Philips P145

Manufacturer: Philips, Toronto, Canada
Model: P145
Approximate Date Of Manufacture: late 1940s
Type: 6-tube Superheterodyne AM/SW band radio
Tube lineup: TBD
Status: working, restored
Where purchased: eBay, April 2004

Description

This is a 6 tube radio with broadcast and shortwave bands with brown bakelite case. The case received a crack in shipping. It is a transformer design with 6V tubes. A quick check indicated it was mostly working when received.

It has Rogers tubes, probably reflecting the fact that it was made during the period after Philips had purchased the Rogers-Majestic radio manufacturing company.

It has a miniature 1M3/DM70 magic eye tube. The tuning uses a complicated bandswitch with mechanical indicator. The built-in antenna is actually the cardboard rear panel which has a coating of metallic paint.

I gave it a thorough cleaning (it was unbelievably dusty!). I glued the cracks in the case with super glue, replaced the line cord, and sprayed the controls with contact cleaner.

The audio was very low and distorted and the tone control was not working. Replacing the wax capacitors restored the audio and tone control to proper operation.

I replaced the grille cloth which had a large hole in it. The new cloth is not very close to the original but it does match my dining room chairs :-) I also repaired the tears in the speaker cone using paper and white glue.

I was unable to locate a schematic but I did trace out the power supply and audio sections which helped diagnose the low audio problem.

The final restoration task was to repaint the front bezel gold, as some of the original paint had worn off and was showing the brown bakelite underneath.