Philco Model 46-1209 AM/SW Console Radio

Donald R. Sentz
July 2018, Rev. E November 2019

I was given this set around 1968 (when I was about 15 years old)
by one of my Dad's co-workers. The radio worked great. The
turntable was not functional and had dried-out drive belts. At
the time there was no straightforward way (or money) to get
replacement parts, and 78 rpm records were obsolete, so I
removed the turntable and discarded it. The radio worked great
for many years. It has been non-operational since about 1986,
when I noticed that the audio output tubes were getting too hot.
They were the wrong type anyway, 6F6's instead of 6V6GT's.

The set survived a flooding event in 2014. The cabinet

restoration cost, including new speaker grille cloth, was
covered by insurance. I had the set moved to our San Diego house
in 2016, after we sold my mom's house. I finally started
planning in July 2017 for the electrical restoration. I
downloaded the schematic and some other information from Antique
Electronic Supply web site. I ordered some parts but then
postponed the effort due to other priorities.
 Chassis Underside Prior to Electrical Restoration

June-July 2018- During cleaning and inspection of the chassis, I

saw evidence of prior repairs. I replaced all of the tubular
paper capacitors and the three electrolytics. I left the old
electrolytic cans in place. The old C49 can is electrically
isolated from the chassis, so I used the center post of C49 as a
convenient tie point. Note that C49 should not be touched when
the set is ON.

R3 measured 3.0K instead of 2.2K spec, but I did not replace it

due to inaccessibility and risk of damage to the band switch. I
replaced several other resistors that were out-of-spec;

Spec Measured Replaced with

R6 4.0K 230K 3.9K
R8 27K 101K 27K
R32 6.8K 29K 6.8K
R60 33K 380K two 15K in series meas. 34K
R24 33K 41K [not critical, no replace for now]
R27 47K 86K 51K (within 10%)
R28 4.7K 6.2K 4.7K ¼ watt
R29 56K 244K 56K
R35 220K 289K [not critical, no replace for now]

The replacement for R28 (4.7K) is ¼ watt instead of ½ watt but

I concluded this should be fine after reviewing the circuit.
C53A and C53B measured way out-of-spec. I left C53 in place and
fastened a small wooden platform to it. I re-wired that area for
the new .01uF capacitors replacing C53A and C53B. I fashioned an
insulating cover over the re-wired area for safety.

Left Side of Chassis After Installing New Parts

July 17, 2018- I had some trouble with the ON-OFF switch, but
after using contact cleaner spray it seems to be working. The
power transformer primary winding measured 14 instead of the 4
marked on the diagram [Many days later I measured 4.5]. The
transformer B+ winding measured OK, about 220 ohms (vs. 200 on
diagram). I applied AC power to the set with two Sovtek 6V6GT
and the two panel lamps providing some load (no other tubes
plugged in). The ON-OFF switch worked OK. The tube heaters and
lamps appeared to have normal brightness.

The cabinet was missing a 1"x1"x 3/8" wood block that is used to
support the left side of the pushbutton assembly (as viewed from
front of set). I fashioned a replacement and installed it using
Elmer's white glue.
There are many "postage stamp" capacitors that I can't measure
in place. My experience has been that these capacitors tend not
to fail or change value much (however, see Appendix C).

I applied contact cleaner spray to each band-switch wafer, the

tone and volume controls, and all tube pins. I sparingly
lubricated the band-switch shaft, tuning shaft, and dial cord
pulleys using Ballistol.

Right Side of Chassis After Installing New Parts

Testing on the Bench-

The speaker field coil doubles as a filter choke for the B+
supply. It is marked 650 ohms on the diagram, but I measured 666
ohms. I have an 8 henry filter choke that measures 122 ohms,
plus a 600 ohm 10 watt resistor that measures 567 ohms. together
they add up to 689 ohms, a good substitute for the field coil.

July 29, 2018, Sunday- I attached the voltmeter to the B+ output

side of the field coil substitute, plugged in all the tubes,
attached a 3.2 ohm speaker, attached a small coil of telephone
wire as an antenna, and applied AC power. The B+ settled to 257
volts. The 6V6 bias was -16 volts. I tuned in a station and
heard good sound from the speaker, for about 10 seconds. Then
there was a single "pop" sound from somewhere, and the audio
output changed to static. I immediately turned off the set. I
did not see any smoke and did not smell anything unusual. I
examined the chassis, with close attention to the "postage
stamp" capacitors, but did not see anything wrong.

I powered up the set again, while it was still upside down, and
it worked fine. I tuned in stations across the dial. I measured
the AVC voltage as near 0 volts when no signal to -12 volts on
the very strong station around 1200 kHz. I measured the voltage
across the field coil substitute as 74.4 volts, corresponding to
B+ current of 74.4/689 = 108 mA, a reasonable value.

August 2, 2018- Over the next three days I operated the set for
an accumulated time of maybe 4 hours. I tried a different
antenna consisting of a 2-turn loop about 2 feet in diameter,
which is similar to the loop inside the radio cabinet. This made
a huge improvement in the performance of the set. I peaked up
r.f. trimmer C1. I could occasionally hear some low volume
static that seemed internally generated, but it always cleared
up after a short while.

The shortwave band appears to be working well. I peaked up r.f.

trimmer C12. WWV came in very well at 10 MHz and weak at 15 MHz.
I tuned in Radio Australia and several other stations. I picked
up a CW signal sending CQ in the 14MHz ham radio band. I did not
notice any image responses anywhere across the band, which is
better than the radio used to be. One or more of the new
resistors and capacitors must have fixed the SW image response
problem that I recall.

I used my B+ voltage and current measurements and tube heaters'

spec voltage and current data to estimate the AC power
consumption of the set to be around 60 watts.

The service sheet for this set stated 240 volts for the B+,
while I measured 257 volts. I measured 120 volts on the AC line.
If I step down the line from 120 volts to 112 volts, then the B+
should reduce to 240 volts, as stated in the service sheet. I
made an autotransformer that will do this handily. This set was
probably designed for nominal AC line between 110 and 115 volts.

While testing the phono motor circuit I measured 4.5 for the
power transformer primary, consistent with the schematic.
 Testing Configuration Using Loop Antenna Substitute

Next steps;
1. Insert autotransformer in AC line, measure B+
DONE August 11, 2018- AC Line = 118.8 VAC
AC In = 110.0 VAC after autoxfmr
B+ Drop = 64.8 VDC across 689 Ohms
B+ = 245.7 VDC @ 94 mA
Total AC Power estimate reduces to 55 watts (plus power
transformer loss) w/ autoxfmr. The power transformer gets pretty
hot after a while (5 watts or so?), but this is probably normal
since all operating voltages and currents look OK.
2. video demo shortwave WWV reception on the bench.
DONE August 11, 2018. Added clip to video demo.

3. Test/adjust dial calibration using the paper template.

DONE August 12, 2018- I checked each frequency by using my
Grundig portable set (has digital frequency display) to set the
Heathkit signal generator. The dial calibration was great, even
the 15MHz mark was right on, which I also confirmed by receiving
WWV 15 MHz signal at that dial setting. However, when installed
the pointer is slightly high relative to the AM band dial
markings over lower ¾ of the band. SW band pointer reads high
over lower ¾, and slightly low at top end (15MHz).

Using Dial Calibration Template

4. Use the RF signal generator to try out /set up the

pushbuttons and video demo on the bench.
DONE August 11, 2018- First I used Contact Cleaner on all the
switches and made sure the mechanisms were working. Then I tried
each in turn. They all worked just fine.

#3 was labeled "WBRC" (Birmingham, AL) and #5 was labeled "WMSL"

(Huntsville, AL). The other buttons had no labels.

New pushbutton setup;

#1 KOGO 600 San Diego (Bill Cunningham, Rush Limbaugh)
#2 KFI 640 Los Angeles (Brian Suits, Conway, etc.)
#3 KFMB 760 San Diego (Mark Levin)
#4 KCBQ 1170 San Diego (Elder, Sekulow, Hewitt, Gallagher)
#5 KFSD 1450 Escondido (Oldies Pop, 50's & 60's)
5. Attach a 3 ohm speaker (to be used as a microphone) to the
phono pickup transformer input to try out and video demo the
phono circuits.
DONE August 14, 2018- I measured the phono transformer secondary
resistance as 5870 ohms vs. spec 5800 ohms. The speaker-as-
microphone experiment worked fine, by manually holding the phono
button down (it would not latch). I decided to not make video
demo until after I fix the pushbutton. This test verified that
the phone-unique circuitry is working.

6. Photograph new wood block support inside cabinet prior to

drilling mounting hole for pushbuttons support bracket.
DONE August 11, 2018

New Support Block at Upper Right Prior to Drilling Hole

7. Temporary place chassis in cabinet and mark support bracket

and drill hole to take a #6 x ¾" wood screw.
DONE August 12, 2018

8. Final installation in cabinet and video demo.

DONE August 12, 2018- Found where the courtesy lamp socket goes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7FhCL4rjis

9. Need approx. 10 #6 flat washers for back cover attach screws.

DONE August 28, 2018

Future; 1) keep eye out for Philco turntable #D-10A, 2)make

sliding shelf inside cabinet where turntable is supposed to be.
August 22, 2018- I found three 250uuF silver mica caps in stock.
Goals for next trip;

1. Repair the courtesy lamp wiring and test w/ nite-light bulb.

Done August 27, 2018.

2. AM dial recalibrate, see Appendix C.

Done August 27, 2018- AM band recalibration successful.
Touched up pushbutton tuning after extended warmup.

3. Note pointer readings on AM tuning scale for selected SW

settings, in particular 10.0 MHz and 15.0 MHz as a minimum.
Done August 27, 2018.
SW 9.5 10.0 11.0 12.0 13.0 14.0 15.0
AM 595 690-695 875 1060-1065 1240 1430 1630

4. Replace C15 and C16 and use the data from above to test
recalibrate SW scale while still on the bench.
Done May 7, 2019- After replacing C15 and C16 (255 pF +/- 1%
"Micamold" brand) with new 250 pF +/- 5% silver mica units, I
attempted to recalibrate the set to its SW band scale, but I
still could not get it to even closely match the SW scale on the
glass dial plate. The behavior suggests that the values of C15
and C16 are still too large. I may next try 200 pF in parallel
with a 50pF trimmer, if there is room.

5. Fix the PHONO push button.

Done May 7, 2019- sprayed some WD-40 on the latching spring
and mechanism while trying to avoid the switch contacts. The
push button action was still good the next day. Will continue to
monitor this item. May 19, 2019- Still OK. I WD-40'd the other
pushbutton mechanisms, action is smoother. I removed, cleaned,
and reinstalled the three acetate pushbutton "windows". The
windows and paper labels are exactly ½ inch square. The white
letters are ¼ inch tall and span 5/16", on dark brown background.

August 26, 2018- Ordered spare tubes 2-7F8, 2-7H7, 1-7AF7 from
AES. 7X7 not available from any source (might appear on eBay). I
already have a NOS 5Y3GT. Tubes arrived 29 August.

August 28, 2018- Ordered as spare, NOS RCA 7X7 from eBay seller,
$7.99 including shipping. I discovered how the courtesy lamp
switch supposed to work. Row of 4 #6 screw holes along each edge
of speaker door held baffle assemblies that I had removed. The
baffle on left side would have had a "catch" or hook to engage
the courtesy lamp switch when door is opened. 7X7 arrived 1 Sept.
August 30, 2018- Bought pack of #6 x ½ screws to use for
mounting courtesy lamp switch baffle/catch to speaker door.

May 7, 2019- I replaced the 6 "postage stamp" capacitors on main

chassis with new silver mica units, and I replaced the two 255
pF "postage stamp" capacitors on the band switch with 250pF
silver micas. There was no change to the intermittent static
behavior. It continues to be most noticeable when tuned to a
strong station, suggesting that a high magnitude of AVC voltage
might be aggravating it.

During testing I observed a weak image response between 10.5 and

11 MHz on SW band for a very strong station in the 11.5-12 MHz
band. This is consistent with my memory of this set having SW
image responses. However this time the response was weaker (i.e.,
better image rejection) than I recall from long ago.

May 19, 2019- I now suspect at least one of R1, R2, or R15 of
causing the intermittent but persistent static, crackles, and
pops. All three are in the AVC circuit. When I set the band
switch between detents the oscillator feedback capacitor, C7, is
disconnected on the grid side, and the mixer grid coupling
capacitor, C3, should be disconnected at its RF input side. The
static, etc. are all still present, so these two capacitors are
not causing it. There is no significant DC voltage across any of
the remaining original capacitors so they are less suspect. R1
is 1 M, R2 is 2.2 M, R3 is 3.3 M. All three are accessible
for replacement. R13 and R14, 100K each, are also suspect. They
are on main chassis.

Test C7 by selecting pushbutton mode and all the pushbuttons

OUT (OFF). This completely disconnects C7 RF input side from the
circuit. If noise is still present then C7 is exonerated.

June 15, 2019- Noise is still present but greatly reduced volume
relative to when a strong station is selected (KCBQ-1170). C7 is
exonerated. Effect is same if I off-tune dial to quiet spot.
Action: Replace R13 and R14 since they are easy, and out-of-spec
high anyway. They might be the noise source.

June 16, 2019- I replaced R13 and R14, no effect on noise. On a

lark I unplugged the 7F8 while set was on. Noise went away. I
plugged in one of my two spare 7F8s that I ordered last year. No
more noise! I put the set back in the cabinet. It is working
fine now.
While the chassis was on the bench I sprayed WD-40 on all of the
pushbutton mechanisms, while being careful to avoid the switch
contacts. This restored the "PHONO" button to its proper
latching function (push-ON, push-OFF). Then I connected the
audio input cable to output of my stereo-to-monaural adapter,
which in turn I connected to the headphone jack of our laptop. I
played several songs (Patsy Cline, Dire Straits, the Animals,
etc.) from YouTube. Sounded best by setting "Treble" mode on
Realtek equalizer panel and then use tone control on radio to
rebalance. Otherwise too much base.

June 17, 2019- The set has been working great all day. I made
"temporary" station labels for the pushbuttons and put them in.

June 19, 2019- Still working great.

July 2, 2019- Well, I thought it was working great. There was

always some popping/crackling noise that would occur at power-up
but then go away after a few minutes. So I tried the 2nd spare
7F8 yesterday, and now there is no more popping/crackling at all.
I made notes on Post-Its regarding all this and attached them to
the 7F8 boxes. The 2nd spare 7F8 (also Sylvania) appears to be
the newest one, per the date printed on its box.

July 4, 2019- I used PowerPoint to make a set of labels for the

pushbuttons; PHONO, KOGO, KFI, KFMB, KCBQ, and KFBK;

August 1, 2019- The 2nd spare 7F8 is still working fine. Radio
station KFSD-1450 ceased operation some time before July 4. I
retuned the KFSD button to KFBK-1530 which is in Sacramento, CA.
KFBK is about 400 miles away but comes in fairly well from dusk
to dawn. I installed the labels along with new clear plastic
covers that I cut from a binder cover. The labels and covers are
all exactly ½ inch square. I trimmed their corners to make them
easier to install.

I found the name of the furniture restorer who worked on the

cabinet after the 2014 flood; Mr. Joe Henderson of Florence, AL.,
wife's name is Judy. (she endorsed the check). I found addresses
and phone numbers for him and Judy on internet but unclear if
they are still good addresses/numbers.
September 13, 2019- It is possible that the popping/crackling
symptom might have been caused by corrosion and poor contact of
the 7F8 tube pins, and especially so for the mixer grid pin.
This might explain why noise was louder on strong stations;
increased AVC voltage magnitude applied to 7F8 grid would
increase such noise amplitude directly. I should try cleaning
the tube pins on the extra 7F8s if I have to use them again.

October 22, 2019- On Saturday evening 19 Oct. one of the Sovtek

6V6GTs decided to put on a fireworks display just as the set was
warming up. Within 10 minutes I had the set back up and running.
I replaced both Sovteks with the pair of NOS RCA 6V6GTs that I
had on hand for just such an emergency. I have no memory of when
or where I acquired them. I ordered a pair of JJ brand 6V6S and
a 7F8 from AES today, $14.95 each for the JJs.

November 5, 2019- I installed the two JJ 6V6S. They seem to be

working fine. I sent a picture of them in my set to AES and it
is on their website now. One has some very dim blue glow. I will
try to get a good photograph of the glow.
Two JJ Electronic 6V6-S Installed November 2, 2019. The one in
the middle has some dim blue glow. See also notes added to
Appendix B, Sub-Section 3.
Appendix A: Resistor Measurement Results July 2018
DIAG. SPEC MEASURED NOTES
R1 1.0M 1.0M Suspected noisy May2019-CLEARED
R2 2.2M 2.5M Suspected noisy May2019-CLEARED
R3 2.2K 3.0K TOO RISKY TO ACCESS & REPLACE
R4 100K 90K
R5 15K 13.9K
R6 4.0K 230K REPLACED W/ 3.9K MEAS. 3.9K
R7 68 78
R8 27K 101K REPLACED W 27K MEAS. 27K
R9 10K 9.8K
R10 68 66
R11 33K 28.5K
R12 1.0K 1.16K
R13 100K 120K REPLACED 16JUN2019 –MEAS. 99K
R14 100K 117K REPLACED 16JUN2019 –MEAS. 99K
R15 3.3M 3.35M Suspected noisy May2019-CLEARED
R16 10M 10.8M
R17 1.0M 1.0M
R18 10M - INFERRED OK FROM OTHER MEAS.
R19 VOL. WORKS OK
R20 68 - INFERRED OK FROM OTHER MEAS.
R21 4.7 - INFERRED OK FROM OTHER MEAS.
R22 150K 159K
R23 TONE WORKS OK
R24 33K 41K MARGINAL, NOT CRITICAL
R25 220K 215K
R26 1.0M 1.3M
R27 47K 86K REPLACED W/ 51K MEAS.50.9K
R28 4.7K 6.2K REPLACED W/ 4.7K MEAS. 4.7K
R29 56K 244K REPLACED W/ 56K MEAS. 53.7K
R30 4.7M 4.64M
R31 220K 219K
R32 6.8K 29K REPLACED W/ 6.8K MEAS. 7.2K
R33 150K 175K
R34 470K 514K
R35 220K 289K MARGINAL, NOT CRITICAL
R36 150K 150K
R37 150 141 (WIREWOUND, >2W)
R38 15K 2W 17.1K
R48 150 165
R49 330K 410K
R50 330K 392K
R60 33K 380K REPLACED W/ TWO@15K MEAS. 34K
R88 10K - CANNOT MEASURE IN CIRCUIT
Appendix B; Tube Substitutions.

1. 6AV6 may be a good substitute for 7X7 but will require making
a socket adapter. This set does not use the separate diode in
the 7X7.

Triode Parameter 7X7 6AV6

Heater Volts 6.3 6.3
Heater Amps 0.3 0.3
Plate volts 250 250
grid volts -1 -2 (No changes requierd)
amp. factor 100 100
Plate resistance 67000 62500
Transconductance 1500 1600
plate ma. 1.9 1.2

2. 12AU7 may be a good substitute for 7AF7 but will require

making a socket adapter. Wire the 12AU7 for 6.3 volts heater.

Triode Parameter 7X7 12AU7

Heater Volts 6.3 6.3
Heater Amps 0.3 0.3
Plate volts 250 250
Cathode resistor 1100 809 (No changes required)
[Grid voltage] -9.9 -8.5 (Close enough)
amp. factor 16 17
Plate resistance 7600 7700
Transconductance 2100 2200
plate ma. 9 10.5
3. For this restoration I put in a matched pair of Sovtek 6V6GTs
(Russian, 1990's vintage). There is controversy in various on-
line forums regarding the quality of these tubes, but they seem
to be working fine. I have another matched pair of these in my
Bell 2122C Hi-Fi amplifier. 6V6GTs that should work OK in this
set are still manufactured in Russia and maybe China, as of 2018.

Update October 30, 2019- One of the Sovtek tubes failed in

spectacular glory on 19 October. I ordered a pair of JJ
Electronic brand 6V6-S to replace both Sovtek tubes, along with
another 7F8 (25% off sale) for spare. It happened to be Philco
brand. I installed the new JJ tubes

02Nov2019- The two JJ 6V6-S tubes work fine, but one has a very
dim blue glow that seems to be emanating from the top of the
lower support wafer. When I look through the cutouts in the
plate I do not see any blue glow in the space above that wafer
and inside the plate cylinder. There are two other very small
blue glows that appear to be on the glass and in the vicinity of
those cutouts. These "glass glows" mostly disappear after the
set has been on for a while. The other JJ tube has no visible
blue glows.

4. As of 2018, 7F8 and 7H7 are still available from Antique

Electronic Supply. 12AT7 could be a substitute for 7F8 with
suitable rewiring and tube socket.

5. I have available a spare new-old-stock (NOS) 5Y3GT. Any new

manufacture 5Y3 may damage this set (excessive B+) due to much
lower internal resistance than original 5Y3. As a last resort, a
pair of 1000PIV @ 1Amp HV silicon rectifier diodes plus 400 ohms,
15-watts, power resistor may be installed in place of 5Y3. You
may have to experiment with the resistor value to get correct B+
(about 245 volts DC when AC line input is 110 volts). The
resistor and diodes must be above the chassis, to get air flow.

Appendix C: Dial Calibration Discussion updated May 2019

I believe the AM band dial calibration can be improved with

proper adjustments of C8 and C6. The SW band dial calibration is
not very good when the set is in the cabinet. I suspect that
oscillator capacitor C15, nominally 255 uuF according to the
schematic, has aged to a significantly higher (and out-of-spec)
value. The effect would be most significant at lower frequencies,
just as I observed, and gradually less noticeable at higher
frequencies, again just as I observed. Note that 255 uuF is not
a standard value, but 250uuF is. This makes me wonder if C15 had
to be chosen by select-in-test, or if perhaps a 250uuF might be
good enough. If I can access C15 I will try replacing it with
250uuF silver mica, preferably one that has been measured.
Another possibility is more complex; namely replace C15 with
200uuF in parallel with a small trimmer, say 10-100uuF, and
calibrate SW band same way as AM band.

C16, which is in the SW RF tuning circuit, is subject to all

these same considerations, so it also may need replacement.

I examined the photo of the band switch assembly, it appears

that C15 and C16 are easily accessible. May 19, 2019- After
replacing C15 and C16 I still could not achieve decent SW band
dial calibration. Try 220 pF?