Pye model P118 U/C

Pye model P118 U/C AC/DC mains operated table radio with Long and Medium wavebands (1100-1800 and 200- 550 metres)housed in a wooden cabinet with imitation cream and blue leather front panel. Valve line up: UCH42, UF41, UBC41, Ul41 and UY41.

I have not found any information about this radio but it is similar electrically to the p116U "Piper" model which would make it 1958 vintage (the electrolytic capacitors are dated July and August 1957). This sad looking set was completely taken apart and treated for a serious woodworm infestation. The radio itself showed signs of life but will needed cleaning and some attention.

This is one of six radios which used to belong to the late Mr R M Nightingale given to me by his daughter. Roy Nightingale worked at Cambridge Instruments for many years

This was used as a template to manufacture a new front panel from MDF and then burnt. The original plastic covering was full of holes and not worth saving so I made a new covering with materials to hand (see last picture for the finished result.)

The holes in the cabinet were injected with "Rentokil" and filled with a water based stopper. The cabinet was then stripped using paint stripper and rubbed down with wire wool and white spirit. New felt pads were made and glued to the underside of the wooden runners.

Although the radio showed signs of life it was unstable exhibiting severe "motor boating" which only stopped when the set was tuned to a strong station. I replaced three capacitors and the cathode bias resistor on the output valve. At some time in the past the output valve has been running very hot as the printed circuit board is burnt and the copper tracks on the printed circuit have lifted. I re-soldered several connections in this area of the board. By shunting the signals from the IF stage with a capacitor the motor boating ceased and the set was quiet with no discernible hum. So I reasoned that the fault lay in the frequency changer and/or the IF amplifier. My AVO valve tester indicated that the mutual conductance of both valves was very low but sadly I have no spares. As this radio has the same valve lineup as my Bush DAC90A's I thought "well let's prove the point". I switch on my brown DAC90A and BANG, the capacitor across the mains has failed. The valves from this set though a bit on the low side do the trick when inserted into the Pye. I replace the mains lead with a sheathed colour coded cable taking care to connect the neutral to the earthy side of the on /off switch and box it all up (see below).

Maybe not luxury but a bit better looking than it was in the first picture above and it now works reasonably well.