Philco 89 (1934 model)


Remember this ???...




I must really be nuts. I actually proceeded with repairing the radio you see in the first pic. Guy who sent it didn't pack it very well and the heavy speaker yanked away the front panel in transit. I rebuilt the wood splinter by splinter and gave it a new face. Basically I had no hope of restoring the front exactly the way it was and I refaced it with a scrap of burl veneer that I had laying around. I had no idea that it would turn out as pretty as it did. Yeah, I know, its not original - but it was better than trashing it which is what any sane person would have done.

The 89 came in a number of different versions and cabinet styles. This is a later version that had 4 knobs due to the addition of a SW band. Its only 1.5 to 3.2 Mc, which isn't very useful these days. Tube line up is a 39/44 RF Amp, 36 Osc/Mix, 39/44 IF Amp, 75 Det/AVC, 42 AF out and 80 Recttifier.

Let me single out a problem that is inherent in this model that gave me a fit. The oscillator is prone not to work and Philco later put out a number of suggestions to correct the situation. This appears in Riders 5-16. Mine was oscillating, but only weakly, and I could only receive local stations on the top end of the band. I found I was reading 2 megohms of leakage between two separate windings on the combo osc/mixer/IF coil. The tip sheet strongly suggests that moisture can be a problem and the coil should be baked dry and dipped in paraffin to protect it from future moisture absorption. That worked for me. Others have had luck in hand-picking a 36 tube, and dropping the osc cathode resistor down as low as 6800 ohms. I did that too and now the osc is as solid as a rock.






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