Two Lovely Philips Radios Saved From Dump
The thrill of working on Radios, especially the world famous Philips brand, is inexplicable. Here are two such cases which I am sharing to promote radio repairs and keep it alive among the technicians world-wide. Listening to a radio has always been very amusing irrespective of advancement of technologies by leaps and bounds!
Case (1) Model Number DL167/94 : This belonged to a teacher, whose husband was my school teacher and is no more.
The complaint reported was that it was intermittent and sometimes it had to be hammered to work. I told the guy who brought it that set would probably have suffered internal damage due to a fall and this proved to be correct once I opened the set. Let us have a look at some starting pictures:
The radio was thoroughly cleaned which is the routine work that I do immediately after opening the case. I cleaned and lubricated the battery contacts. The two cells were good. Then cleaned and lubricated the volume control and band switch and operated it a few times to enable a self-cleaning. The radio was found working but was not picking up stations properly.
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Then I noticed that in this radio a variable resistor was used in place of gang condenser. There was no way of lubricating it as it was sealed. In order to check whether that was the culprit, I used a 100K potentiometer and fixed it in place and the radio was found working perfectly and getting tuned to all stations.
This confirmed that the VR was defective, though showed ok in a Multimeter check.
Though I tried to get a replacement from the market, this was not available anywhere. So I opened it and cleaned the contacts thoroughly and lubricated it:
Then re-fixed it after removing the make shift pot. The radio was found working well though the tuning was not as perfect as the other one. But it served the purpose.
One of the legs had broken, probably due to the fall as presumed and I fixed in place using Super Glue and bonding powder and allowed it to settle down properly:
Then replaced all the four electrolytic capacitors as a preventive maintenance and tested the Radio for sufficient hours before closing the covers.
Case (2) Model Number RL118/ : This was brought by a new customer who brought an LED TV too with the complaint that it was not being used for a long time and he wanted it to be checked and restored, if possible. I opened the radio and did a thorough cleaning of inside as it had tons of dirt and cobweb in it.
I retouched the entire boards and replaced the four electrolytic caps in it. The built in rechargeable batteries were worn out and I replaced them from my stock, after thoroughly cleaning the contacts. Then cleaned and lubricated the volume control and band switch. The radio was found working very well.
I fixed the antenna properly as it had broken from its base. I used a suitable long screw, washer and nut for fixing it properly. The radio was found working very well in all bands and the sound was really superb, typical of a Philips Radio.
Double missions accomplished with double satisfactions getting collected to the voracious bag!
This article was prepared for you by Parasuraman Subramanian from India. He is 76 years old and has more than 30 years’ experience in handling antique equipment like Valve Radio, Amps, Reel Tape Recorders and currently studying latest tech-classes conducted by Kerala State Electronics Technicians’ Association. He has done graduation in BBA degree, private diploma in Radio Engineering and retired as MD of a USA company. Presently working as Consultant to Hospital and other institutions.
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You may check on his previous article on Solved Weak Output In PANASONIC TWO-IN-ONE Model RX-M70
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