Philips 'Musette' L2G77B radio 1957

One, if not the last, valve portable radio made by Philips. Philips who also owned Stella by this time also produced a similar set called the Stella 400b..With the arrival of transistors in the mid-50s valve radios were in their last hours of life, shame really because the miniature valves now being produced were the most efficient ever made. Low current heaters and tiny current HT requirements.
This Philips is very much in the style of the Roberts family of radios from the same period, where this one differs is the cabinet was made from moulded card   covered with leatherette finish plastic sheets, sort of a plastic Rexine and in many ways more durable than real leather. Just look at the condition of this rare specimen, stitches all still in place, no tearing fading or scratches, even the underneath not protected by feet is un-marked. The construction is quite unique too, just two interlocking outer covers held in place by two big brass bolts that also double up as the handle fitting. Once unscrewed the two sections pull apart to reveal a speaker box frame containing all the parts.
The repair
To be honest all it needed was the usual  band-switch and volume pot clean,  and a battery clip soldered back, and to my amazement it worked, and with surprisingly good sensitivity and volume, ever with only one LT battery (normally 2 in parallel) and only 56 volts HT.

The seller kindly sent me the original battery, an Eveready B101 67.5 volt HT type. I intend to put new cells inside this to keep the authentic look inside. Only 11 resistors and 21 capacitors make up this chassis and the whole unit is quite light for the year. The first valve DK96 is a very powerful heptode RF and mixer oscillator stage (or pentagrid converter), that only needs one following IF valve, the DF96. These small valves are getting harder to find, so the cost can be quite high, American equivalents are a little easier but you then have postage and import tax to deal with. So when all these valves worked, I was quite relieved to say the least. The DAF 96 is a pentode audio pre-amp and diode detector for the RF waveform being fed from the IF stage. The DL96 is an audio output valve from Mullard's low consumption range of dry battery valves from 1954. The audio output is low at 0.2 Watts but considering the low filament of 1.4 volts power it is quite remarkable, I suppose because no distortion at max volume helps. It's a pentode with double heaters, the idea was in a series wiring set-up it would be 3V and could be wired for 2 cell batteries. These type of heaters sometime go open circuit on one winding so a rewire can repair..
.The top needs the knobs pulled off to gain access, be careful not to the pull the outer part of the plastic control as it is likely to break with age, best trick is to spray with cleaning oil and use to screwdriver each side and prize the centre part away slowly. The tuner knob has a  aluminium spacer that can also be removed with two grub screws, an earthing washer and clip is underneath that.. All the inside needed a vacuuming some of the cover material needed re-gluing on the inside and the speaker was berried in years of dust.

The speaker grille is held in place by a 3 sided trim (see dismantling below) that should be prized away carefully. I needed to remove it as the grille had a few small dents and needed a good clean. Dents removed on the inside with the curved end of a screw diver handle, take care not to push out the other side too much.The grille was washed under the tap with soapy water and after dried I used 70 per cent alcohol with a tooth brush to clean the inner edges of the busy pattern. One thing I can't stand is seeing the shape of the speaker in the mesh in a dark shadow.

I've included 1957 published details of this model, taken from my collection of old manuals. Also a layout is given but unless you unbolt the two sides not a lot of the inners can be seen and it's more of a 3D type of layout shown.

The brass trims were badly tarnished and I had to use wire wool and fine Emory cloth to bring back to a shine.The top I restored with soapy water and a toothbrush. The Philips badge is removed by bent wires at rear.

Above is the un-cleaned top after all the metalwork was removed. Take care not to rub dirty water over the stitching only they will discolour.

Above is the under view, showing the double copper battery holder for the parallel 1.5v 'D' type battery's. The modern 'D' can give more current that the old 1950s type, so only one modern type is now needed. Right up until the late 1950s the radio manufacturers had to pay a licence fee to the BBC that was taken from the selling price of the radio and a licence sticker would be displayed like above.