Canadian Westinghouse 99A

[maxhifi]

Breaking new ground here - on the weekend traded my Silvertone CTC-16 clone to a local collector for a Westinghouse 99A radio, and some other goodies. I

The Westinghouse 99A is an evolved version of a Westinghouse 99, which is a clone of an RCA Radiola 66. The 99A has a revised layout to the 99, but seems otherwise quite similar.

This is an 8 tube superhetrodyne, with a whole bunch of type '27 indirectly heated triodes, a '45 audio output tube, and an '80 rectifier. In mine, most of the tubes are globes, and the radio is in amazing condition.

I've never worked on anything this old before, and some aspects of age are starting to puzzle me. For example, the IF frequency is only 175kHz, and the physical construction is unlike any newer equipment. It's truly amazing to see all the progress between the manufacture of this radio in 1929/1930, and the late 30s radios.

One thing I have heard reference to, doing some research, is "alignment and neutralization" instructions. What is neutralization all about? Is there more to this than just peaking the IF at 175kHz, and setting the oscillator and RF trimmers to make the dial accurate? I have never heard of neutralization on a newer radio. I wish my sweep frequency generator was capable of such low frequencies, it would be really interesting to see the IF pass band.