[Arran]

Hi;
I picked up a new-old Philco on the weekend at of all things an old car swap meet. It's a Philco model 40-81, code 122, a cloth covered portable with four tubes. It isn't in bad shape, just dirty, the back is missing but everything else is still there. I suspect the battery pack must have leaked and ruined the back as the chassis has some rust spots. What's interesting is that the set has a built in loop antenna, but it wasn't mounted on the back it was would around the outside of the cabinet under the cloth cover. It also has a rather large speaker, five or more inches. Apparently the B+ was only 67-1/2 volts, I didn't know that portables from then were made to run on such things in 1940. I will clean it up and see if I can get it going, there are only five condensers in the whole radio (aside from micas) so not much to go wrong other then the rubber wire. Here's a picture of a similar set for reference, I don't have one of mine yet:
http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1940a.htm
Best Regards
Arran

[Sean]

I have a 40-82 (uses the same chassis as the 40-81) that I picked up a couple of years ago at the annual Gypsy Caravan in St. Louis. I'm not into portable sets but this is in pretty nice condition and I felt like I needed to buy something after spending $20 on the early-bird admission to the event. It's been sitting on the shelf waiting to be restored. One of these days I'll put it on the bench and maybe have Battery Maker build a battery for it.