Superb 1946 Philips 760A, 8 tubes, all new. Excellent.

I continue selling some of the large radios in my collection. Advancing age does not allow me to take proper care of them. This is, without doubt, the best short wave table radio that I have had or seen, and I have seen lots.  The cabinet still has its original finish, as it came to me from Switzerland 3 years ago. There are a few minor imperfections, mainly on the top surface (which I have not succeeded in showing in the pictures) and there is a bit of flaking in the paint on the grille.  Philips (Holland) designed and marketed this radio from 1946 to 1948 and also sold at least another model with the same cabinet but with a chassis not as sophisticated as this one.  This radio uses the 20 series of tubes that were made by Philips just before the beginning of WWII. After the occupation of Holland, the design of the tubes and of several of Philips radios were transferred to several factories in Germany to make radios for export to "friendly" countries. The 20 series of tubes were still available after the end of WWII and were used in the 760A radio.

I will first describe the operation of the set and I will follow with a brief technical description.  On the left hand side (seen from the front) there are three knobs and, just above them, there is the On-Off switch. The left knob switches between radio and record player, using the connector at the back. The central knob is perhaps the most interesting and innovative in this radio. It could be called a tone control, but it is actually a "bandwidth control" with 5 positions. (The knob has been fixed, it came in pieces from Switzerland) In the fully clockwise position, the radio functions with the widest bandwidth, both in the IF amplifier section and in the feedback controlled audio section. In that position, the audio frequency response is linear, as far as my ears can discern. The reproduction is from base to high frequencies (as broadcast in AM) evenly and it is a position that one would use to receive local stations. It corresponds to the "Local" figure on the left of the dial plate. It must be pointed out that base boost was not designed into that audio section. That came later with FM and a newly developed taste for strong base response.  As one turns the bandwidth control counter clock wise, both the lower audio frequencies and the higher frequencies are progressively limited, as indicated in the dial by a musical scale with diminishing extension. The limitation is done both by changing the bandwidth of the IF and the feedback loop.  The 5th position, with the figure of a person speaking, corresponds to the narrowest bandwidth, useful for listening to voice broadcasts in the presence of strong noise or interference.  The right knob is a normal volume control.  On the right side of the set there is a waveband selector, with the band selected being shown on the right green window next to the glass dial. The larger knob is the tuning control.  The radio receives in Long, Middle (Standard Broadcast) and three bands of short wave. There is a strong expansion of the scale in the principal foreign broadcast bands of 49, 40, 31, 25, 19 and 16 meter bands. This is done by a clever cutting of the plates in the ganged tuning capacitors. Inside the expanded bands, a given change in the dial needle position corresponds to a small change in frequency. Outside those bands, the same change results in a higher change in frequency. The arrangement works very well.  Selectivity (variable), sensitivity, clarity, absence of ghosts and sound quality are of the first order. The existence of an RF stage working on all bands before the mixer/local oscillator is to be given credit for this performance.  In the radios that Philips made posteriorly with the same cabinet, the RF stage was omitted and even using the newer 40 series tubes, it could not possibly work as well as this radio. Note that the dial plate can swivel about 45 degrees to place it in the most appropriate position.

The circuit uses an EF22 in the RF stage, a high transconductance tube. It is followed by an ECH21, a triode-hexode doing the local oscillator and mixing functions and the IF amplifier is again an EF22.  Frequency stability is excellent in the bands that I have listened to. The higher band is basically closed because of the solar cycle, so I have not listened to that. Adjustment of all the RF, oscillator, inter-stage and IF stages was done very well, without any difficulty.  The tuning was done with the chassis out of its case, so the actual received frequency may be a bit off from the dial indications, but it is a small effect. Detection and AVC generation is done by the 4 diodes available in the two EBL21 output tubes, in an arrangement that I do not quite understand, but works very well. The audio preamplification and feedback control is done by a second ECH21 triode-hexode that is followed by a push-pull of the two EBL21's.  The speaker is approximately 10" in diameter. There is plenty of clean power. The rectifier is an AZ4 and the tuning eye is an EM4 that appears through a window on the left side of the dial. As indicated above, all the tubes are new, with perhaps 2 hours of playing time. Tubes of the 20 series are not difficult to find. I can provide the buyer with the name of an outfit in the UK that has supplied me in the past. A circuit diagram will be included with the radio.

The radio will be packed very well, with the glass dial plate sandwitched between two wood plates with appropriate material for protection. The buyer should under no conditions attempt to clean the back of the dial. The paint used by Philips in those days has not stood the test of time and it is easy to damage the lettering. It is almost perfect at this time. The unit will be double boxed following my packing methods that has resulted in all the radios that I have sold to arrive well to their destination.  The tuning capacitor tandem is floating on steel springs. I will carefully place some material under the unit so that it will not jiggle during transportation, It will be easy to take out with a pair of tweezers. The radio weighs 39 lbs and, for the kind of packing that I do, I estimate that the two boxes and packing materials will weigh about 14 lbs.  This will be the basis for eBay's estimate of transportation costs. I will charge $10 for the purchase of the strong boxes. This will be included in the handling charge.