Repair Of a 1937 GE F-63 Tube Radio

Got this rough pre war radio online. Figured i'd take a chance on it. After very little work it powered right up and worked without a problem. The cabinet needed some work. After doing some veneer re gluing and some refinishing work. it looks much better.

[@DoRC]

Looks awesome! I think a couple original style speaker mount screws would finish it off nicely.

[@zacharyradford1708]

Great job! Looks great! Radio to be proud of. Love the Art Deco look of it.

[@jackallen6261]

WOW! This is radio is amazing! It looks amazing, and sounds really nice! 1937, that is truly amazing! Thanks for sharing!

[@RestoreOldRadios]

Wonderful job on the electrical repairs and the cabinet looks spectacular too after you worked your magic. Best, Don

[@45AMT]

Hey Don Thanks for commenting and checking out my video. I enjoyed this restore. It was a fun project! Take care Jason

[@Radiowild]

Nice find! Radio looks great too after your work!

[@TerryMcKean]

Definitely...

[@Boozion]

Nice job on the cabinet. Sounds really good with great dx'ing. 😊

[@chetpomeroy1399]

Pretty good quality for such a low-end, Depression-era receiver! Looks showroom fresh!

[@dynamic881964]

Nice job on a nice radio, very cool design !

[@overspray5281]

This old radio predicted the wifi symbol perfectly

[@Rainbow__cookie]

Looks more like the face north logo

[@nor4277]

What a nice job it looks good and sounds good .I would love to buy it,I love old tube radios

[@radio-ged4626]

Good looking finish on the cabinet after the refurbishment.

[@blitzroehre1807]

Fantastic job and what an eye catcher! Thank you for sharing.

[@mheermance]

Those old wood case tube radios have such a great sound for an AM radio.

[@7c3c72602f7054696b]

Neat looking radio, thanks for sharing.

[@LarryDeSilva64]

I bought an Air King Radio Model 252 Made in 1937 it was in pretty good shape. I had to replace the power cord it had been cut off and the only tube that was open was an M49AG Ballist tube so far impossible to find. I am amazed that all you did was just replace the cord and it works. Thanks for sharing

[@45AMT]

I was pretty surprised too! Most of the old power cords back then were made out of rubber. Most likely it was cut off because it was in bad shape or an issue with the radio. Good luck on the Air King

[@wacoflyer]

Nice work and nice radio! I use similar methods. For the cabinet, the 2 Phillips screws should be replaced with slotted brass screws. Phillips screws weren't used during that period.

[@johnyoung4039]

It looks great! My mom and dad was born in 1937.

[@TheGuitologist]

This is a nice radio. I'd call this a restoration.

[@davidharmon8745]

Great videos.keep them coming.

[@majordisappointment8692]

Nice job great radio does sound nice for something that old.

[@TerryMcKean]

Awesome restore... thanks for sharing. :-)

[@cheezervvvvv]

Very cool, nice work.

[@THOMMGB]

I'm glad to see you got this radio working again. Nice job on the cabinet. It looks really nice! I've got a GE F-70, seven tube, three band radio that was one step up from your F-63. Your radio is much more collectable, however. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks to me like you've got a 25 Hz transformer. That thing is massive! It should run very cool, though. Regards, Tom

[@45AMT]

Thank You! Power Rating is 25-60 Cycles on the label Inside. No problems with it running. Take care.

[@mikepasko7493]

NICE JOB ON EVERYTHING..

[@Rebel9668]

Good Grief, lol, I live 32 miles from Louisville and can't pick up WHAS that good!

[@45AMT]

LOL!

[@saarike]

Great work! Nice vid.

[@rohnkd4hct260]

overseas aircraft still use 8 , 9 and 11 MHz bands but they are SSB. And FYI when police used the band most cars used receivers only.

[@zzzdogutube]

it is a beauty.. thanks

[@Christopher-re2hl]

I wish there was a way to protect the radio against shorted capacitors its fun tracing shorted or open capacitors this way you can use it with the original parts until it needs problem tracing. I don't think a line fuse is good enough protection from damaging an output tube or power supply. I know they will fail soon due to secondary infant mortality but sometimes they will surprise you

[@jimmiller6933]

In the early days of police radio dispatch the dispatch radio was just like a am broadcast transmitter but tuned to around 1700khz and the radios in the police cars were designed to be able to tune above the broadcast band. The dispatcher would just broadcast the calls to any car that could respond and there was no 2 way transmission. That is why you often see older broadcast receivers have the word police just above the broadcast band.

[@45AMT]

That was along time ago.

[@jimmiller6933]

That was a very long time ago. It is the reason some radios made before WW2 had police at the top end of the dial. (actually there are now stations up as high as 1690 and radios who's dial stopped at 1600 might not pick those up but the old radios with the police frequency range might be able to.)

[@jimsteele9261]

@@jimmiller6933: As a kid, we used to adjust the trimmer on the osc section of the tuning capacitor to shift the whole AM range up. There weren't any AM stations there yet and the police calls were long gone, but we could get the 160 meter ham band.

[@jimmiller6933]

@@jimsteele9261 Yes as long as they were using am you could probably do that

[@k9uw]

My understanding was that police cars monitored a dispatcher for messages. When they got a message intended for them that required a reply they drove to the nearest "Police Call Box", a locked metal box mounted on a pole that contained a phone directly wired back to Police HQ.

[@pcno2832]

24:57 "128 South, before Trapello Road" .. That's the Boston area (Lexington, Belmont, Waltham), probably WBZ. Nice radio with beautiful sound; too bad there is so little music on AM these days.

[@erikj.2066]

Definitely WBZ. They're a 50K Watt unlimited clear channel. The nighttime talk shows do have people calling in from around the country who are listening on radios.

[@olradguy]

A rub on glue stick works good to hold the grill cloth in place too.

[@arthureverett8220]

You can get grill cloth at Jo Annes fabric stores

[@jimmiller6933]

Some of those old GE radios really had a great sound for an am radio. Only station I can pick up on AM that plays music for English speaking folks is 770 KAAM out of Dallas. It comes in well here in Waco during the daytime until they switch to night power at sundown. Really great station that plays oldies from 50s=70s. 10KW daytime but I dont know if it is directional or not.

[@Rev22-21]

A fellow Wacoan saying hello. Will post a question for this fellow about alignment and curious about response. Just found this and several other old radio rebuild channels. Have a collection and about to dive in myself. Trying to learn all I can before I do it though.

[@jimmiller6933]

Sadly they don't play music anymore on KAAM

[@forjimmykimmel9269]

I saw the same model in good condition and working on EBay, its still there right now

[@tailsdollblack9340]

ive been recently restoring a radio. ive got the set going but ive got no sound. i suspect the audio transformer might be shot . it was in a sorry state when i got it so i dunno plz help

[@jerrycarriera8648]

That's strange that it uses an 80 for a rectifier and a 42 for an output tube. By 1937, a 5Y4 or 5Z4 was common for a rectifer and a 6F6 was common for an output tube. You are correct GE made good radios until about the mid 50's and then it was downhill with the cost cutting. Silver mica disease became a huge problem with their IF cans.

[@45AMT]

Yep I've worked on plenty of those 50's GE sets with those crappy IF cans

[@vicmabus1532]

Nice!

[@HDXFH]

Nice old radio

[@nunyabizness199]

Those tubes sure looked awfully clean, I wonder if they were changed or cleaned before you got it...

[@Rev22-21]

Did you ever do an alignment on this set? Do you have any videos demonstrating the IF, DIAL and or RF alignments? I know Mr. Carlson's Lab (?)channel does, but like a different take on a complete run through.

[@JohnDoe-uq3mx]

shango066 kinda sent me here with his latest video. these here are some great videos.

[@45AMT]

Thank you welcome to the channel. Thanks Shango!

[@rogertyler3237]

I Live Uphere In Minnesota & I Pick Up WSM Nashville.

[@sirmugman]

just goes to show that even though they were cheap and cheerful they lasted, it sounds great mind you, it hasn't been left to rot or bake in the sun/dersert/middle of nowere, with rat and mouse and gods knows whatelse like shango066's but it sounds great

[@vetar3372]

Hold on, why is the speaker to the right and the dail to the left?

[@danielt.8573]

I miss the time of wooden radios and televisions.

[@WB8MHE]

Nice job, nice radio. Is here any markings on that chassis? That very large power transformer looks like it was made for use on 25 cps power lines. In 337there were still a few low frequency and DC power utilities around. 60 cps became standardized after WWII. .............Dick

[@45AMT]

Rating is 25-60 Cycles on the label Inside. No problems with it running.

[@Greg-et2dp]

You can still hear the air band on shortwave

[@craneoperator4]

nice...1937 low end still made better than todays junk

[@jeffreypetchharrison4363]

say that again i have 1932 philco works fine its lasted longer than my mum and dad .. jeff

[@wdmm94]

I like the work you are doing and think you have a neat channel. This is not negative criticism but have you thought about keeping the chassis look "older looking" by '"re-stuffing" the old looking or original brand caps etc?

[@45AMT]

I don't re-stuff the old caps. But i do leave them in place so if later i want to or another future owner wants to they're there to do that. Thanks for the question and for checking out my small part of KZbin.

[@BluegrassPossum]

Were the two wires coming out the back (Yellow & Black/Brown) for antenna?

[@45AMT]

Yes

[@jimmiller6933]

True about early police dispatch before the days that they had 2 way radios in the police cars.

[@Kennynva]

They make a one step plastic headlight cleaner now, from Turtle wax...and it works good..

[@tailsdollblack9340]

wish the 30s tube radio i came across even did this sort of thing . of course the sales guy told it did not work so i did not get it . i explained the various thing that could be wrong with it :p

[@rogertyler3237]

I Think It Sounds Great. I Dont Think It Needs Anything Else.

[@johntilson2535]

$20-$30 back in 1937 would be around $180 - $220 in 2019. But mass production and Chinese imports have made 'low end' table radios about the same price today as in 1937! lol.

[@rogertyler3237]

Have You Talked To Radio TV Phono Nut?

[@infinitecanadian]

I never heard of power cables rotting like that.

[@nunyabizness199]

Ha ! Really ?

[@_Ramen-Vac_]

cool noise

[@scuffedvegeta2756]

how much is this worrth?

[@johnyoung4039]

I wonder if you can just let the shield soak in liquid bleach. That how my wife clean stained cups.

[@nor4277]

Do you sell on eBay if you do let me no ,I like they say you did radios

[@gardnersmith3580]

No Brother Stair on shortwave.

[@WalterKnox]

to many dial strings.