Vintage Radio Extra, No5, Part 3 Westminster Radio

[@GrandsonofKong]

Excellent job as always! Nothing slip-shod in your approach and work which I myself appreciate.Hope you will have more restoration video's soon. Cheers!

[@tommybewick]

That baby is cranking out nicely! Sounds great Phil! Tom

[@steelcity321pb6]

Tom k2bew Tom, Thank you dear chap, this radio, which was manufactured to satisfy demand from the budget end of the radio market, has turned out somewhat better than I expected. I expected this repair series to be around five videos. Now the time has come to leave it running a few hours each day on soak-test during which I be able to determine whether or not it is truly 'done and dusted'. Regards, Phil.

[@tectalabyss]

Looks and sounds great Phil. 73's

[@steelcity321pb6]

***** Bobby, Thank you my friend. Another Vintage Radio repair started not before time. The other day, someone asked me what would have been the likely outcome of that radio had it not passed into my hands. Having said that was a difficult one to answer, I went on to say, “Given that it did pass into my hands, it could easily have remained gathering dust on a shelf in my workshop. Then, after I had departed this life, who knows what its likely outcome would be.” The times I’ve reminded myself of the following quote only to take little to no notice because ‘I’m too busy’…”Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today” Benjamin Franklin. Likely as not he got his inspiration for that proverb from Proverbs 6: 4-14. Regards, Phil.

[@AMStationEngineer]

+Bobby Tectalabyss +SteelCity321PB Making me homesick for the whole of the U.K., great job, Phil!!

[@tectalabyss]

+AMStationEngineer Hi Tim. Great to hear from you.. I would like to visit there myself . All my very best. Bobby

[@AMStationEngineer]

Make sure to spend a couple of weeks in Killarney, Ireland, and Brighton, Beach, England!!

[@stephenmoore2754]

Phil. I was excited to see the next instalment of this Vintage Radio extra, but disappointed that the series has come to an end :). I was pleased and impressed that you warned about the fibres from the brush. We call them a ball cleaner around here as they were used to clean the type ball in typewriters. I got one of those tiny fibres in my finger once, and it festered for a couple of months until my body rejected it and pushed it out. Irritating! Thanks for the great series. You were spot on with your selection of audio output valve and calculations. I am forgetting or maybe it wasn't shown, but does this radio have a transformer on the mains or are the connected directly to the chassis as in the AA5's? The mains voltage in your location would certainly "bite" the unwary! Nice tip on the double insulated power cord. You and others satisfy my Vintage Radio repair appetite without the frustrations and the danger :). Thanks for sharing your hobby.

[@steelcity321pb6]

Stephen Moore Stephen, Again, it is great to hear from you my friend. I’m very pleased to read I am one of a number of tech’s who “…satisfy my (your) Vintage Radio repair appetite…” One day, you will let me know what radio repair you’re on with? Now the radio appears to be repaired it will need to be left on soak-test for a few hours each day for a week-or-more. It is rare for me to get everything ‘right’ on the first occasion: there are almost always ‘alterations here’ and ‘adjustments there’ required, and I’ve a feeling this one will not be an exception. Very likely it will be necessary for me to take the back cover off, remove the chassis, and perform one or two additional minor tasks before I can truly claim it to be repaired. I remember a chap who worked in a service department where I once worked, a refrigeration service tech’, who was also trained to service amusement arcade gaming machines. It was he who introduced us audio, and television, service chaps working in that department to a slightly larger variation of that fibre brush. He had been introduced to fibre brushes from a commercial laundry equipment service tech’. Apparently, laundry techs use them, along with ‘crocus paper’, to clean relay contacts, powered cam-switches, and coin-op mechanisms (most of the cycle operation are done with microprocessors these days). Consequently, I’ve kept at least two fibre brush pens, and replacement brushes, in my tool kit ever since: they are brilliant for cleaning printed circuit tracks directly before soldering work. As you rightly say, one small fibre in the skin can cause irritation for quite some days. Soaking the affected skin area in very warm soapy water, for at least ten minutes, on at least two occasions, is often sufficient to overcome the irritation. I usually follow that operation up by rubbing ointment onto the affected area after drying. I’ve just been led to understand single insulated mains lead ceased being regulation here in the UK, April 1976 (that could be true as I seem to recall something of that sort taking place around that time). Since then, it is illegal to fit that type of mains lean onto any electrical equipment. All interesting stuff! Hope to catch you again in the near future, Phil.

[@johnschroeder6288]

Phil, excellent work as always. Do you include written data with your repairs/restorations? I was thinking about the tube (sorry, valve) substitution. What might a future individual think when the schematic does not match the physical radio. Just one of my bizarre thoughts. (as I get older, I have more of them)

[@steelcity321pb6]

John Schroeder John, it is good to hear from you my friend. A very good point you have raised. Whenever I sell a restored Vintage Radio I always include a circuit diagram. However, on this occasion, I will not be able to do that, having, as I believe, exhausted all known avenues where I thought I might have located one for this radio. Now 'Sod's Law' has often dictated that if I sell a restored Vintage Radio for which I don't have any service data it will very likely return 'to bite me' with an awkward fault. So, to avoid any possibility of that ever happening, I will move that radio on 'through the trade'. The trader who buys it will be made aware I have found service data for that radio to be none existent. I will include the two, side-by-side, audio output circuits I 'reverse engineered, and drew (seen in Part 2). Although I could have replaced the defective audio output/smoothing choke combined transformer, thus keeping the radio near original, I decided to utilise this radio for the purpose of this 'guide' video series as a means of bringing to the attention, to those Vintage Radio restorers who might not be fully aware, some spare parts have started to become very rare, and how it is possible to get a 'difficult to locate authentic spare parts' Vintage Radio functioning by fitting substitute parts. I hope that goes some way to answer your questions. Regards, Phil.

[@cbandhamradiostations4845]

Hi great video I have this chassis in a tall westminster radio at the top and turntable in the drawer underneath. Someone has robbed the speaker out of it and there's no wires.Could you tell me where it plugs in or speaker wires should be. Regards nick