight tube unit and not 7 as I originally thought.
Could it actually be a model 54AX or 56AX chassis as these are listed as 8 tube AC consoles? Maybe the entire chassis was changed out? If the # 48 pentodes are correct they were probably used due to a shortage of other types during WWII....30VDC filaments!
John
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The two type 48 tubes make no sense at all, they each have 30 volt filaments. Is this a series string set of some kind? I don't see a normal power transformer in there, just what looks like a vertical mount unit next to what I presume are the type 48 tubes? I'm wondering if maybe this was a weird Canada only variant or a converted battery set? Is there a tube location chart inside the cabinet? Does it have a CSA, or a CESA decal on the chassis?
Regards
Arran
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The RCC manuals show a model 53 (not a 53A or 53A S) from those years but the tube lineup is different as is the tube count. The manual shows a 6J8EG, a 78E, a 6J5G, a 6K5, a 6F6EG, and a type 80, all are in a straight line across the back of the chassis. Your example has obviously been played with, the speaker is not of the stock kind that Philco would use, to me it looks like a Utah or a Jensen, and Philco would not have mounted a transformer (output transformer?)on the chassis shelf from the factory.
Regards
Arran
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The US Philco 642 used 2-48's, but doesn't match your chassis:
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByModel...013820.pdf
Is 617FG a good tube number?
Carl
Northern Panhandle, WV
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No such tube as a 617FG. Believe it to be a 6L7G, pentagrid mixer amplifier, between the two metal tubes. Am I seeing things or is there not an eighth tube hidden behind the second glass tube from the left in the pix?  Lar, can you relist your tube lineup?
John
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Well I'll bet you the 617 is a 6J7 or 6K7. If you series all the filaments except for the 48's guess what 30volts. Bet it runs on 30vdc.
Terry
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Terry
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John R Wrote:No such tube as a 617FG. Believe it to be a 6L7G, pentagrid mixer amplifier, between the two metal tubes. Am I seeing things or is there not an eighth tube hidden behind the second glass tube from the left in the pix? Lar, can you relist your tube lineup?
John
Was thinking that after I tried to find it in my Tube Lore book, 
Didn't seem right to me even though I'm not all that familiar with pre 1940s radio tubes.
The print is faint so I'll have to take another look.
My radio matches the one in the Philco sites Canadian section that is named 53X:
Will see if I can get a close up picture of the radios chassis info.
Cheers
Larry
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Just to further muddy the waters here's a pic of the tube chart and the chassis label,
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Larry,
Yes your pics does "muddy the waters" as they show a 6 tube chassis with the 53AS tag on a 8 tube chassis? I suspect that in 1942, war shortages, they had a 53 console but no 6 tube chassis left over so they stuck an eight tube 54 or 56 chassis in the console but still added the 53 metal ID tag and sold it as the 53AS. You may be able to identify your correct chassis model by comparing the tubes used with the eight tube schematics! 
John
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John R Wrote:Larry,
Yes your pics does "muddy the waters" as they show a 6 tube chassis with the 53AS tag on a 8 tube chassis? I suspect that in 1942, war shortages, they had a 53 console but no 6 tube chassis left over so they stuck an eight tube 54 or 56 chassis in the console but still added the 53 metal ID tag and sold it as the 53AS. You may be able to identify your correct chassis model by comparing the tubes used with the eight tube schematics!
John
Yes it's rather bizarre but what you mentioned makes consummate sense. There was rationing of many items especially electronics items during WW2. A manufacturing deadline but no way to fill it conventionally so in goes the 8 tubes radio instead of the six tube. Will have to hunt through the schematics and see what I can find.
Does anyone know if Philco Canada and US shared designs at all after 1938?
Thanks
Larry
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diamondsouled Wrote:John R Wrote:Larry,
Yes your pics does "muddy the waters" as they show a 6 tube chassis with the 53AS tag on a 8 tube chassis? I suspect that in 1942, war shortages, they had a 53 console but no 6 tube chassis left over so they stuck an eight tube 54 or 56 chassis in the console but still added the 53 metal ID tag and sold it as the 53AS. You may be able to identify your correct chassis model by comparing the tubes used with the eight tube schematics!
John
Yes it's rather bizarre but what you mentioned makes consummate sense. There was rationing of many items especially electronics items during WW2. A manufacturing deadline but no way to fill it conventionally so in goes the 8 tubes radio instead of the six tube. Will have to hunt through the schematics and see what I can find.
Does anyone know if Philco Canada and US shared designs at all after 1938?
Thanks
Larry
They did quite frequently, but they regularly assigned different model numbers to the Canadian versions of the U.S models. If that is an eight tube chassis where is the eighth tube? The RCC manuals show completely different chassis with seven and eight tubes, the eight tube models used loctals for one. Could you take a photo of the chassis from the top to show the layout?
Regards
Arran
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