Repair of an early '30's GE model M-40 TRF tube radio (made by RCA)

[@teacfan1080]

Nice radio with big 'ol tubes in that baby. Surprising after that amount of time those tubes still work great.

[@AMStationEngineer]

Many thanks, Bryan, for having us accompany you on this adventure into the 1930's. In many ways, even when factoring in the Great Depression, better days than those of the present. Stay healthy, everyone!

[@christophercristiano4579]

Instablaster

[@heath7766]

I like these TRF sets, they are very unusual.

[@byrnejr]

I appreciate you taking my mind off all the corona virus stuff . Nice video

[@daleburrell6273]

WORRYING ABOUT SOMETHING NEVER HELPS-!!!

[@AMStationEngineer]

@Kevin Byrne, We'll get through this, and I believe that we will also be more united, and strengthened by the experience of having done so. Stay well!!

[@daleburrell6273]

@@AMStationEngineer I HAVE MY OWN THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT- AND I SUSPECT THAT IT WOULD BE BETTER IF I KEPT THEM TO MYSELF-!!!

[@RODALCO2007]

Great repair Bryan, enjoyed this video. Thanks for posting.

[@wacoflyer]

Excellent work on this ancient trf set Bryan!

[@UDX-340]

I enjoyed this repair, thanks .

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

Modern means of production are beautiful

[@ingussilins6330]

Good repair and good sound from TRF circuit ( without superhet whistles, birding, hiss ).

[@arthureverett8220]

Wow!!!! Another curtain burner!!!!

[@daleburrell6273]

3:48...there's a "State Farm Insurance" office at that address now(!)

[@homotorsports]

I lived not to far from there in 86 before moving to New Haven..I finally moved back to Long Island..I still head up there to go to Zuppardi`s and Jimmies...I wonder what the date was on it...It could have been from the time when West Haven was jumping with Savin Rock Amusement Park...

[@gerardcarriera7052]

RCA made radios for GE until the Sherman Antitrust act was enacted I believe in 1933. That's a decent performer for a simple primitive TRF set. I heard WOAI from San Antonio, TX. Decent distance from your location.

[@5roundsrapid263]

I grew up in the same area, and WOAI was a very common station at night. However, that was with a modern tuner.

[@cassvirgillo3395]

Hello rtvpn, Good repair on the Tuned Radio Frequency radio. I happen to learn your name, which I will not reveal here, from a video that was 4 or 5 years old. The person was dismantling his electronics shop. I knew it wasn't radiotvphononut, just teasing. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Take care, C.

[@JerryEricsson]

I had a metal case radio like that years ago, we had it in the Kitchen on the counter for mom's radio. The problem was, if you touched the radio and the fridge or range you got a zap, bad one at that, much worse then the simple static shock we all are used to.

[@JerryEricsson]

Extremely neat radio, I am looking for a design for a cabinet to build my wifi radio set into , this may well be the winner perhaps a bit smaller but the concept is there!

[@roberthorseman7432]

That's got very good selectivity.

[@douro20]

A good replacement for the cardboard would be a sheet of Mylar.

[@a.fritzbecker8986]

I was thinking water-pump gasket paper might work in place of the fish paper they likely used.

[@arthureverett8220]

Looks like the cabinet was professionally overhauled and repainted

[@Wenlocktvdx]

A well designed TRF can be a very good performer, in contrast I have two pocket AM radios that have a single tuned stage. They are sensitive enough but you keep hearing two or more stations unless you live in the deep country.

[@tommyn.j3628]

I love this without glaas dial

[@davidhamm5626]

Another good video.I end up upgrading or replacing my computer s about every 3 years, and I still end up a generation behind .I like the feet you used, where did you find them?

[@jp040759]

WOW It didn't register that 1930 radio is just around the corner of hitting the century mark. Damn, Y2K was 20 years ago. It just does seem real.

[@a.fritzbecker8986]

Among the G.E models the letter ahead of it denotes the model year, a letter "M" means it's a 1934-35 model, I'm not sure if dates codes were in use that far back, at least none that would make sense outside of the manufacturers. The reason RCA manufactured radios for G.E during this period was because of an anti trust judgement against RCA in or around 1930. Prior to RCA buying out Victor in 1929, all of it's sets were manufactured by G.E or Westinghouse, but mostly G.E, RCA was basically a patent pool and marketing organization for the other two. When RCA planned to buy out The Victor Talking Machine Co., G.E and Westinghouse supplied the capital, RCA also got involved with helping General Motors set up their own radio manufacturing company for 1930. Well that was a bridge too far for the anti trust division, so as a result of those actions, plus complaints by competing manufacturers regarding patent licenses, the courts ruled that all four companies had formed a radio manufacturing cartel, and certain penalties, and actions were ordered. So for a certain number of years, until 1935-36 or so, RCA had to manufacture sets for G.E, and Westinghouse, in the U.S market. With regard to these sets, from what I was reading it is NOT a good idea to employ small value electrolytics in the power supplies of these early sets, yes they are small, and can take the same or more DC voltage, but no, they can not take the ripple current. I have read that if you have something like a Philco 20, or a Radiola 18 or 60, replace the paper filter caps with polyester film caps, if you try using 2 or 3 uf, 450 vdc electrolytics in there they can heat internally, and short out. Mouser sells 4-5 uf film caps for a relatively inexpensive price, Panasonic brand I think, whilst they cost more then electrolytics of the same value, and are larger, ripple current isn't an issue, and they never dry out.

[@a.fritzbecker8986]

Actually there is another way around, if you can't find, or don't want to spend extra on non polarized film caps. What you do is take two 10 uf caps and connect them in series, theoretically you could also use lower voltage caps but I wouldn't bother given the nominal difference in cost verses the 200-250 volt ones. You might be able to go up in capacitance a little, but in this case they are using a #37 as a rectifier tube so you would want to stay withing 20% of the originals. This is just personal preference of course, but I have taken to the habit of re stuffing the caps in pre war sets that are all original, as well as the more collectable or unusual post war ones. This is strictly for esthetics, and has nothing to do with functionality of course. I may even start making reproduction cardboard tubes for some sets, sometimes old wire hangers for dry cleaners have tubing about the right size. I hate the looks of those yellow polyester film caps in old radios, why can't they use brown or black plastic instead?

[@tarstarkusz]

If you want to stretch out the computer a bit longer, you can download a "live" Linux distro that can boot off of a USB thumb-drive. There are many different ones around that are made specifically for older computers. Just about all of them are free and a 32gb thumb drive can be had for under $20. Just something to consider. Most of them come with accessibility options too, if you're worried about that.

[@a587g]

I had the RCA version. Performance was terrible, far worse than yours, though I never spent much time trying to make it play better. The RCA has an awesome Deco grill. Very cool design. I believe the paint on yours is original, looks exactly as mine did.

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Interesting design! Love it. They didn't put dust caps over the voice coil back then?

[@nevellgreenough404]

In that era, most speakers had a cardboard spider in the center. A screw and spacer fastened the spider to the magnet. This allowed adjustment of the voice-coil's centering during manufacture. This is also useful today to fix a rubbing voice coil.

[@markmarkofkane8167]

@@nevellgreenough404 thanks for the information!!!

[@chrisa2735-h3z]

GE made by rca? How ironic Considering RCA got taken over by GE in the 80s lol

[@comput3rman77]

RCA was subsidiary owned by GE that was split off in the 30's due to Anti-Trust regulations.

[@pcno2832]

By the time my 1988 GE TV was made, Thomson (which had been a UK subsidiary of GE before it relocated to France) had bough both of them and the CTC 136 RCA chassis had replaced all the native GE designs. Big business is sometimes like a big, incestual soap opera.

[@waltschannel7465]

GE and RCA were both absorbed by Thompson in the 1980s.

[@radiotvphononut]

@@pcno2832 My TV is a 19" GE from 1989 and it uses a CTC136 chassis. It's a remote set with a green channel on-screen display. The main trouble those gave were bad solder connections inside the MTT tuner module. The same chassis was used in some non-remote electronically tuned versions and a version with regular mechanical tuners.

[@AMStationEngineer]

@Walt's Channel; www.lancasterhistory.org/finding-aids/rca-thomson-consumer-electronics-lancaster-plant-records-1942-1997/ Then fast-forward a few years ahead: lancasteronline.com/news/rca-pioneers-remember-making-the-first-color-tv-tube/article_2d5e6fb1-6c7d-55ce-82b8-255fe3c15497.html They kept both, "coming and going" :-p

[@stevexray6253]

TROUBLE is the nature of anything with Windows on it. My dad started messing with computers when he retired about 23 years ago and he's still fighting them and trying to make them do what they are supposed to be made to do.

[@christo930]

I sent you an email telling you about a source of very cheap 12v alkaline batteries that could be used to power a farm radio. I'm just wondering if you got it. IIRC, it's like $5 for 20 of them.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

I too, have a messy workbench

[@fredfabris7187]

670 AM, is that Chicago?

[@5roundsrapid263]

Probably. All the Chicago 50KW stations easily reach the Gulf Coast at night.

[@ChadQuick270W]

5Rounds Rapid they do indeed. Most of them come in real good in Louisville Kentucky as well. I often listen to 720 WGN as it’s not the same old syndicated garbage that’s on most AM stations overnight.

[@fredfabris7187]

Cranking them out

[@X.Aidan2005]

Man! What kind of radio is this?

[@arthureverett8220]

Prehistoric capacitors from the Jurassic era

[@rogertyler3237]

I'm in the midst of building A Bluetooth speaker I'm gonna make A video on it. ThT's all those Old Raidio's are good for. Cause Half thevtime youbCan't get parts for them. But you can still play that Classic Country Through the Bluetooth speaker Giving nastalgic look & sound to the old Raidio Cabinet.

[@scharkalvin]

Wow, what a cheap set, not even a superhet, and RCA had the patent on that. And why the 37 as a rectifier? Could have used a type 1V. Could also leave filaments in series and use a 24-28 volt transformer. Looking at the replacement caps vs the originals reminds me of the movie 'This Island Earth'.

[@jeffking291]

Cool. 📻🙂

[@ghsgtnayhmd4792]

You couldn't just use a generic on/off volume potentiometer?

[@arthureverett8220]

Another curtain burner Ballast tubes are hand burners!!!!!

[@russredfern167]

That's me ,old and wore out.

[@ThejasonJaw5442]

Like the vintage Radio, didn't all radio's come in a wooden cabinet

[@goldenboy5500]

where is there in this united states would you find DC

[@rogertyler3237]

Wsm's the only station that's good

[@robertgaines-tulsa]

It sounds like your video camera needs to be replaced. I mean, it is old. Most video encoders are optimized for the H264 video codec. If your camera still uses something like motion JPEG, it will continue to be harder for computers to support it as time goes on. A new camera should be cheaper than a new computer anyway especially these days.

[@vincea3037]

Put it up for sale!

[@force311999]

seams like this could be made in to a battery set easy ????????????????????????

[@MarksKicksOnRoute66]

Lol did you watch the video? It started that way ac or DC.