Delco High Performance Radio Receiver! [Repair]

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A complete restoration would be great to watch and then listen to it.

FYI I worked for Delco Electronics in Kokomo, Indiana my entire career (1977 - 2008), and we made some of the best radio receivers, along with several firsts in the auto industry (first in-dash radio receiver, first push button receiver, first electronic ignition module). I would have been surprised if you weren't impressed by this radio. It's also possible that all cases were made in ivory and painted brown at the factory.

Great job. These are not just old radios, they are functional works of vintage art.

As an engineer myself it's so great to see this old radio working again. It also reminds us just how good some of these older tube sets were :-)

Excellent job Paul! Your genius antenna booster device works like a treat. Not having to physically connect equipment to the radio makes it the absolute ideal way to align a radio. No influence on the test radio, & perfect safety for the test gear! The huge difference after alignment demonstrates the sensitivity of the radio, & the perfection of your test gear! A restoration video of this receiver would be an excellent watch, where I'm sure you could make it perform even better, if that's even possible. Thank you!

WOW!..indeed. Can only imagine how full restoration of this receiver will improve the performance. This is going to be a solid project. Thanks for the video and work.

29:20...Your "Power Antenna" lightly Inductive Coupled alignment creation is Deff the best "Non-Loading" non-Disruptive Rf/If alignment method ever seen !! ...Big thx for showing this Superior technique...

Can you align, and peak up a radio, without test equipment or very limited cost test equipment. And if so do a video on how you would carry that out. Obviously not expecting the results to be as perfect but still put the radio in to a good state of usability. Keep up the good work on the channel, just recapped my first Ekco U319 radio, inspired by you channel. And it works!! Or at least receives channels on all bands!! Thanks from the Norfolk Broads UK

I was watching Adam Salvage and he was talking about how things are not made to be repaired just replaced. He was sharing about the disconnect young people have with learning how things work and how to repair things. He used cars as an example and how new cars are designed to not be fixed by the owner. So as with him, thank you for showing and passing a long your knowledge so just maybe these skills are not lost to time.

I really like when you work on these types of radios!

Thanks a million Paul, for working on this great radio. I love old tube type radios. I will be anxiously waiting for the restoration on it. All the best from Gene in Tennessee. 😄

Your stress relief on the power cord is a great idea!

It's a nice and simple radio with some quirks - I'm pretty baffled by the chassis and signal ground connections. Aerovox looking fine and dandy enough for restuffing and while I'd certainly want to put the HV lytics inside the cardboard tube, its small diameter makse it impractical or impossible to do so. I don't tune IF filters by ear - I always do it by measuring the DC voltage on a demodulator diode after disconnecting the automatic gain control feedback line to the stages. Going back from last to first filter and reducing the signal level after I get to the sweet spot. I agree that tuning the IF filters often works wonders - it's a pretty easy adjustment provided you have a sine wave generator (even one that goes to 500k...1M) and a frequency counter to ensure precision.

I've been missing these kinds of videos so thanks for making one. It's a trip down memory lane for me for when I first got into your channel about 4 years ago. I've really come a long way (and I've got a long way to go) with my electronic knowledge in that time. Thanks for being such a great teacher!

Thanks Paul 🙂

Finally a normal mr.Carlson video Also Richard from the channel Learn electronics repair tried to contact you about a rare tube filled thing if you were interested in it but your Email did not work or could not find it ... anyway you may want to contact him .. if he still has it .. tell him dutch told you about it it was a german device

Keep your grounds close, and your neutrals closer.

30:23 - I had a problem with 455Khz IF years ago. I was living in Bangor, Me. One of their AM stations, WABI, broadcasted at 910 KHz, exactly double the IF ! So, when tuning in, you'd get a beat-frequency that would go to 'DC' if tuned in correctly :) To fix the problem, I just jacked up the IF of the receiver and tweaked the oscillator to compensate.

US buildings that used 110VDC, I found the Electra Hotel in downtown Chicago. It had a steam plant for heating, domestic hot water and to Generate its own electricity. In the room that I rented had a sign above the one outlet stating caution 110 direct-current. Got a tour of the boiler room it was quite impressive. (Talk about off grid)