11-12-2021, 05:40 PM
In July 2020, my Aunt drove from Minnesota to Michigan to meet my daughters, and brought my great-grandpa’s 41-608P to give me as well. Over the last year I’ve been slowly working on mildly restoring (refreshing?) it as time permits- my three year old has even helped! I was able to sell a ‘71 Sportster I got cheap from a neighbor to pay for a professional electrical restoration and am doing the cabinet myself.
Some history:
My Grandfather remembers getting it new with his dad in 1942 or 1943. Later, when my grandfather moved out on his own, he was given the radio. In order to continue using it, he had an electrician friend put a Heathkit Preamp and amplifier in it, and also replaced the original phonograph with one made by Garrard that could play 78, 45, and 33 1/3rpm records. Somehow they wired it to the radio and speaker of the Philco- my uncle remembered using all of the normal radio functions, as well as FM. Apparently the police band got a lot of use for some reason! Eventually it got moved to the horse barn, was used out there and eventually sat until they moved in 2003, when it was put into my Uncle and Aunt’s basement until it came to me.
The cabinet is in what I call “perfect for parents with young children” condition, so for now I’m holding off on a refinish, although there are a few cosmetic issues that I feel need to be taken care of. I found an electronic repair shop five minutes away from me (Northern Lights Television and Vacuum) in Madison Heights, MI, that has been locally owned and operated by the same family for long enough that they sold these when they new! They are doing a full electrical restoration and, in the spirit of my family’s ownership history, adding a Bluetooth receiver. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the Heathkit stuff yet, and the Garrard record player was too far gone to be saved.
I hope you enjoy my radio!
Some history:
My Grandfather remembers getting it new with his dad in 1942 or 1943. Later, when my grandfather moved out on his own, he was given the radio. In order to continue using it, he had an electrician friend put a Heathkit Preamp and amplifier in it, and also replaced the original phonograph with one made by Garrard that could play 78, 45, and 33 1/3rpm records. Somehow they wired it to the radio and speaker of the Philco- my uncle remembered using all of the normal radio functions, as well as FM. Apparently the police band got a lot of use for some reason! Eventually it got moved to the horse barn, was used out there and eventually sat until they moved in 2003, when it was put into my Uncle and Aunt’s basement until it came to me.
The cabinet is in what I call “perfect for parents with young children” condition, so for now I’m holding off on a refinish, although there are a few cosmetic issues that I feel need to be taken care of. I found an electronic repair shop five minutes away from me (Northern Lights Television and Vacuum) in Madison Heights, MI, that has been locally owned and operated by the same family for long enough that they sold these when they new! They are doing a full electrical restoration and, in the spirit of my family’s ownership history, adding a Bluetooth receiver. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the Heathkit stuff yet, and the Garrard record player was too far gone to be saved.
I hope you enjoy my radio!
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