The last of the portable giants from Pye. Although WWII had brought about miniature radio vales the radio manufacturers were still using the traditional cabinet makers to put together the coffins they came in. If you put this on the window sil it would block out 1/2 the daylight, lol It might explain why I've never seen another of these, they just went by the way side for plastic and Bakelite equivalents. This one is battery only and the swing-up front door contains the coils of wire for the internal aerial, even though ferrite rods arrived in the late 1940's. (90 volt HT and 1.5 volt LT or heaters. These can easily be made into a plastic box these day, so I did.
Pye (UK company) had been busy building war time radio & radar and then later police and ambulance units. The oscillator coil had come loose and I glued back with help from a match box and a pencil. I paid a high price for this because all the valves were missing and it had a bogged audio repair to the sound output, but I found all valves on-line at an average cost of £6 each (inc post)
All capacitors seemed to check fine and so did the high value resistors, just switch cleaner to the controls an a quick dust over needed.
The navy blue Rexine cover was in good condition, take care when cleaning as the dye will rub away with modern cleaners, just use soapy water. I added two LED's to the display across the 90 volt rail via 5k ohm resistor all in series to chassis.
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| 2 LED's fitted, you may want to use warm types |
On reflection the top part of the display needs a black background to show the white text in that section, my fit at a later date. (note to myself)
The Pye logo has faded away (under tuning knob) I've found a similar one on line, may buy if less that a fiver. I've overspent on this one already, but now it does work again. Sad thing is most collectors are paying silly prices for radios just for display only, at least mine and hopefully now yours work again.
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