A nice big piece of Pye

[Electronic M]

May not be any daytime AM, but there should be some decent stations at night....I've regularly been able to tune AM stations from better than half way across the continent at night.
I don't know what to expect with short wave up there, but if somewhat close to the east coast there should be plenty of European stations.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

The markings on the right, at the top is BC, which means broadcast, and under that is the wavelength in meters. Wavelength is inversely related to frequency, and is commonly used in short wave and amateur radio.

As for parts count, there isn't really any reason to change all the resistors, and you can use cheaper capacitors. That's a really cool radio and it would be nice to see it work, but I agree without any use for it it's a tough sell.

Blame it on my OCD maybe but I avoid cheaping out like the plague. Besides, the parts cost from Mouser, shipping included is about a quarter of what would be needed to restore this radio. Who knows, whenever I can afford it I may grab the parts that don't have a best before date as I never know when they'll run out or be discontinued, then just grab the supplies when I can. It has only seven electrolytics, four of them in two-section cans.

Soon enough I'll clean the crud off the front of the dial glass (I won't attempt the back) and take it to where I can scan it, just in case. I'll scan the original documentation as well.

Originally Posted by Electronic M

May not be any daytime AM, but there should be some decent stations at night....I've regularly been able to tune AM stations from better than half way across the continent at night.
I don't know what to expect with short wave up there, but if somewhat close to the east coast there should be plenty of European stations.

I can pull in weak nighttime signals with my Philco-Ford stereos from a couple of AM stations in the US, one 1010 WIN in NY. That's how I first heard that Osama Bin Laden had the biscuit.

[MadMan]

Hmm... get a small crappy portable fm radio and inject that into this radio.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by MadMan

Hmm... get a small crappy portable fm radio and inject that into this radio.

Would it be possible to align the FM radio for use with the Pye's tuner? I've been checking the values of AM/FM gang capacitors and they seem to be very similar. Also, I was watching a video by a fellow who made an FM converter that uses an antique radio's existing tuner but it's all in Italian as is his site.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

Would it be possible to align the FM radio for use with the Pye's tuner? I've been checking the values of AM/FM gang capacitors and they seem to be very similar. Also, I was watching a video by a fellow who made an FM converter that uses an antique radio's existing tuner but it's all in Italian as is his site.

Easiest way is to patch audio from the FM tuner into the audio amp of the Pye.....If you got clever (and were using a SS FM tuner) you could power it off the Pye (perhaps by tapping into the heater string), and possibly add a gear to the stock tuning cap shaft and gear the FM tuner's cap to it.

Another option is to look for a Pilot FM tuner and hook that to it.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Easiest way is to patch audio from the FM tuner into the audio amp of the Pye.....If you got clever (and were using a SS FM tuner) you could power it off the Pye (perhaps by tapping into the heater string), and possibly add a gear to the stock tuning cap shaft and gear the FM tuner's cap to it.

That sounds very similar to what this fellow has done, only it seems his FM converter is scratch-built. The video has subtitles but a lot of information gets lost in translation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVo0AXA4IUc

Ultimately this sort of thing is what I would like to do, a totally reversible "barely there" modification. I was thinking I might be able to do it with a modified automotive FM converter, but then MadMan mentioned the FM portable radio which would be much easier to get my hands on.

[MadMan]

That Italian guy's converter box is pretty neat though.

What Tom said makes sense, link the tuner shaft to the tuner of a little fm radio. You could use an o-ring, or similar rubber belt, maybe. If you get it tensioned, turning the tuner will turn the fm tuner also, but it can slip too, providing for the difference between the two tuners. Better yet, get an fm radio with a digital tuner, and rig it to tune with a rotary encoder switch, and belt THAT to the tuner shaft.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by MadMan

What Tom said makes sense, link the tuner shaft to the tuner of a little fm radio. You could use an o-ring, or similar rubber belt, maybe. If you get it tensioned, turning the tuner will turn the fm tuner also, but it can slip too, providing for the difference between the two tuners. Better yet, get an fm radio with a digital tuner, and rig it to tune with a rotary encoder switch, and belt THAT to the tuner shaft.

If I can't use the Pye's gang capacitor to directly tune the FM radio I would likely find a way to mount the one from the portable to one end of the gang's drive shaft and run wires to the board under the chassis. As far as I know they all rotate a half turn so I wouldn't have to concern myself with pulley/gear ratios.

By the way I got the dial glass cleaned up. It was pretty filthy on the back too so after a quick test to make sure a light wipe with glass cleaner wouldn't damage the printing I just went to town on it and now it looks great.

[maxhifi]

Any update on this project?

[Jon A.]

Nope, the now former owner balked at the cost to restore it and left it here. I have no idea what I'll end up doing with it.

[maxhifi]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

Nope, the now former owner balked at the cost to restore it and left it here. I have no idea what I'll end up doing with it.

Isn'"t that always the case! This is why I don't usually like doing work on vintage electronics for other people. I recently restored an old early fifties Goodmans hifi speaker from England, and it made me think about your radio. The last time I even touched a British radio was over 20 years ago, and that was a repair I did for a family friend. I've been collecting vintage radios here in Alberta since the early 1990s, and have never come across anything from the UK except some rather large transistor radios from the 1960s.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

Isn'"t that always the case! This is why I don't usually like doing work on vintage electronics for other people. I recently restored an old early fifties Goodmans hifi speaker from England, and it made me think about your radio. The last time I even touched a British radio was over 20 years ago, and that was a repair I did for a family friend. I've been collecting vintage radios here in Alberta since the early 1990s, and have never come across anything from the UK except some rather large transistor radios from the 1960s.

No kidding, I wasn't surprised. I had papers drawn up with the parts, supplies and cost breakdown and had a Mouser shopping cart full of every part I needed. He was expecting everything to cost about 50 bucks.

Well, this radio is of a British design but made in Canada; same dif I guess. I'm guessing only final assembly was done at the Ajax plant; I noticed that some components were stamped "Made in Britain" or something like that. I have a tuner board I could probably modify to work with it, that is if the right person shows interest.

[MadMan]

Eh, probably just the typical copy/paste fail.