The Philips BV375U similar to B2G B3G
This little table model came to me in a bad way. No valves, back or bottom cover, ferrite rod, loudspeaker, all removed by the present owner when he was a small boy. The set was given to him by his grandfather when he lived in South Africa. (Probably to play with). The set was obviously made for the South Africa market, as the dial indicated towns and citys in the region :- Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, and Johannesburg. With 2 short wave and one medium wave band. All my researches could not find any service info' not even Savoy Hill (And they have the worlds largest technical library). Now 35 years later the small boy is a man, and he has asked if it is possible to get it working again.
On first inspection and cold check over, I could see good fortune, the Knobs, and the on/off/ wave change key switch seemed intact, the scale and cabinet were good. A bit of a worry was the I. F. transformers they looked odd, the little brass screw adjusters had been removed, I wondered. what other damage was waiting for me inside the small cans. A few leaky capacitors and out of tolerance resistors have to be replaced and I can put it to one side and wait for parts.
After a bit of a wait for the spare parts, the valves were fitted, and checking the heater chain resistance all seemed O. K. with No leaks on the H. T. line I switch on and bring up the mains slowly, using a variac. A bit of hum with no signals, the A.F. amplifier is working fine, a touch on the volume control wiper with a screwdriver confirms that. The suspects are the I.F. transformers. I will have to remove and dismantle them to see what the damage is.
Removing and carefully disassembling the first I.F. transformer, I could see the problem. The tiny ferrite cores of the 2 windings have been forced to the bottom of the coil formers. The small brass threaded adjusting screws which were fitted to the tops, had long gone. I had to glue on new straight wire adjusters which when set had to be sealed with the silicone to stop them moving off their tuning point. this had to repeated on the next transformer.
Once assembled and a quick test and alignment, all is well with very good performance on all the wavebands. with all the other minor work carried out the set is prepared for post back to the owner. I have numbered the valves just in case any any of them fall out in transit. The short length of white cable is the internal short wave aerial.
Not turned out bad?