22
Item nr.
Wood with metal speaker bars, seven tubes.
| Production | France, 1938. |
|---|---|
| Bands | LW MW SW. |
| Tubes | ECH3 EF5 EB4 EF6 EL3N EZ3 EM4. |
| Cabinet | Wood. Size 45x27.5x24 cm. |
| Power | AC. |
This radio illustrates what some people feel typical for French technicians: total lack of respect for what they are working on. Apperently the radio has been repaired by somebody not interested in using the Pu entry nor in the tonality control, and this person simply amputed these parts of the circuitry. (In another French set the dial was mounted with the paint outside so I got it with a wiped-out lettering.)
The construction is a bit peculiar. There are neither boards nor terminal strips: rather the parts inside form a self-supporting spider-web like structure with B+ and ground as floating metal rods. It is quite a stress to replace components in this set.
It wasn't until 2013 that I learned the brand of this radio. I could never identify it, but in April 2013 Francis posted a few photo's of this set, and the name sticker Continental on the side face. Francis' set is in a much better shape than mine was.
| Obtained | 6/1995 from Brocante Rennes. |
|---|---|
| Condition | 6. |
| Disposed | Sold 9/2000. |
The electrical work was quite involved; here is an image of the chassis:
On the right you see Francis' chassis picture from 2013. The chassis was cleaned and I replaced the leaky filter caps. The set could not be switched on and I had to replace the volume/power potmeter. Then there was no B+ voltage because the EZ3 rectifier had given up (no emission). I replaced it first by silicon diodes soldered under the chassis, but later made an EZ3Si, a solid-state plug-in replacement. There was positive voltage on the output tube control grid, so I replaced the coupling condenser, but still no stations could be received, while scratching the control grid did produce sounds in the speaker. The pin voltages were normal for all the tubes.
Everything appeared to be fine, but the set did not work, until I tried a replacement EL3N output tube while a strong antenna was connected, and I could hear some very weak voices. It became clear that the set was way out of alignment, and the output tube had burned out too far to produce the weak signals passed to it. With the replacement output tube I could improve the alignment and obtain some results of my labour: the set tuned several stations.
I later did some minor improvements like capacitor replacements. The sensitivity of the radio is too low, and I don't know if this is due to bad alignment, weak tubes, or this is normal for sets of that age.