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  • Montgomery Ward Airline Radio

    From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to All on Thu Apr 21 23:19:37 2022
    I found the deal of the day; I picked this radio up locally for $10 --
    as is, I didn't even have to clean it. Pretty cool looking radio. I
    don't see a model number anywhere on the original back cover, or on the
    back of the metal chassis. I suppose I'll have to take it apart to find
    out.

    I normally would not plug in a non-restored radio, but the guy selling
    it put on the tag "lights up but no sound"... for $10, I took a chance
    and plugged it in. I'll be darned, it fired right up and worked fine as
    soon as the tubes warmed up. Very minimal hum; I expected a lot worse
    with presumably original capacitors.

    I've never dealt with an FM radio before, but I noticed that the radio
    is silent when the dial is switched to "FM". I did not try to plug a
    source into the "Phono" input. Does anyone have a clue why the FM dial
    would be silent? Perhaps it only will work if I hook an external FM
    antenna onto the jacks in the back?

    Otherwise, the AM radio is working "awesome". I have it tuned into 650
    AM from Nashville right now; it's coming in loud and clear in Eastern
    Ohio (just after 11 PM EST). The body cabinets need nothing, aside from
    the loose dial glass that rattles a bit. I'll probably end up doing the capacitors either way, when I fork over the motivation.

    Photos:

    Body: https://postimg.cc/fVnGMS0Q
    Lighted dial: https://postimg.cc/K3mKX8rP

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  • From pfjw@aol.com@21:1/5 to All on Fri Apr 22 03:03:03 2022
    Is the oscillator tube a 19T8 or a 6AQ8? Either of those tubes is both touchy and very prone to Lazy Cathode syndrome - where they are on and lit, but not carrying any signal. Start there.

    Peter Wieck
    Melrose Park, PA

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  • From pfjw@aol.com@21:1/5 to pf...@aol.com on Fri Apr 22 06:56:47 2022
    On Friday, April 22, 2022 at 6:03:04 AM UTC-4, pf...@aol.com wrote:
    Is the oscillator tube a 19T8 or a 6AQ8? Either of those tubes is both touchy and very prone to Lazy Cathode syndrome - where they are on and lit, but not carrying any signal. Start there.

    Peter Wieck
    Melrose Park, PA

    And, of course, the same principles would apply to whatever oscillator tube was used on the FM side - not just those two.

    Peter Wieck
    Melrose Park, PA

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