Stromberg Carlson 1101 restoration
 

I decided to take a little break from TVs and restore this little AA6 bakelite radio.
I thought it was a model 1200 at first, but when I opened it up I found 6 tubes which makes it an 1101 from 1946 just like this one.

The cabinet has a couple scratches and some odd discoloration near the controls but is otherwise sound.

The chassis looks to be all original except for the tubes.
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There is some discoloration and rust on the dial glass and painted backplate from where the pointer sat on AM 720 for probably decades.
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The caps have nice Stromberg Carlson labels so i decided to restuff them. I used a heat gun to melt to old cap out and brown hot glue to seal in the new caps.
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After the recap, I powered it up and got some weak, garbled audio. Time to investigate...

Eventually, I noticed that one lead to the internal loop antenna had broken lose :rolleyes:

Much better gain now, but it's still garbled. I tested the one mica cap and found it to be shorted.
Replacing it did the trick - great sensitivity, selectivity and it sounds pretty good :music: :banana:
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Next, I went through the alignment procedure, and found it didn't really need it.

Finally, I'm going to clean it all up.
I used some glass cleaner and Q-Tips on the glass dial
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The metal dial backplate was rusty and discolored form the pointer sitting in the same position for so long. I carefully unmounted it and removed the rust with naval jelly. Than a litte sanding and primer. Once that's dry, I'll used some metallic copper paint.
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I also restuffed and repaired the filter cap.
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Excellent job photo documenting the procedure. Re-stuffing the paper caps is brilliant.

The history of an old radio is often revealed when you first take out the chassis. It's obvious that this set belonged to, or was repaired by, a Boy Scout.

OK, WinkyDink, how about dropping the other shoe??? :scratch2:

Dial Cord
 

Looking at the dial cord, he must have been practicing for his knot-tying merit badge.
- Winky

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Q...2520knotty.jpg

LOL - I hope that cord holds up. I really hate restringing radios.

Pretty Knasty Knots! Better draw a picture of how the string goes, Bob.

Luckily, I didn't need too. I just carefully laid the dial cord against the chassis while working on the dial.

I think it turned out well.
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Now that's sharp! Ready for Larrrry Lu-jack! on Double-you ELLLL Esss! :music:

Thanks! I wonder what Larry is up to these days ? I haven't heard him on the radio in years.