1941 STROMBERG CARLSON model 542 restoration and repair PART 2

This lovely old Stromberg Carlson radio is a true survivor, having been in the same family since new. In this video I finish off the electrical restoration, give the cabinet a light makeover and put it all together.

[@stephencopeland238]

What a gorgeous set following a wonderful electronic and chassis restoration. I could sit and watch this set over any television all day long! Thankyou so very much for taking the time to video and upload - I really appreciated it

[@Donno308]

Thanks Stephen. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@domtrimboli6238]

Hi Don, great to see part two completed and another great looking radio restored. These radios are a wonderful part of History and you have once again your workmanship and attention to detail will definitely see last for years to come.Great work again and keep on bringing history back to life. Cheers Dom.👍👍🙏

[@Donno308]

Cheers Dom. Yes, I particularly enjoyed this one, especially as I know the owner and it has been in his family since new.

[@maryrafuse3851]

Don, I forgot to mention a fantastic Canadian you might enjoy watching when you are not hard at work. Mr. Carlson's Lab. The gentleman is Paul Carlson and he like you knows his stuff. You are all far more entertaining than TV. All the best.

[@Donno308]

Hi Mary, I have been watching Mr. Carlson's Lab or ages! He really knows his stuff and has an amazing array of test equipment - the exact opposite of me! I never realized he was Canadian though. I'm not that good at picking accents but I should have known! Cheers

[@retro_tech]

Fantastic job again, Don! Beautiful radio. It's spectacular to see that it's still in such a good condition after all these years.

[@Donno308]

Thanks Kristof. I did enjoy this one, despite a few hiccups. It belongs to a work colleague and was his father-in-law's. Sadly father-in-law passed away while I was working on the radio but I'm told he was pleased to hear that it was being restored. I especially like it when I know a radio's history or have a personal connection with it. Cheers

[@Theoobovril]

Great work, Don, much enjoyed watching the videos on the repairs to this old valve radio.

[@Donno308]

Cheers! Glad you enjoyed it. I especially like the older radios. They're so well-built and easy to work on.

[@2packs4sure]

Nice job !! That's a big beautiful impressive beast for a 5 tube... Love that dial !!

[@donhall2759]

Nice old radio. How lucky that the plastic dial trim (Tennite? Bakelite?) hasn't distorted with time. I especially liked your less-is-more approach to the cabinet finish. As they say, they're only original once. Cheers!

[@Donno308]

Thanks Don. Yes, I wouldn't want to over-restore this one. Nice to get a cabinet in this condition. Often you have little choice but to strip it all off. Cheers

[@buddyhoover57]

Very nice work!

[@DavidTipton101]

Hi Don, Wow... I haven't heard of Marveer for years, my Mum used to use it all the time. I haven't seen that type of IF can before, interesting design. How many times do we do something and think 'nailed it!' only to find we, in your case, left the nut off 😄 Great job Don and the radio looks fantastic 👍🙂

[@Donno308]

My wife put me on to the Marveer. She still uses it. I was impressed with the results. Yes, that nut on the pot AND that flywheel on the tuning spindle! I think I'm losing the plot! I somehow feel that it's not performing as well as before the alignment. Seems to lack sensitivity. Wondering if I stuffed something up.

[@stevehead365]

Great restoration, it's quite a looker. Maybe I could find room for one boat anchor in my place, could be a slippery slope.

[@Donno308]

She does look good, especially for an 80 year old, but be warned: it is a VERY slippery slope!

[@jamesschaffner4916]

Thank you Don for another fine restoration...You are not just fixing a radio, you are preserving a piece of history...always a pleasure to watch...

[@Donno308]

Thanks James. Yes, I think that's what it's all about. These radios come from an era when things were built to last and it's always a pleasure to preserve them for the future.

[@rádiosantigos1958]

A very well done restoration and presentation of it. Congrats and thanks for sharing it.

[@Donno308]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.

[@steelcity321pb6]

A super restoration job Don. As you know I hold you in great esteem as a radio service tech. Great work: thank you for sharing. Best regards, Phil.

[@Donno308]

Cheers Phil. Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@radio-ged4626]

Turned out great after all that effort. Liked the home made plastic trimming tool! 😊

[@Donno308]

Hi. Yes, you sometimes have to improvise. I've never seen an IF transformer like that before. Cheers

[@maryrafuse3851]

Don, it is great following you in Nova Scotia Canada. Interesting and wonderful about Stromberg Carlson being Australian in Australia. How my husband and I would love to visit Australia one day. I think we have a natural fascination with our Commonwealth brothers & sisters. In Canada both Marconi and RCA had their own complete line of Canadian built radio's. I wonder if any Canadian capacitors or Rogers tubes found their way to Australia? Perhaps you can be on the lookout for them? The radio you are working on is a real beauty. Canada & Australia have much in common and have supported Britain through 2 World Wars. On occasion I wonder about British appreciation or giving of credit to both our countries. Keep up your good work Don, we have also watched David Tipton another great fellow from the Country that is also a Continent. Now how cool is that? We are sending all kinds of good thoughts from the True North Strong & Free, Canada.

[@Donno308]

Hi again Mary. I hope you and your husband make it over here. I'm sure you would like it. Yes, there are so many parallels between Canada and Australia, including a sometimes troubled relationship with Britain. I am a direct descendant of a British convict who was sent to Australia in the 1830's. My father fought in the first world war under the British flag. I'm guessing that you may also be getting a bit tired of American culture taking over your own. I learned a lot from David Tipton's videos (and still do). He's always a step or two ahead of me in knowledge and experience and he's been very helpful with parts and advice and encouraging with my channel. Of course he lives a few thousand kilometers away on the other side of Australia so we've never met in person. By the way, I'm also on Instagram: @roadtripsandradios where I also post some travel photos of Australia. We have an old converted bus and like to travel around in it when we can. My wife and I both still work full time, although I feel we are approaching retirement. Anyway, great chatting with you. Please keep in touch. Cheers

[@user-dm4nk6gh3b]

Очень красивая вещь.

[@Donno308]

Большое спасибо

[@terryblackman6217]

Another cracking job Don. Not just a radio but a lovely piece of furniture. Watching the earlier part of this video where you had problems with this radio, I have a transistor radio that I have owned for two years, when it's tilted back it stops working. Put it back upright and it's fine. I have spent hours trying to find the fault with no luck. Any how very enjoyable video and thank you for sharing.

[@Donno308]

Hi Terry. That transistor sounds intriguing. Could be a hairline crack in the pcb that you may never find. Anyway, glad you enjoyed the video.

[@michaelmacdonald3408]

Most radio restore people would say that but i like dial so i am going to look at the front.

[@6A8G]

I have a similar type of IF transformer in one of my Radios only they were mounted in a horizontal plane. One of the flyleads strayed over to the chassis screw & grounded the plate of the IF valve. I had to desolder, slip a small piece of heatshrink then re-solder.

[@Donno308]

Yikes! That would have been "entertaining"! Lucky it didn't cook the power supply!

[@jimburns348]

Ya dun good on dis one Donny boy. Looks and sounds great. I can’t tell ya bout all the times I got ahead of myself and had to do a restart. Keep ‘em coming. 😊😊

[@Donno308]

Hi Jim, Yes this one caught me by surprise and I could have kicked myself! Especially as it isn't my radio. I guess I've been lucky so far. I don't know at the start of each video if I'll be able to fix the radio and sooner or later I guess I'll come across one I can't fix. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Cheers

[@leif.Jakobsson]

Thanks Don! Nice work on a nice Radio, it turned out really good.

[@Donno308]

Thanks Leif. I was happy with it. A nice piece of history, for sure.

[@tubeDude48]

Also see: Jim Burns. He really tares them down, and he's a funny guy that knows his stuff. -- Nice job, Don!

[@maartenschapendonk6345]

Great fun to watch. Thank you

[@Donno308]

Thanks Maarten. Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers

[@eduliss1]

Ha quedado genial y suena de lujo, fantástico trabajo Don

[@Donno308]

muchas gracias. Resultó muy bien. Espero que el dueño sea feliz.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

I always like seeing tools made for the job. Great one, and fantastic result 👍

[@Donno308]

Cheers Manuel. With these old radios you often have to make it up as you go, as you would know. It seems difficult to buy good alignment tools anyway.

[@jeffbrooks7246]

Very nice

[@Donno308]

Thanks

[@superhet7281]

Nice work, Don! Beautiful cabinet, beautiful dial, but only five tubes? Very basic radio for such a large attractive cabinet and dial. But it sounds great! And the new grille cloth looks perfect.

[@Donno308]

Hi Super Het, This 5 valve design is typical of Australian radios from the late '30's onwards although you sometimes see a 6 valve version with an added RF stage. The design worked well in most locations with plenty of high powered transmitters around. Radios designed for country or rural areas often had the added RF stage plus often an extra IF stage but were nearly always battery operated, usually using a vibrator setup. The 6V6 output tube delivers pretty good sound when combined with a 12" speaker in a big cabinet. I was lucky to get that grille cloth - I find it difficult to buy good grille cloth locally and postage from overseas takes forever! Anyway, thanks for your interest! Cheers

[@mackfisher4487]

She turned out nice Don

[@Donno308]

Cheers Mack. A pity to have to give it back to the owner!

[@user-yv3nu3np5k]

Belleza de receptora 👏👏

[@Donno308]

Thank you!

[@richb419]

hi Don, a little tip, I have a needle mounted on a piece of dowel rod, place a nut on the needle place the point on the flat on the threaded part of the screw then just spin the nut onto the thread. Rich from across the pond

[@Donno308]

Cheers Rich. That seems like a pretty cool idea. I'm going to try that!

[@daleburrell6273]

...that's a real good idea- provided that the screw is fixed-(!)

[@electrosoundaust]

Marveer, what a blast from the past. How old is the glass bottle? Kiwi was taken over by Johnson cleaning many years ago and they certainly don't manufacture in Chadstone anymore. In fact Kiwi shoe polish is made in Indonesia. O'Çedar is still around and they make it in Australia with an office in South Melbourne. The radio has come up very nicely, and as David Tipton say's I haven't seen those type of I.F. can either. I forget to put parts on in the right order and have to disassemble all the time. I put a screw down then 30 seconds later have to spend 5 minutes looking for it! We must be getting old or something!!! You can pickup very cheap frequency counters. Manuel of Electronics Old and New did a review on one recently. I'm waiting on mine. I had one of those black tripods! I wore it out and bought a Manfrotto that I'm still using 40 years on.

[@Donno308]

Hi Andrew, I just went and checked my Kiwi boot polish and, sure enough, it has the Johnson logo and is made in Indonesia. Still good boot polish though and useful on Bakelite when all else fails. I was coming down with the flu when I did this video and my head was all over the place, but forgetting that flywheel and then failing to realise that I couldn't put the nut on that pot through the whole process - well let's just say I cut out a lot of video. I wasn't happy! Someone suggested I check out the connection to the internal shielding around the input lead on the frequency counter. Apparently it was an issue with this model. So I'll do that, Anyway, after the trouble I had this time, I bought myself a Rigol DG1022 signal generator on ebay. It was only $250 and, when I learn to drive it, will probably save me a lot of grief. At least I won't have to be checking the output frequency all the time. I will miss my old Leader though - it's such a nice old thing. I also broke my tripod during this video - that was the broken one that you spotted. I don't even remember how long I've had it but the whole top piece snapped off. I finished the video using a Hanimex tripod that I keep in the bus for occasional use when on holidays but it's very lightweight & plasticy & prone to camera shake so I'll be looking for something else. AND finally my microphone started playing up and I lost a lot of audio. Lucky I was able to cobble together a video that more or less worked! So I'm looking for a new microphone and tossing up between a RODE Lavalier II and a RODE VideoMic Go II which is a directional mike. Any suggestions? I notice your audio is always very good. Cheers

[@electrosoundaust]

/@@Donno308 Hi Don, Kiwi, Nugget, I'm sure there were other brands with less than politically correct names too! Kiwi went international many years ago. There's a very early ad with a pair of boys polishing stacks of shoes, at the end the Kiwi is annimated and the the word Kiwi comes out it's mouth. Does "Gilly Stephenson's" polish of Mundaring still exist? I bought a tin when I was over about 20 years ago. I remember making polish at school (science class maybe). It was very simple to make and lasted years. The Leader signal generators of that era seem bullet proof. I had mine since I was maybe 20 years old. I gave it to a friend who also dabbles in electronics and it's still going strong. The Uni-T works well but is very fiddly to use. The more "modern" Leader I currently have works great, but isn't as flexible as the Rigol's Siglent's etc. $250 is a great price. Leader still exist and still make sig gens! The big advantage of the old ones is they are analogue, so don't get rid of it! Because I do video for other things my setup is rather complicated. However, I've used the Rode Wireless Go since it was released quite a few years ago. The batteries are getting tired so I'll be getting a set of wireless Go II's in a few weeks, especially now they have a case with built in battery. These are are also good as they record regardless, so are a good backup for sound. I have a Lavalier II that get's plugged into the wireless go. The bench sound is currently one of my two Rode NTG-2 shotgun mics into a Yamaha mixer. Everything was unballanced on my old mixer so I need some new longer cables to use the other mic. For voice overs I have a Rode NT-2. A couple of Shure SM58's and maybe 5 working SM58 vocal mics! I have a Rode VideoMic left over from my teaching days that I doubt I'll ever need again. It's not wireless, but it works OK. I can send it over if you like.

[@Donno308]

@@electrosoundaust Hi Andrew, I have a couple of tins of Gilly Stephenson's wax that I have been using for some time now. I used to restore furniture as a hobby and used it quite a bit. I think they're still in business. Mundaring is just 10 minutes up the hill from my place in Bellevue. Wow you do have a complicated setup! I started out very simple and really, things have stayed that way. When I started fixing radios as a hobby I didn't expect it to last. I guess I have a bit of a history of getting very involved with something only to get sick of it a year or so later and move on. Until now I have bought only what I really needed when I needed it. The same applied with the KZbin videos. I'm still using my old iphone 8 for all the videos and I use my work iphone 8 if I need a second camera. It's tedious though, transferring all the files etc. I've been using a PowerDeWise lavalier mic for the last 6 months or so and its just ok I guess. So you can see that "Don's Old Radio Shed" is a two bob shoestring operation. Not through lack of funds but due to my unwillingness to make a commitment. What took me by surprise was the number of genuinely good people I have met, both virtually and in person as a result. yourself included. As a result I'm now thinking that I'll probably continue to do this for the foreseeable future. It does get frustrating though, working with minimal equipment and upgrading my audio seems like a good place to start. If you are willing to part with your Rode VideoMic I would really appreciate it. If you prefer, you can email me at: [e-mail] to sort out the details. Of course I would pay for postage. I will probably also buy the Rode Lavalier II for when I'm moving around more, or outside and use the VideoMic over the bench. Thanks again for your generous offer of the mic. Cheers

[@erikdenhouter]

Hi Don, for your dodgy frequency counter, please have a look inside that thing, and check if the metal screening around the input print behind the BNC connectors are not shorting out things, or have bad connections to ground. There are complains about that model in that direction (as I have encountered), although they were not the Chinese model as you seem to have. And use the correct function for your measurement, I saw you (at 48:45 ) set it on function 2, but that is for 2MHz - 50Mhz (channel A). Function 3 is for 100Hz - 2MHz (channel A), so for RF and IF MW. When you measure outside these parameters you get strange results too. Sensitivity on function 3 should be 120mV rms

[@Donno308]

Hi Erik. Thanks for the tip re the metal screening around the input. I'll open it up & have a look. You're right - I should have been using Function 3 - don't know what I was thinking at that time. When I bought it (on eBay) I ordered the normal (English) one. The seller contacted me to say they were out of English labelled units but could supply one with Chinese labels. He assured me they were otherwise exactly the same.

[@erikdenhouter]

​@@Donno308 Not your fault. The function switch is just counter intuitive. It has been taken over from a previous model (VC2000) by which the inputs A and B were interchanged, but they did not adopt that on the function switch. By that you need function 3 & 2 on input A and function 1 on input B. Always confusing me.

[@Donno308]

@@erikdenhouter That makes sense. I don't have much faith in these Chinese devices. Anyway I have ordered a Rigol DG1022 signal generator so I won't be so reliant on the frequency counter. I still like my old Leader sig gen but it can be frustrating at times. You'll probably see the Rigol in a future video. I think it's the same as the one Manuel Caldeira (Electronics Old and New) uses.

[@erikdenhouter]

@@Donno308 Yessss, I have seen that model at Manuel Caldeira. Then you are out of the woods 👍

[@mackfisher4487]

The model 542 has so much space between components, talk about point to point wiring.

[@Donno308]

Yes it does! I guess they used the same chassis for other more complex models. At least it makes it easy to work on.

[@zx8401ztv]

Well what a difference :-D. Sorry my comments are crap, im not feeling too well today

[@Donno308]

Hi Harvey. That makes 2 of us! The end of the video is pretty crap because I've got a bad case of the flu and basically couldn't be f*cked re-doing it. I've been off work since Friday & finished editing the video to pass the time. Anyway, hope you're feeling better soon.

[@zx8401ztv]

@@Donno308 I think we both need a nice body, i don't think i have a passport to come to australia and annoy the young beach ladys :-D

[@zx8401ztv]

Imagination is fun :-D

[@Donno308]

@@zx8401ztv Yes it would certainly do me good!

[@Donno308]

@@zx8401ztv Next best thing I guess...