I picked this up at an antique mall because it was fairly inexpensive, looked to be complete and likely to work with minimal fuss, and I wanted to try my hand at adding a bluetooth module to it. Overall it's in nice shape. There's a hairline crack in the top where something probably fell on it. Hooray again for plastic.

The price meant a lot. I've been frustrated with thrift shops and antique malls that want full value for something that needs to be repaired. I passed up an Owl-eye Zenith that wasn't working (they didn't say what was wrong) and the power cord's insulation was largely gone, but it was priced as if it were working flawlessly.

Tube compliment

12BA6 - RF Amp
12BE6 - Converter
12BA6 - IF Amp/AVC
12AV6 - 2nd. Detector and first AF Amp
30C5 - AF out
35W4 - Rectifier

Powered up and no audio other than a tiny crackle. Removed the chassis and tested the tubes because I always do that first. I almost never find a bad tube but I like the tube tester and the rigamarole that goes with using it.

The 12BE6 is no good. That would have a lot to do with it. Amazing, as I said--I very rarely come across a bad tube.

The good news is that's a very common and easy to find tube and I probably have at least half a dozen of them. The bad news is my tube caddy is buried in the garage and it's going to take some work to get to it.

to be continued.

References

A note on schematics: the Beitman's version on RadioMuseum and Nostalgia Air and probably elsewhere all seem to come from teh same low-resolution scan of Beitman's book. My pdf copy of that book has the same scan. The SAMS packet is a better quality scan.

Beitman's Most Often Needed, Volume 16, 1956, p.167 (internet scan copies are poor quality)

SAMS Photofact 304, Folder 14

Radiomuseum: Westinghouse H-536T6

Fibber's Closet: Fundamentals of adding bluetooth

Current status

Radio not working. Needs eval.