Philco 38-116X vs RCA 15K
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Now that it is being worked on, I am wondering how my Philco 38-116X will stack up to my RCA 15K. I know that the 15K is a good unit (and I need to dig it out and play it again), but I am curious as how the two will compare. I am curious as I am pondering selling off my 15K in the future if the Philco turns out to be the better performer.  Need to make room for the now 33 radio strong Philco collection!
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In this comparison i would choose the Philco.
My 38-116 never was a player but I have had a nice 37-116 a 116X AND I still have the 680X here that were all nice players. The tuner on the 37 and 38 deluxe dials is a joy to tune as long as the small ball bearings are not flat spotted. My 15K was a nice sounding receptive set but I always seemed to have maintenance issues with it. It did have that Magic Voice gismo with metal tone pipes in the speaker chamber but mine was missing the original back so I could not hear the full effects. I used to listen to my 37-116 all night long in my bedroom in Florida and it never let me down with an issue.
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Hmm. My 15K as the metal tone pipes and also has the back. Only issue I have had with mine is the fact the tuning eye quit working. It glows, but doesn't respond. I know my 116X is a wonderful radio to use and seems to be a bit better at pulling in AM stations and shortwave than my 15K.
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Non responsive magic eye is usually caused by a burned out 1 meg resistor between the plate and the target. I would not call it a simple fix as you need to open up the eye tube socket housing to get at it in most cases. I think an RCA 15K is a set well worth keeping even if it isn't a Philco, the RCAs from that era are basically communications sets in a nice wooden cabinet.
Regards
Arran
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The 15K is well made and uses all metal tubes to boot. I remember the resistor issue for the eye being mentioned before and I think I just lived with mine because of the pain to get to that resistor.
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In fact 1M resistor fix in an eye tube socket is an extremely easy fix and does not require opening the socket. I did that with my Zenith and I think I wrote how I did it.
It's my own invention.
If anyone's interested I can post it again.
Takes 10 minutes tops.
(This post was last modified: 03-13-2013, 10:37 PM by morzh.)
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Please do post morzh! I have an Air Chief R1661A with a non-responsive eye tube and would love to soak up some of your knowledge.
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It is simple.
The resistor connects the target and the plate. Most of the times it sticks out enough to cut it out but it is not necessary as it is open and does nothing bad at all.
the problem (the perceived problem) is that one has to open the socket to replace it and the socket is very brittle (or most of them). And then I had heard also that assembling it back is kinda a b...tch to handle.
So, when I looked at the tube's characteristics, I found out there is very little current, if any, flowing through that resistor. Which means there is also no voltage drop and practically no power dissipation.
So any small resistor will do.
So, what I did was this:
1. I took 1M SMT 0603 size resistor, and I soldered thin (one thread of any multy-thread tinned copper wire) wires to its ends, reliably so they won't break off easily. The length of the wires is roughly 1/2" each.
2. I laid the resistor flat on top of the panel where the tube pins go, and fed the wires to the respective sockets for the tube's pins. I made sure the wires would go there without touching other pins (that is crossing other pins's sockets) and the resistor was also clear of the other pins. It is easy as the 0603 size is 0.06"x0.03" (0.75mm x 1.5mm) and it is very thin (maybe 0.015-0.02").
3. I simply inserted the 6E5 tube back into its panel that would a) keep the resistor pinned and b) keep the wires secured between the pins and the pins' sockets. The wire is thin enough not to impede the tube from being inserted but thick enough so it will get held between the pin and the socket and will provide a good connection.
This is it. It works just fine.
Took me under 10 minutes.
(This post was last modified: 03-14-2013, 05:14 PM by morzh.)
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So simple, and yet....so simple. 
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Breaking the eye tube socket isn't really a concern unless the set has one of those awful Eby eye tube sockets with the solid Bakelite back. Most of the decent ones with a metal cover were made by Amphenol, opening those isn't too hard but you need a sharp flat bladed screwdriver to wedge into the slots on the cover, it's hard to break one unless you use excessive force. Most of the time when I need to open one up it's because the cable is shot and the wires need to be replaced. Some companies, like Sparton, had enough sense to install the 1 meg ohm resistor under the chassis rather then in the socket itself, the reason they burn out is because they used a 1/4 watt resistor where they should have used a 1/2 watt.
Regards
Arran
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In my Zenith I have one of those, backelite brittle ones. It actually looks like it developed some cracks on its own. From what I read on other forums, those are very likely to disintegrate when the back is popped.
So ...necessity is the mother of invention.
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Well, I now have a way to repair my 15K eye tube when I get to it. Have to make sure the wires aren't rubber though, as my 15K does have some rubber coated wire for the I.F. cap wires.
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The wires you solder to the resistor are bare single threads. As if you take say a multi-thread gauge whatever (say 16), strip it, separate one thread, and this is what you use to solder to the resistor.
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Until the late thirties RCA sets were pretty good receivers. They always (to me) played/received like a set that should have had more tubes.
I have not had a 15K, but have had several other 20s/30s RCA sets, in every case they were very good.
I think the two features that make the 38-116 a better set than the 15K are the variable IF and the "AFC" circuitry.
An interesting comparison is my RCA T10-1 and my Philco 37-670. Both are relatively high-tube count tombstones. Although I love my Philco, the RCA is the better receiver. Additionally, in bass-boost the RCA sounds MUCH better.
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(03-13-2013, 10:36 PM)morzh Wrote: In fact 1M resistor fix in an eye tube socket is an extremely easy fix and does not require opening the socket. I did that with my Zenith and I think I wrote how I did it.
It's my own invention.
If anyone's interested I can post it again.
Takes 10 minutes tops.
Hope you can help, not sure how old this message is, but I have the 15K too and I did replace the resistor in the socket, but it didn't help. What else can I check or change, the original resistor that I took out was good. Hope you can help me.
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