Montgomery Ward Airline Radio

[Michael Trew]

I found the deal of the day; I picked this radio up locally for $10 --
as is, I didn't even have to clean it. Pretty cool looking radio. I
don't see a model number anywhere on the original back cover, or on the
back of the metal chassis. I suppose I'll have to take it apart to find
out.

I normally would not plug in a non-restored radio, but the guy selling
it put on the tag "lights up but no sound"... for $10, I took a chance
and plugged it in. I'll be darned, it fired right up and worked fine as
soon as the tubes warmed up. Very minimal hum; I expected a lot worse
with presumably original capacitors.

I've never dealt with an FM radio before, but I noticed that the radio
is silent when the dial is switched to "FM". I did not try to plug a
source into the "Phono" input. Does anyone have a clue why the FM dial
would be silent? Perhaps it only will work if I hook an external FM
antenna onto the jacks in the back?

Otherwise, the AM radio is working "awesome". I have it tuned into 650
AM from Nashville right now; it's coming in loud and clear in Eastern
Ohio (just after 11 PM EST). The body cabinets need nothing, aside from
the loose dial glass that rattles a bit. I'll probably end up doing the
capacitors either way, when I fork over the motivation.

Photos:

Body: https://postimg.cc/fVnGMS0Q
Lighted dial: https://postimg.cc/K3mKX8rP

[pf...@aol.com]

Is the oscillator tube a 19T8 or a 6AQ8? Either of those tubes is both touchy and very prone to Lazy Cathode syndrome - where they are on and lit, but not carrying any signal. Start there.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[pf...@aol.com]

And, of course, the same principles would apply to whatever oscillator tube was used on the FM side - not just those two.