Fortunes were made and lost, empires built, epic patent battles ensued, all of which resulted in the world being more connected than ever before, which makes for a really great story (and a great Ken Burns documentary). The results of testing the tubes, transformer and capacitors.Before the second world war Radio was a revolution in mass-communication much like the internet today. (Doesn't say much for who built this radio.) The interesting thing with the tubes was all the RCA tubes showed weakness, the Philco tubes (6SQ7's) were strong. I will replace them anyway but leave the original on the chassis. The filter capacitors, even after slowly conditioning them, do show some leakage but that is to be expected. None of the black mica capacitors are cracked as in the others. There are a few wires that will need replacing due to the rubber insulation being too closely routed to a tube socket pin that caused it to melt.Īs far as the components, the most amazing thing to me, beyond all the capacitors being original, was the 470 ohm cathode resistor on the audio amplifier still has the color coding looking fresh (well OK, the purple has turned sort of grey.) The other ones I've seen had been heated not only to the point of burning the paint, but the resistor was brittle. All the cloth covered wiring is in excelent shape, both under the chassis and the external antenna and speaker wires. One difference is the B+ wiring (red) is cloth covered wire. This radio has the same rubber insulated solid wire but the insulation is not deteriorated nearly as much as the others. Removal of the chassis continued to amaze me of her condition.īoth previous models I have restored, the wiring was all shot. I stood back and began to realize this radio was not only not used very much, but was kept in environmental heaven for the components and materials of this old gal. I noticed that the color coding was still visible on the preset tuning capacitors.Īlso notice the red seal on the IF transformers, this unit is still aligned as it was from the factory. To begin with.after I blew the (very light) covering of dust off. What a thrill to work on a Radio that is in as good as shape as this RCA 29K!Īfter the last two I've seen this one looks like someone in 1942 put this set in a time machine and set the dial for 2004. I began rubbing my hands together but had no idea of exactly how sweet this would be. He assured me it hadn't been powered on for quite a long time.
I told him it was a good thing the power cord was frayed.
Alan's RCA 29K Restoration - August 2004 Alan contacted me with fond memories of operating this radio in his grandparent's basement.
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