Cabinet EOL (maybe) & repair (certainly) of a '40's Sparton tube radio chassis - part one
2,747 views · Published 13 November 2013 · 14:45 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: radiotvphononut · 2013 · Science & Technology
Here's a junker Sparton AM/SW radio/78 rpm phonograph console that probably dates from either the early '40's or from right after WWII ended. Unfortunately, this set looks like it has spent the last 50+ years in a barn; and, as you can see, the cabinet is pretty much past going. I'm sure someone who has experience with woodworking could redo the cabinet; but, I don't have the equipment or experience. However, I thought it would be fun to try and bring the chassis back to life, which I did. The first thing I found was an open primary winding on the audio output transformer (likely caused by elements of nature). Then, I found a dead-shorted filter capacitor in the power supply; which, likely accounts for the missing rectifier tube. Likely, the filter cap shorted, blew the rectifier, someone removed the tube, installed another one only to have it blow. Then, that tube was removed and the radio went to the barn to ruin. It's a shame because this looks like a decent chassis, with it's TRF stage and PP-6F6 output stage (actually, the numbers are worn off the tubes; but, they look like 6F6's). By the time this thing died, multi-speed stereo record players with AM/FM radios were likely on the market and the owner did the same thing that people often do today with unwanted electronics....they moved it to the barn. I still have some more work to do to this chassis; which, I'll do in part two of this video. However, these are not bad results for something that was left to die 50+ years ago. I'd like to see this modern junk electronically hold up that well. If I get this chassis working well enough, I may decide to do something with the cabinet. However, I may need some extra human motivation.
