Full in-depth restoration of a Northern Electric Baby Champ radio receiver. For links, click the SHOW MORE tab below. Enjoy!
To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson’s personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson’s Lab Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab
#restoration #electronics #repair
48 Comments
To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab
"Antique dust"
Dust in the home is 20-50% dead skin cells…. you've got dead people in your radio
31:45 – Yes, they were on top of things, but the electricity providers hadn't even thought of polarized plugs until MUCH later! (?)
Aww "Baby Champ" what a cutie! She sounds incredible!
I bought a Generac ix2000 generator that has a problem with the PCB. It has a 1:1 transformer that was defective from the get go. It had unprepared laminates that rusted, and by doing so, it lifted the transformer up, this causing it to malfunction. This has no circuit board schematic or diagram, so it's questionable as to getting the actual replacement. Apparently this choke has to do with engine operation, and is a 1:1. Is this something that you could service?
Nice work!
Just a suggestion – It might be less risky to unplug the tubes before desoldering components in case the component end is wrapped around the tag and you need to apply heat for long time to remove it.
Another fantastic radio restoration by Mr. Carlson. The design of this radio by Northern Electric Co. of Canada was very
much advanced compared to USA made radios at that time. I found it fascinating how you went about fixing the audio
transformer and doing a total alignment , which was horribly off. Sure is a great performer now.
It's a beauty! Nice performer as well!
This schematic and build is very similar to my 1938 Detrola #227 AM/SW Radio.
Timestamp ~36:00… thanks for showing us HOW to clean away grime on the metal chasis. And the minimal narration was appreciated (helped me concentrate on what you were doing).
Wow!! If I ever need a heart transplant, I''m gonna try and get this guy to do it for me!!
What value Y-caps did you install?4
I have a baby champ from 1951 and it still works. Found out work has been done to it but more needs to be done!
That transformer repair was EPIC! Surgeon precision. I am so glad you showed that. That is a tough thing to do right. 😃
Great video, Mr Carlson! I have one of these from my "collecting days" when I first moved Canada. It is my favourite receiver and sounds (for it size) absolutely amazing! It fills up the entire bottom floor of my house with wonderful sounding AM signals. And yes, the shortwave capability is amazing. Thanks for sharing this!
loved the little radio that could video,, Makes me want to get my big old Zenith portable transoceanic off the shelf and get it working,,, Mine has the light brown leather case,,, 🙂
Damn, that was interesting and informative. If I had 4 hands it would be FOUR thumbs up.
I always enjoy watching Mr Carlson work his magic and restore old radios. I wish they were time machines and could receive stations from their time. Of course if they did, I am not sure if I would be excited or freaked out. LOL
I'm always pleased that you reiterate the proper method of wiring the power cord. It's an important lesson in safety that bears repeating!
Not going to lie, I was a bit saddened when you discovered the audio xformer was bad. Considering how out-of-whack all the adjustable caps were, I think somebody started turning a screwdriver in the hopes they could get audio output, not knowing their efforts would be in vain. Totally impressed with your repair on it, and also impressed that you would consider repair when you probably have a Big Box o' Parts and could have swapped it out more easily than repairing the original. However, that defeats the "restoration" as it would then have a non-OEM part installed.
I'm guilty of using "unorthodox" antenna methods myself, although for FM reception. A home's cold water supply (well water) makes a rather effective antenna in a basement. 😆
Beautiful restoration, as usual. The night-and-day transformation at 28:36 was amazing, such a clean job!
Sorry, could not listen to the end because I was drwn to my radio so I could listen to those DX signal also. Thanks for remembering me why I am a ham, 73!
I see a lot of radios with the big can caps and also capacitors on the bottom as well so what’s the purpose of the can cap why didn’t they just put capacitors on the bottom altogether
Great video! I got a lot of valuable information from this. I have one question…. what is the airplane sound that you come across on the shortwave band? Tuning across SW I hear what sounds like an airplane.
Great job as always! I especially liked the repair of the transformer. That radio is so cool, with the pointer that looks like a little propeller and the dial face that looks like an aeronautical instrument.
Wonderful restoration, thanks.
That was very good indeed! I am looking forward to the restoration of the RA17 or have you done that already?
What happened to the grand radio receiver restoration series?
Thank you so much for this video: I have watched all of your videos so far, and this one is different. I appreciate very much the care you put in showing all the details of the process.
I always whack my signal generator onto the primary side of the audio output transformer and if I get a tone from the speaker it's done, of course the radio is totally disconnected from the mains and is one of my first cold tests I do. I love the long video repair format that you do it's your channels best output in my opinion. Fantastic restoration video Mr Carlson.👍👍👍
I've watched this 3 times now, love it! Like how you determined which lead was not making connection on the OP transformer. The repair was excellent and good idea to replace the blue wire as well. Result a nice like new transformer. I suppose in the old days it would have just been replaced when such replacement parts were readily. available.
Old looking Radio tune on DAB+2
Can't help but wonder is someone wasn't in there diddling around with the alignment at some point in time. I've seldom seen radios that far off on their own. BTW, this set doesn't have a "hot" chassis, with either plug orientation because the chassis is not tied to one side of the ac line. There's a cap in between, from what I see in the schematic. That's pretty standard practice for post war series string sets. My understanding for why manufacturers switched the ground side of the power input was to minimize induced hum into the audio stage due to close proximity of the switch to the volume control. In practice, I've never noticed much difference when rewiring the switch. Also unusual to see no internal loop antenna on a set from this time period. Most of the US makers had switched over just prior to WWII.
The first broadcast it picks up, at 1:38:12: Thru the Bible Radio – Dr J Vernon McGee! Wow! I used to listen to that a few decades ago!
In looking at the chassis of this receiver, I'm surprised that there doesn't appear to be any military surplus components left over from the war effort, as manufacturers had quite a bit to burn through, at least here in the U.S. I've heard that even when they were new, those wax foil capacitors weren't really that good. It has been said that Canadian safety standards for these receivers were higher than U.S. safety standards, even back then. I like the old design of the old, large IF cans with the trimmer capacitors, as they never fail and get silver-mica disease. That radio station at 1000 kHz heard through the signal generator might be from Seattle.
Another excellent video sir. Switching subjects, do you know of anyone who could assess and if feasible, repair a Drake R7/DR7 receiver (1980 vintage)? How about you Paul? I'm willing to pay substantially given it cost a fortune back in 1980. Thanks.
Egad man is that thing for sale? It's gorgeous. Well done.
Is it just us older folks that admire the thought that went into these radios, like the chassis isolation and the way the power switch works? The tuner on my Zenith AA7 is like a work of art with the springs, and variable inductors that track with the tuning capacitors. I think it's a constant Q tuner, or some such mumbo jumbo. Keep making this top notch content! PS: I replaced the 35C5 with a 50C5 for the reason you mentioned with the voltage and I left the resistor in place as well.
In the alignment procedure, I notice that you didn't put knobs on the shafts. With some receivers, would that be necessary so the capacitance wouldn't be a factor from one's fingers?
What a beauty.
Hi Mr Carlson's Lab, I have been following you. You do a great work. I work for NextPCB. We would like to sponsor your projects. You can send a DM for more details.
/Dolphin
THANK YOU for not cutting out the tedious nature of aligning it. So many instructors would have done a few quick cuts and shown it all peaked up, leaving us wondering why it took so long to do on our test benches when the video showed it done in a jiffy. Also, major points for mentioning a Theremin!
Sure you can find the schematics of new amplifiers, I have a Sony STR-DE 495 which is a digital audio and video control center with 5.1 dolby surround sound and I had to work on it replacing more than 50 capacitors and they provide all the schematics and parts list for this device, super helpful because I got it working again as if it is new, maybe even better because I upgraded the bulk capacitors from 2x 4700uF caps to 2x 10000 caps and I upgraded all the caps from 85 degree Celsius caps to 105 degree Celsius caps, except for the bulk caps I replaced all caps with the same capacitance values to be sure I don't change anything crucial.
So I have to say that you're wrong about modern equipment not having any schematics available to repair it yourself because that's absolutely not correct, at least for the Sony receiver that I own.
Could you explain the polarized line cord and how it works. I assumed with AC it would not matter but you see a lot of those even with contemporary electronics? TY.
Thank you for showing us how you clean the chassis. I think this is the first time you've shown this. Very instructive!
When you say that you have to "wash" the area where you used the Tarn-X, what do you mean? What do you wash the area with?
Thank you for showing us how you repaired the audio transformer! I was glued to the screen while you were digging into it and finding the broken wire.
So great, thanks!
That was an awesome job to do and for us to watch. Great receiver, that baby Champ. But again little knobs. I restored a SW radio and mounted a knob of about 8 cm in diameter. Much more easy to tune to stations, little movements or even only touching the knob is now more accurate. Thanks for this great video!